AutoScreenRecorder
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 AutoScreenRecorder Step-by-Step Guides 

These are step-by-step guides to walk you through different scenarios.
For other questions and answers, please check out the FAQ page.  AutoScreenRecorder FAQ       All FAQ

How to record my screen?

How to record sound?

What's special on Windows Vista sound recording?

How to record a movie / video screen?

How to trim my recorded video?

How to extract a part of video, sound and images?

'Automatic file naming' guide

How to publish a Flash movie (SWF) to my web page?

"ScreenZoom" guide

Do you have a PDF guide that I can print?

 

Third part tutorials:


 

How to record my screen?

Three easy steps to record:

Step 1
On the 'From' tab, in the "Hotkeys" group, pick hotkeys you press to start/stop, pause and cancel recording, F9, Ctrl+F9, Ctrl+F10 for instance, and what to record.
On the 'To' tab, choose how you like to record and where you want the recorded video saved.

Step 2
Click the 'Stand By' button. The AutoScreenRecorder icon appears in your Windows system tray.

Step 3
Press the hotkeys you picked in Step 1 to actually record, F9 in this case.
Press the Stop hotkey which can be the same as the start key, to stop and save to a video file.


To cancel
Before recording: Right-click the mouse button or press the Esc key to cancel.
During recording: Press the Cancel hotkey you setup, Ctrl+F10 in this case.

For instant recording, you can press the "Record Now" button on the top to start recording.

 

How to record sound?

AutoScreenRecorder can record sound from the microphone or speakers. For difference on Vista sound recording, click here.

Note: If you want to record from speakers, you need a sound card that supports a feature called "Audio mix", "Wave out mix", "Stereo Mix" or "What you hear". Click the "Sound Options" button on the "From" tab, and click "Choose From Microphone or Speaker", and make sure to check the "Audio mix", "Stereo mix", "Wave out mix" or "What you hear", not "Microphone".

Although not recommended, you can place your microphone in front of your speaker to record the sound manually from the speakers. The sound quality may suffer in this way.

(1) Click the Sound Options button on the "From" tab to show the "Sound Recording Options" dialog box.

(2) Choose From Microphone or Speaker
Check "Choose From Microphone or Speaker", the following volume control dialog should appear.

If you don't see an "Audio Mix",  "Wave Out Mix" or "Stereo Mix", check the dialog title to see if it's "Recording Control", not "Volume Control". If it is "Volume Control", it needs to changed to show "Recording Control".

On the "Properties" dialog, make sure to choose "Recording" radio box and check "Wave Out Mix" (could be "Audio Mix", or "Stereo Mix").

Another example of choosing From Microphone or Speaker on Recording Control

If your sound card doesn't support audio mix, you may be able to use "Line In" to record from speakers.


 

Select "Line In" as shown above and plug in a cable in the "Line In" and "Line Out" connector.
The cable (cord) is a standard stereo mini jacks, or the equivalent that you can find in your local electronic stores. Here is an example of Dell Dimension.

Note: when recording, you may not hear any sound because Line Out is connected to Line In. However, you will hear sound when played back ( Line Out is output to speakers).

(3) Test Microphone if recording from mic
Click to run Windows Sound Recorder to test your microphone.

Use Media Control Interface (MCI) recording
Check to use
MCI commands to perform Microphone voice recording. This way may give better sound quality in some systems. You can compare by checking and un-checking the option to see if your system makes difference. If so, you may want to consider using this option.


For more manual setup guide, click below:



What's special on Windows Vista sound recording?

Recording sound on Windows Vista is a little bit different from the previous Windows versions due to the Vista sound feature change. However, the fundamentals remain the same in AutoScreenRecorder Pro.

Here are the major differences from the above steps,

(2) Choose From Microphone or Speaker
Check "Choose From Microphone or Speaker", the following Sound dialog should appear (make sure it's the "Recording" tab). The default recording device is the one with a check mark. If you want to change, highlight the device item and click the "Set Default" button.
E.g. in this example, the first microphone is selected (your system may have more than one mic, say, one with a headphone at the front panel and one in the back).

Again, as the same note in the previous guide above, if you want to record from speakers, you need a sound card that supports a feature called "Audio mix", "Wave out mix", "Stereo Mix" or "What you hear".

Here is an example of list. You can select the "Mix" and enable, and then click "Set Default" to record from the speakers.

If your sound card doesn't support audio mix, as shown in the first picture of this guide, you may be able to use "Line In" to record from speakers.

 

Select "Line In" as shown above and click "Set Default" to make it the default device. Then, plug in a cable in the "Line In" and "Line Out" connector. The cable (cord) is a standard stereo mini jacks, or the equivalent that you can find in your local electronic stores.
Here is an example of a Dell Dimension 9200.

Note: for some PCs, if you plug in a headphone set in the front, as in Dell 9200, the line out will be cut off automatically. So, don't plug in a headphone when recording from speakers using line-in, line-out.

(3) Test Microphone if recording from mic
Click to run Vista Sound Recorder to test your microphone.

 


How to record a movie / video screen?

Some systems have graphics hardware which can do a hardware overlay of video on the screen that can bypasses the normal Windows display. As a result, recording may be all black. In order to record movie and video screens, here are the steps to correct,

(1) If you still cannot see the capture after pausing the movie and setting the focus, uncheck "Overlays" in your player.
 
  [Media Player]

Uncheck 'Use overlays'

Click the picture for details.

 

  
(Click the image to enlarge)

Media Player 11
  

 
  [WinAmp]

Disallow overlay.

Click the picture for details.

 
  [RealPlayer]

Disable optimized video and overlay.

Click the picture for details.
  

 (2) Reduce or Disable "Hardware Acceleration" in your player and record again.

[Media Player] Change the "Hardware Acceleration" slider to None on the following dialog box.

[Media Player 6.4 and earlier] View>Options>Playback
[Media Player 7 to 10] Tools>Options>Performance
[Media Player 11] Now Playing>More Options>Performance

[RealPlayer] Open View>Preferences. On the "Performance" tab, uncheck "Use optimized video display".

[QuickTime5] Edit>Preferences>QuickTime Preferences... Select "Video Settings" from the drop down list and uncheck "Enable DirectDraw Acceleration".

(3) If you still cannot see the video, disable your machine hardware acceleration and record again.

[Windows 98] Open "System" on the Control Panel. Click the "Graphics..." button on the "Performance" tab. Change the "Hardware acceleration" slider to None and click OK. 

[Windows NT 4] Open "System" on the Control Panel. On the "Performance" tab, change the "Boost" slider to None and click OK. 

[Windows 2000/XP] Open "Display" on the Control Panel. Click the "Advanced..." button on the "Settings" tab. Find the "Troubleshooting" tab and change the "Hardware acceleration" slider to None and click OK. 


    Click the image to enlarge

You may need to restart Windows to take effect.

Since disabling hardware acceleration will slow down many applications, you may want to put the settings back after recording.

Note: if it's played from a DVD player, it is possible that it is protected as per DVD copyright protection format.


How to trim my recorded video?

You can use the Video Editor to trim your AVI video frame by frame.

(1) Open the AVI into AutoScreenRecorder Video Editor.

(2) Double click the video or click the Edit button on the toolbar to show the Video Editor Dialog.

(3)
Use the "Selection Slider" to select a part you want to trim, then click the "Cut Selection" button to trim. You can undo the cut.

(4) Click "OK" and save it from the Video Editor.

 


How to extract a part of video, sound and images?

You can use the Video Editor to extract any part of your video, sound or any frame images.

(1) Open the AVI into AutoScreenRecorder Video Editor.

(2) Double click the video or click the Edit button on the toolbar to show the Video Editor Dialog.

(3)
Use the "Selection Slider" to select a part you want to trim, then click the Extract buttons at the bottom.
     Note: The "Extract Sound" button will only be available when the video contains sound.

(4) Click "OK" and save it from the Video Editor.

 


How to publish a Flash movie (SWF) to my web page?

[Step 1. Make sure you get SWF and HTML files]
When the 'Flash' video was chosen on the 'To' tab, a Flash file, .SWF and .HTML file are saved in the Video folder after your recording.

Go to the folder and double-click the HTML to run the Flash movie in the browser.

[Step 2. Edit the HTML file if you need]
If you need to edit the HTML file, open it using a text, such as Notepad, or HTML editor, such as Microsoft FrontPage.

In the generated HTML file, you will find the Flash Object and Embed code.

<!-- Flash movie start -->
<OBJECT codebase=....
<PARAM NAME=...
...
<EMBED src=...
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

This is the part you need to show the Flash movie on a HTML page. You can copy and paste this whole part to your HTML page. For details, check these links on the Macromedia site.

Note: If you change the Flash movie file name, make sure the new name appears in
        all locations in the code.

[Step 3. Upload the Flash movie and HTML page]
Use a regular means to upload your HTML file along with the Flash movie (SWF) file. That is, you can FTP your HTML file and Flash movie to your website.

Note: If you put your SWF file in location other than the folder where the HTML file is in, you need to assign the relative path to the SWF file.

e.g.
Movie file name is 'my_movie.swf',
uploaded to 'www.mysite.com/mypages/my_files/'

Html file name is 'my_page.htm',
uploaded to 'www.mysite.com/mypages/'


The new movie path in the code should be 'my_files/my_moive.swf'.


'Automatic file naming' guide

The automatic file naming feature is to save captures with automatically generated file names, so you don't have to stop each time you capture and you can capture as many as you like.

[Step-by-step Example]

  1. On the From tab, choose F9 only as your hotkey. On the To tab, select 'Automatic' for Filename. This is to tell AutoScreenRecorder to save your videos automatically with a generated filename. 

  2. The current filename format is shown on the button at right. click that button to show the 'Automatic File Naming Options' dialog.



    Check Number of digits and choose 2 that if you want to have a fixed number of digits, 01, 02, etc.
    Highlight an item in the Order list box and use the up and down buttons on the right to change the text sequence.

    [Note]
    The Prefix or suffix can be set in any sequence. E.g. the prefix can be in the middle and suffix can be in the front.

    Select 'Never overwrite (generate a new filename)' that when a newly generated filename already exists in the current folder, it always generates a new filename automatically.
     

  3. You need to tell where the files will be saved. In the Folder area on the To tab, click the folder button next to the path field, and pick, such as the Desktop as your capture location.

  4. Click 'Stand By', and you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F9 to record. Press the stop button on screen. Go to your Desktop to find your video.

  5. Option to show file name. On the To tab, click "AVI File Options...", and check 'Show the saved AVI file name' to display the file name and location.


 


"ScreenZoom" guide

AutoScreenRecorder ScreenZoom provides a convenient way to enlarge your screen at anytime,  to see what's going on on the screen and draw lines and notes on the screen. Just press your ScreenZoom hotkey to enlarge, and you can then draw or highlight it on screen. Press the hotkey again, right-click or Esc to cancel. This can be integrated into your demo, discussion and training sessions, etc.

Setup
Click the hotkey setup button in the "Hotkeys" group on the "From" tab to set up.

Press these hotkeys to start/stop
This group is for setting up the hotkey you press on your keyboard to start or stop zooming the screen.
You can also enter the screen draw mode without enlarging the screen.

Change the pen color
You can press these keys to change the pen color when it's in the ScreenZoom mode.

Change the pen width
You can press these arrow keys to change the pen width when it's in the ScreenZoom mode. The width is from 2 to 14 pixels.


 


Do you have a PDF guide that I can print?

You can print the Help file from the program group after you install.

Click here to download the PDF user manual.


Tell your friends about AutoScreenRecorder!
So they can also have a chance to try the program and join the mailing list. Click here to tell your friends.
 


 Contact us | Legal notice | ©2008 Wisdom Software Inc. Last updated: April 03, 2008