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Capturing and encoding screens

The screen capture feature of Windows Media Encoder enables you to capture your entire desktop, individual windows, or a region of the screen and broadcast them or encode them to a file just as you would any other content. You can use the screen capture feature for:

Note   Artifacts can be introduced when an analog signal is run through a scan converter and converted to NTSC. These artifacts are amplified during encoding and can degrade the quality of the encoded video.

Because of the amount of data being manipulated and the CPU power necessary to compress it quickly, capturing screen images is a performance-intensive process. The power of your computer, the size of the screen being captured, the color depth of the display (256 colors, 16-bit, and so on), and the specified frame rate all have an effect on performance. Also, the quality of your encoded screen images can be affected by the amount of motion that occurs during the encoding process. The Windows Media Screen codec is designed specifically for capturing large areas that involve little movement. (Using the codec to capture a motion video, for example, will not give good results.)

Use the following guidelines to ensure that the screen image you capture will encode and play well:

If you are capturing to a file, the main encoder window is minimized while the screen is being captured so you can monitor the encoding statistics and the input and output images. Restoring the window to its regular size stops the encoding session. If you do not want the encoder window to minimize while a screen is being captured, on the Tools menu, click Options, click the General tab, and then clear Minimize main window to capture screen.

Note   If you are capturing a screen for broadcast and have selected a broadcast port, the encoder window does not minimize while the screen is being captured. Broadcasting a screen capture session overrides the Minimize during screen capture session, then stop on restore setting on the General tab.

Windows Media Encoder includes three system profiles that make use of the Windows Media Screen codec. Use them when capturing a screen directly from the encoder or when sourcing from files (such as .avi) that contain screen capture content. The three screen capture profiles are:

For more information about creating a screen capture profile, see the Profile Manager Help.

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