Copyright: © 1997 Information Synthesis, Inc., all rights reserved
Citation: © 1997 Information Synthesis, Inc., all rights reserved


Contents
 CyberCam  Contents

Overview & Features

Quick Start Example

Before You Begin...

Screen Area Options

Hot Key Options

AVI File Options

Sound Options

Recording and Playing AVI Files

Performance Hints & Tips

Command Line Options

Purchasing CyberCam

Entering License Information

Technical Support

Contact Information Synthesis


Overview
 CyberCam  Overview

CyberCam captures the action from your Windows 95 or NT screen and saves it as a standard, easily edited, AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) movie file. This format can be played under Windows 3.1, 95, and NT, as well as the Internet, unlike other programs that use proprietary formats that may need special viewers and be difficult, if not impossible, to edit. CyberCam lets you define the precise area of the screen you want to capture, unlike MS Camcorder and others that record the entire screen

These files can be useful as teaching tools, to demonstrate software, as a start for animation, and for many other uses. This is a truly elegant, powerful breakthrough in knowledge transfer, brought to you by a leader in Knowledge Innovation, Information Synthesis.  This easy to learn, flexible system will have you making your first screen movie in no time at all.

Features include:

•	easy precision visual screen area or window selection

•	system-wide hot keys to start, pause, stop recording, and to snap single frames

•	unique panning mode lets your recording area follow your cursor

•	multiple video compression choices

•	optional sound, with choices for recording quality

•	capture in any screen color depth

•	automatically incrementing file names for captures

•	frame rate, compression, and key frame choices

•	convenient, user-definable hot keys, including ‘record pause’

•	integrated playback buttons

•	command line options

A Quick Start topic is included so you make your first screen movie in a matter of minutes. We believe that it will be worth your time to take the few minutes it will take to browse this brief help file, using the browse sequence buttons above, beginning with Before You Begin. Each of the tabbed options is generally self-explanatory, but the short explanations and performance tips in this document will undoubtedly make your experience with CyberCam a far more rewarding one.


Quick Start
 CyberCam  Quick Start

For the purposes of this introduction, we will be using CyberCam’s default values and basic settings. Later, you will discover the flexibility and ease of use that CyberCam’s options offer you.

For best performance, set your color depth to 256 color mode. For further information on the implications of the color mode you choose, see Before You Begin.

•	Start CyberCam, and click on the config button to bring up the configuration dialog.  From the Screen Area tab, click on Select Region, and use your cursor to outline a small capture area (approximately 150x150).  Note that you can pick the size of the region, as it’s size is interactively displayed.  Click to confirm the size and position of your capture, and place your mouse cursor in the area. When you’re all finished, simply click the “Close” button.

•	Press the F2 key (the default start/stop hot key) to begin recording. The CyberCam window will temporarily disappear to allow the capture.  The capture area will be designated by a flashing white rectangle. Move your cursor within the capture area, and then, after a few seconds, press the F2 key again to end the capture.

•	Congratulations, you have just made your first movie! It’s that simple.

•	Now, click on Play in the CyberCam dialog, to view your creation.

Next, take the a few minutes to browse this brief help file, using the browse sequence buttons above. The knowledge and tips you will gain will make it worth your small investment in time, enabling you to get the best results in the shortest time.


Before You Begin
 CyberCam  Before You Begin

CyberCam captures the action from your Windows 95 or NT screen and saves it to a AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved) movie file. Your machine can be in any color mode, and sound from your system microphone can also be simultaneously recorded. We suggest that you consider the following helpful hints which will contribute to a successful first experience with CyberCam.

For best performance, we suggest you begin with the 8 bit color depth mode (256 colors).  We have determined that, in this configuration, CyberCam can capture up to ten frames per second of 640x480 images on a Pentium 133 machine.  You may capture at a greater frame rate if your capture area is smaller, or you have a faster machine. In 16 bit (64K colors) color mode CyberCam can do about five fps (frames per second) of 320x240 frames on the same machine. For 4 bit color depth mode MS Video does not provide a suitable compressor, so the frames are written uncompressed. This is slow and produces large AVI files, which is why we recommend using 8-bit color depth mode overall.

Note that with Windows NT, CyberCam fully supports the multi-threaded aspects of the OS.  Therefore, faster, multi-processor machines will yield truly impressive results.


Screen Area
 CyberCam  Screen Area - Options

General Note: The Configuration Options are applied immediately when you alter the data in a given field, i.e. when you enter a number or select a radio button, your choice is registered immediately.  To undo a change,  you must either re-enter or re-select your previous selection, or choose ‘defaults’ to reset to the ‘factory’ settings.

There are three methods for selecting the initial screen area for recording.  To select these options, simply click on the “Config” button on the main CyberCam interface, and then click on the “Screen Area” tab.

•	You can select your capture area graphically, using the screen. Clicking on the Select Region button provides a convenient, movable and resizable rectangle to appear on screen. Use your cursor or the keyboard arrows to position and anchor one point of the area, and then size the window to your liking. Note that the image size is interactively shown, and the coordinates are automatically recorded in the screen area dialog.

•	When you click the Select Window button, you can move your cursor around the screen to select various screen objects, such as windows, window areas, buttons, etc. These specific areas will be highlighted as you pass over them. Click the left mouse button to accept the highlighted area, or the right button to cancel the selection.

•	You can also directly enter your choice of x and y screen coordinates, along with the width and height in pixels, to precisely define your capture area, or to fine-tune a previous capture.

The When Recording radio buttons determine what happens to the CyberCam window when you start recording. It may be left in place, iconized to the task bar, or completely hidden.  For better performance you can uncheck the box that says “Show Flashing Rectangle around recording region”.

As mentioned, you can opt to not show the flashing rectangle when recording.  The flashing rectangle can be a bit distracting when you’re concentrating on making a good recording.  In addition, unselecting this option will improve the performance of CyberCam slightly when recording, as it doesn’t have to stop and flash the rectangle during the recording process.  Important NOTE:  Turning the flashing rectangle off when recording will make it impossible to know where you are panning if you have selected this option.  We recommend not doing this!

 Please note that you should know the hot key to stop AVI recording if you use iconize  or hide, or you may have difficulty terminating a recording. Click on the Hot Keys tab in CyberCam to find out (and change if necessary) the hot key definitions.


Hot Keys
 CyberCam  Hot Keys - Options

General Note: The Configuration Options are applied immediately when you alter the data in a given field, i.e. when you enter a number or select a radio button, your choice is registered immediately.  To undo a change,  you must either re-enter or re-select your previous selection, or choose ‘defaults’ to reset to the ‘factory’ settings.

CyberCam can be controlled easily with its series of system-wide hot keys.   Again, the configuration of the hot keys is accomplished by first clicking on the “config” button on the main CyberCam dialog, and then clicking on the “Hot Keys” tab.

CyberCam uses four system-wide hot keys:

•	to start and stop AVI file recording (default is F2)

•	to pause the recording temporarily and resume it again after a while (default is F3)

•	to snap single frames and save them to AVI file while CyberCam is in Pause mode (default is F4)

•	to switch between Pan Lock mode (see the explanation below).

Simply click on the corresponding buttons to redefine the hot keys. When you do, make certain that the blinking I-beam cursor is inside the white space of the edit field, then press the key combination you want to activate the selected function. If, for example, you want this key combination to be Shift+F9, please hold down the Shift key, then press the F9 function key.

With the Single Frame Shot hot key (F4 by default) you can make CyberCam capture and save to AVI file single frames at the exact moments you need. Either start the recorder in Paused mode (Start Paused button), or press the F3 hot key while recording. Your defined record area on the screen will have a big X across it - this means that nothing is being recorded. Move the recorded area where you need it, arrange the display the way you want it and position your cursor as desired,  etc. Now press this hot key and exactly one frame will be snapped and saved to your AVI file. You may repeat this process as many times as you need. If you turned sound recording on, nothing (silence) is recorded in single frame mode. You may terminate this mode at any time by pressing the Stop or Resume hot keys/buttons.

Pan Lock

This special CyberCam feature causes the defined screen area to move along with the movement of your cursor. It can be very useful in some cases, to keep the size of your AVI file down, and yet cover more screen area.  It’s very much like a ‘mini desktop’ recording mode.

The area that is recorded to AVI may be also moved without using the Pan Lock hot key. You may select any combination of the modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl and Alt) which, when held, will cause the record frame to follow your cursor movements. If you check the Lock permanently box, the area will be moved without holding any modifier keys. This state may be also toggled on and off using the Switch Pan Lock hot key during recording.

 Results can be a bit disorienting if not used with proper techniques, so we suggest you experiment with this often-useful mode


AVI File Options
 CyberCam  AVI File - Options

General Note: The Configuration Options are applied immediately when you alter the data in a given field, i.e. when you enter a number or select a radio button, your choice is registered immediately.  To undo a change,  you must either re-enter or re-select your previous selection, or choose ‘defaults’ to reset to the ‘factory’ settings.

CyberCam has a number of different options for recording the AVI file.   The configuration  options for the AVI file options is accomplished by first clicking on the “config” button on the main CyberCam dialog, and then clicking on the “AVI File” tab.

This option tab lets you choose/adjust the parameters of the next AVI file that you record with CyberCam:

•	The AVI File Name may be changed by entering the name of the file you prefer. The file name may be preceded by a drive and directory (folder) name, e.g., c:\MyVideos\clip.avi. You may also click on the Browse button to select the folder and file name.

Recommendation: If one of your hard disks is faster than the others, we suggest you use that disk as your AVI file destination. Also be certain you have sufficient free disk space on that drive.  RAM disks, naturally, are a boon to performance.

•	When the Add sequential number to the file name box is checked, a number will automatically be appended to the file name each time you press the Start Record button or hot key, so a sequence of files will be recorded, i.e., clip0001.avi, clip0002.avi, clip0003.avi, etc.

Using this option can be a good idea in order to preserve prior, possibly useful, captures. If a file already exists, it will be overwritten with the new capture, and the old capture lost.  Be certain you have moved any files with identical names off to a safe location.

•	The Record Sound box will enable or disable recordings from your system microphone or other sound input. Please note: on many systems, with sound recording on, you will not hear the sounds normally produced by your computer and the running programs. This is due to the fact that most sound cards and their drivers are working in "half duplex" mode, meaning that they can either record or play sounds, but not both at the same time.

The Rate in Frames per Second choices let you specify how many movie frames per second will be recorded. If you enter too high a number, and your computer is not fast enough to capture and compress them, CyberCam will drop some frames, or stop completely and tell you about the error. Please see Performance Tips for some advice on what to do in such situations. You may also specify a different playback rate. For example, you could record at 5 frames per second, but have the movie play at 10 fps. If you do this, the Record Sound check box is turned off and disabled, because any sound that you would record would be played at twice the normal speed.

The Key frame every [  ] frames value determines how often full frames are written to the AVI file. The frames between them may have only the differences between the current and preceding frame. Higher values may let you help to achieve slightly better frame rates, but also can make it difficult to edit your AVI file in a video editor at a later time.

The Frame compression quality [  ] % value is used by some video compressors to make a compromise between the speed of compression and size of the picture of the file versus the quality of the picture. You may try to lower this value to achieve faster frame rates, particularly in 16, 24 and 32 bit color modes, but do review your results frequently to verify that you are satisfied with the picture quality.

The Video Compressor select box allows you to select the Compression - Decompresion scheme, or CODEC, which is the program that will compress your pictures to make AVI files smaller and enable them to play faster. We recommend the Auto Select setting, which will select MS RLE compression for 8 bit color mode, MS Video 1 compression for all higher color modes, and no compression for 4 bit color. Please note that if you want to record AVI files in True Color mode (24 or 32 bit), the default MS Video 1 compressor will still write them at 16-bit mode, losing some of the color resolution. You may try the "Full Frames (Uncompressed)" selection to actually record 24-bit bitmaps, or experiment with some other video compressors that are installed on your system.


Sound Parameters
 CyberCam  Sound - Options

General Note: The Configuration Options are applied immediately when you alter the data in a given field, i.e. when you enter a number or select a radio button, your choice is registered immediately.  To undo a change,  you must either re-enter or re-select your previous selection, or choose ‘defaults’ to reset to the ‘factory’ settings.

CyberCam has a number of different options for specifying the quality of the sound recorded with the application.   The configuration  options for the sound file options is accomplished by first clicking on the “config” button on the main CyberCam dialog, and then clicking on the “Sound” tab.

For best performance when you are using a high frames-per-second rate, select 8-bit samples and a low sample rate. For better sound quality, you may select higher values. A reasonable compromise between performance and quality seems to be 16 bit sound at 11025 sampling rate.


Recording and Playing AVI Files
 CyberCam  Recording and Playing AVI Files

After setting all the parameters for your AVI file, defining the screen area that you want to record, and noting all the hot key assignments, you are ready to start recording. You may start recording immediately by clicking on the Start Rec button or pressing the start hot key (by default F2). You may also start in "paused" mode, where you will see the blinking frame marking the area to be recorded, and be able to pan this area, without beginning to record. To start in "paused" mode, click on Start Paused button or press the appropriate hot key (F3 by default). Then, "unpause" when ready by pressing the "pause" hot key (F3 by default) again.

Once you start recording, you will see a blinking rectangle on your monitor (unless you turned this off in the “Screen” dialog). Everything within this rectangle, including your mouse cursor movements, will be recorded. You may also speak into your microphone and record the sound. The blinking rectangle in which the recording is taking place can be moved (see Pan Lock). (Note that you will have no idea where to move the pan lock if you turn the flashing rectangle off.) You may temporarily pause the recording, and then prepare the recorded program or move the rectangle, by pressing the "Pause" hot key (F3 by default). When ready to resume the recording, press the same "Pause" key again. Finally you may stop the recording by pressing on the start/stop hot key (F2 by default) again. If you did not iconize or hide CyberCam dialog for recording, you may also use CyberCam buttons to start/stop and pause/unpause the recording.

After you record a movie, you may play it by pressing on the Play button. Note that CyberCam does not perform the playback, but instead is asking your Windows 95 or NT OS to play it for you, using the default AVI player installed on your system.

The Defaults button may be use to reset all the options (record area, hot keys, AVI File parameters etc.) to the "factory" default values. CyberCam remembers all the custom parameters that you set, even if you exit it and restart later.


Performance Tips
 CyberCam  Performance Tips

If your machine is not fast enough to record as many frames-per-second as you requested, CyberCam will try to drop some frames and keep up with as many as possible. However, if it finds out that more than 50% of the frames must be dropped, it will stop with an error message. What can you do to increase the fps rate?

•	Try to record your AVI file capture to the fastest hard disk that you have available.  Use a RAM disk if available.

•	Consider the color depth of your video mode. Today, many computers work in High Color, which uses 16 bits per every pixel and can represent accurately up to 65536 colors, or True Color, which use 24 or 32 bits per every pixel and can represent millions of colors. Pictures in High and True colors modes contain a lot of information to capture from the screen memory, compress and write to AVI file, and this takes a lot of time, processor power, and disk space.

In many cases, the programs that you want to capture will probably look as good in 8 bit color mode, which can display 256 colors. The programs optimize the color map to make the best use of them, so you really do not lose that much quality unless your subject demands higher color depth. In 8 bit color mode the amount of information to capture and compress is 2, 3, or even 4 times smaller than in the other modes. These pictures can be also compressed more quickly, and this more will produce the smallest AVI files. Please consider switching your monitor into 8 bit color mode (256 colors) for AVI recording.

•	Try making the "Key frame" value on the AVI tab higher, or the "Frame compression quality" factor lower can help a little in improving the fps rate.

•	Consider recording a smaller picture to achieve higher frame rate for your movies. You can make a good use of CyberCam's panning capability to make up for the lower size of your picture.

•	Recording at a slower speed and playing back at a faster speed is a good option, too.  Remember to not zip your cursor or windows around too quickly during recording, lest your movies become less smooth when you play them back.

•	Finally, if you really need a high fps rate and picture size, you may need to consider using a machine with a faster processor. Dual (and even more) processor machines running under Windows NT will be to your advantage, too, as CyberCam is using three program threads when recording. Windows NT will schedule the threads among all available processors to give you better performance.  Don’t forget to consider things like striped (RAID disk assemblies) as well.


Command Line Options
 CyberCam  Command Line Options

CyberCam may be started from a batch file, command prompt window or another application with a number of command line options (switches) that override default settings saved in the system registry, and also may cause it to start recording immediately. A summary of command line switches follows:

-rec	CyberCam starts recording immediately on startup. CyberCam dialog window is iconized to the task-bar.

-recx	Same as -rec, but also on stop recording (e.g. the user presses the hot key to stop recording) CyberCam will terminate.

-hwNN	Selects the recording area to be the same as the area of a window (including frames and title-bar) with handle NN, where NN is a number in decimal notation. This option is useful mainly when calling CyberCam from other applications.

-xNN -yNN -wNN -hNN    Select the recording area (x - left, y - top, w - width, h - height) in pixel coordinates. Upper left corner of the screen is (0, 0). If any value is omitted from the command line, the default value saved in the registry is used.

-fNN	Select the frame rate (in frames per second). NN is a number, decimal fractions are accepted.

-a	This option is for specifying the output AVI file name. The next argument should be the file name itself, for example, CyberCam -a test.avi. Use double quotes to surround the file name, if it contains any spaces.

-i+ or -i-	Turn on (+) or off (-) the adding of incremental number to the file name.

-s+ or -s-	Turns on (+) or off (-) the sound recording.

-kNN	Sets the key frame value for compressed AVI files. NN is an integer number.

Example:

CyberCam -rec -x100 -y100 -w300 -h200 -i- -a test.avi

will start CyberCam in recording mode. The recorded area will start at (100,100), the width will be 300 pixels, and the height 200. The AVI file name is "test.avi", and no numbers will be appended to the file name.


Registration
 CyberCam  Purchase and Registration

Dear CyberCam User,

This is an exciting new product brought to you by Information Synthesis, Inc.  CyberCam is being made available for instant evaluation, instant purchase and usage!

CyberCam is offered as an “instant evaluation” product that enables you to see it’s functionality and power immediately, and follow up with painless instant-purchase and licensing.  Through this special offer, CyberCam, which normally retails for $109.95, is available for a full $20.00 off the regular price to Internet users only.  For a limited time, CyberCam is available for instant purchase for only $89.95.

PURCHASE INFORMATION

It’s simple to take advantage of this special offer with a simple ‘instant registration’. When you register CyberCam and pay the license fee, you will receive a code that will create new movies without the “Unregistered. . .” marks stamped on each frame. In addition, you will also become eligible for priority support and be able to obtain reduced-price updates to the full CyberCam Suite, due out in early 1998.

License cost:

Single licenses: US $89.95 each for Internet users ONLY!

Site licensing is also available - please contact us.

METHODS OF REGISTRATION

CyberCam may be purchased using one of the following convenient methods:

ONLINE

You may purchase CyberCam licenses at the Information Synthesis CyberCam web site at http://www.infosynth.com/cybercam/ where you may place your order on a secure (SSL) WEB page. With this method, a temporary license will be given to you online, allowing you to use the software at once.  Within 30 days, you will receive your permanent license code in the mail along with your purchase receipt.

MAIL

You may also mail your check or money order written in US currency and drawn on a US bank,  directly to the address below, payable to Information Synthesis, Inc. Please do remember to include a short letter with your check, that tells us where and to whom we should send the license. Thank you!

PHONE

If you prefer to register by phone, call one of the phone numbers below and be prepared to provide your registration information, including a valid credit card number.  You will receive the temporary registration code online so you can unlock your copy of CyberCam immediately.  We will snail-mail your receipt and permanent license code within 30 days.

CyberCam Registration:	800/547-3016  (U.S. & Canada only)

503/685-0302  (International calls)

FAX

For registration by FAX, either print out the completed online Registration Form located at the website: http://www.infosynth.com/cybercam/registration/

or print out one of the registration form files supplied with this product and fill it out.  Then fax it to the FAX phone number shown below.  Be sure to include all the required information on the form, including a valid credit card number with expiration date and an e-mail address where we can send you the registration code.  You will receive the temporary registration code so you can unlock your copy of CyberCam immediately.  We will follow-up within 30 days with your printed receipt and permanent license code.

FAX:	503/685-0303  (available 24 hrs, 7 days)

CORPORATE PURCHASES

For corporate customers, Information Synthesis, Inc. will be happy to accept your Corporate P.O. Just contact us for details!

OUR CONTACT INFORMATION

Information Synthesis, Inc.

8105 S.W. Boeckman Road, Suite 1126

Wilsonville, Oregon 97070, USA

Phone:  503/685-0300

FAX:  503/685-0303

e-mail orders: orders@infosynth.com

e-mail info: info@infosynth.com

http://www.infosynth.com/

Note: The exciting functionality of CyberCam is but a part of the powerful functionality available in the full release of the CyberCam Suite, available early in 1998.  It will include more outstanding features as well as advanced options for support, flexibility, and power in knowledge transfer. Stay tuned to our website for details.  As a registered user of CyberCam, you will receive special pricing and advanced notification of the availability of the CyberCam Suite, so don’t hesitate to purchase CyberCam now!


CyberCam License Information
 CyberCam  License - Options

You should enter this dialog only after you have received an email or letter from Information Synthesis, listing your license. If you do not have it yet, please click on Cancel button.

Your license letter will list your or your company name, the "Key" value, the type of the license and the number of licensed copies. Please enter all the data to the appropriate fields on the "CyberCam License" dialog. Please note also that your "key" string contains only capital letters from the English alphabet - there are no digits or other characters in it, except maybe for dashes or spaces to make the key entry easier. Whenever in doubt, if the O shape is "zero" digit, or the capital "O" letter, always enter a letter.

Please enter all strings (Register To: name and the key) exactly as spelled in your license letter from Information Synthesis. Then click below in the "License Type" frame on the radio-button that marks the type of the license you have purchased. Most often it will be one or more "Single User" licenses. If this is the case, you must also enter the correct "Number of Licensed Copies", that will be stated in your license letter.

After entering the above, in most cases, you may just click on OK button at the top right corner. If all was entered correctly, the "CyberCam License" dialog will just disappear and you'll be back in CyberCam "License" tab. Your name and the license type should be listed there. If you see a message saying "The license key you entered is invalid...", please click on OK button and verify once again if all the data was entered correctly. Make the appropriate correction and try again. If it still does not work, please contact Information Synthesis for the correct license key.

Occasionally you may receive a temporary license from Information Synthesis, for evaluation purposes or to let you work on an urgent project while your payment is in the mail or being processed. If you have a temporary license, you must click on the "Temporary License" check-box at the bottom of "CyberCam License" dialog, and then enter the exact expiration date in the Year, Month and Day fields. If you neglect to do so, or enter a date that differs from the expiration date stated in your license message from Information Synthesis, the license will not work.


Contact Information Synthesis
 CyberCam  Contact Information

For the latest version of CyberCam or the CyberCam Suite, and details on our other software, please visit the Information Synthesis web site at:

http://www.infosynth.com

Please contact us for Technical Support, questions, comments, and suggestions for any improvements you may have!

e-mail: info@infosynth.com

Information Synthesis, Inc.

8105 S.W. Boeckman Road, Suite 1126

Wilsonville, Oregon 97070, USA

Phone: (503) 685-0300

Fax: (503) 685-0303

Thankyou for using CyberCam!

Software by Information Synthesis, Inc.