Recording videos from web cams - Please post your favourite

[Liz01]

Another method to record videos. There are more settings

Open the menu
Click Video -> Video recording ---> stream record



1= Here you can specify how long the maximum is to be recorded
2= Here there are different file formats. MKV is recommended
3= choose Video Codec
4= set the video size

[ame]

hmh!?! this is interesting, Liz: you seem to have more choices in your PotPlayer than i have. you can choose the format of the video but i don't have such selection. my PP only records ts-format. also the codec choices etc i don't have.
we must have different versions. mine is 64-bit and version number is 1.6.63638. product date is Oct 5 2016 13:#0:38 (that must be the time when i downloaded the player or installed it).

can you make a trial which makes larger files per unit time, mkv or ts?

[Liz01]

Ame, it is video recording - not stream! I'm sure, you have the same settings
I do not understand why the viderecording is called.

When streaming I have few possibilities
With the video recorder I can make many settings

Test MKV converted


Test MPEG-4 without conversion

[Liz01]

There is still a way to adjust the image size. In the right corner below. Click on the arrow- selection list opens. This is probably only for the screen.



https://wiki.mikejung.biz/PotPlayer

[Liz01]

I found a simple Programm for youtube streaming and snapshot. SMPlayer
It is available in German and English. and is is freeware.
You can not record, just watch video and take snapshots. It works on Windows and Linux. It is very simple.
So everyone can immediately work with this program, without great understanding of software and PC.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/smplayer/

http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/de/changes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMPlayer



snapshot from this program


The advantage of this program is, you don't have to open the browser and you can write in the forum and take pictures, while watching.

Ame, a separate thread for YouTube streaming might be better?

[ame]

Ame, it is video recording - not stream! I'm sure, you have the same settings
I do not understand why the viderecording is called.

When streaming I have few possibilities
With the video recorder I can make many settings

Test MKV converted
[youtube 6_8cW0SxEWs /youtube]

Test MPEG-4 without conversion
[youtube TONPpItqDZw /youtube]

Liz, i noticed the same thing myself just a little after i wrote my comment above. in stream recording there are less choices than in video recording.
(i also think i made a note of my discovery here, but it's not here after all. i must have made a mistake and cancelled my edit and not submitted it. )

how large were your video files? which one is bigger the mkv or MPEG-4? i cannot see any difference in the picture quality, at least not in the little windows on this page.

i think i'll keep this topic only for recording web cams. Youtube is only one channel for broadcasting webcams and it suites under this title, too. i think it's not good to have too many small topics.

[Liz01]

Liz, i noticed the same thing myself just a little after i wrote my comment above. in stream recording there are less choices than in video recording.
(i also think i made a note of my discovery here, but it's not here after all. i must have made a mistake and cancelled my edit and not submitted it. )

aha!

how large were your video files? which one is bigger the mkv or MPEG-4

File size 1024 x 768
1 minute recording
MKV = 15.1 MB
MPEG-4 = 15.4 MB

hmmm, it is almost the same !

[ame]

Youtube does not accept videos in mkv-format. the supported formats are:

.MOV
.MPEG4
.MP4
.AVI
.WMV
.MPEGPS
.FLV
.3GPP
.WebM

so if Potplayer is used for recording clips for Youtube then the mkv-format is not recommended even though the Potplayer recommends it. a mkv-format video needs to be converted for the Youtube.

i noticed something important: it is much better to record video clips with the PP directly in for example in MPEG-4 format instead of recording in mkv and then converting to MPEG-4. recording directly produces much smaller files than with the conversion. the ratio is almost 3! with a 1-min test video the sizes were nearly 45 MBy and under 16 MBy. the mkv-video's file size was about 16 MBy before conversion (which i made using AnyVideoConverter).

i can't understand why the difference can be so big. the frame sizes and the lengths are the same.
maybe it is because my version of AVC is older than the version which Liz is using. i think it best that everyone doing these videos checks what is best for the programs which one is using.

edit (7.6. 2017): Youtube has accepted mkv-videos for a long time now so no conversion from mkv to any other format is necessary. (i noticed this a long time ago but i didn't remember to write about here.)

[unp]

...i can't understand why the difference can be so big.

You might get a clue if you use MediaInfo to see what's inside the initial and converted files: re-encoding can make video files much larger. There are video container changers but I never used one and cannot say whether they are good.

[Liz01]

Potplayer
This little tool is very good. for me it is better than the big snapshot window.
You can take snapshots.
You can adjust the picture and video quality. The result can be seen immediately.


The advantage is, I can the video make brighter if it gets dark.
I don't need any extra processing. I can change the sharpe, the color, contrast...while I'm recording.

[ame]

You might get a clue if you use MediaInfo to see what's inside the initial and converted files: re-encoding can make video files much larger. There are video container changers but I never used one and cannot say whether they are good.

can it be avoided somehow, so that the files would not become larger in conversion? is Mediainfo or the information that it gives useful in this?

Liz, the capture and picture modifying tool is practical, thanks.

[unp]

can it be avoided somehow, so that the files would not become larger in conversion? is Mediainfo or the information that it gives useful in this?

MediaInfo shows codecs that are used to make video and audio streams, allowing to see whether they can be used in other containers without conversion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso ... er_formats), and their parameters. They are numerous rather technical details but it's not hard to see that an overall bit rate of 2000 kb/s will make a file twice bigger than an overall bit rate of 1000 kb/s.
As a test, I recorded a one-minute clip using Daum PotPlayer with all its default settings unchanged. MediaInfo showed that the recorded file 046.mkv had the following parameters (there wasn't much going on in the nest and the image was stuttering, so the recorded file wasn't big):

Container and general information
Matroska: 8.79 MiB, 57 s 888 ms Overall bit rate: 1 273 kb/s Movie name: LDF Jūras ērglis tiešraide 1 video stream: MPEG-4 Visual 1 audio stream: MPEG Audio (MP3)
First video stream
1 120 kb/s, 1920*1080 (16:9), at 30.068 FPS, MPEG-4 Visual (Simple@L1)
First audio stream
128 kb/s, 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (MP3) (Version 1) (Layer 3) (Joint stereo/MS Stereo)

Then I changed the container using Video Container Changer v1.1 with default settings but for Output Container set to MP4. The process (they call it transcoding) took a couple of seconds and produced file 046_REMUX.MP4. Its parameters were:

Container and general information
MPEG-4 (Base Media): 8.79 MiB, 57 s 888 ms Overall bit rate: 1 273 kb/s Movie name: LDF Jūras ērglis tiešraide 1 video stream: MPEG-4 Visual 1 audio stream: MPEG Audio
First video stream
1 146 kb/s, 1920*1080 (16:9), at 17.029 FPS, MPEG-4 Visual (Simple@L1)
First audio stream
128 kb/s, 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 3) (Joint stereo/MS Stereo)

I installed Any Video Converter and converted the recorded file to 046_x264.mp4 with the default settings except for selecting 'Customized MP4 Movie (*.mp4)' and 'Video Size: Original' in Basic Settings in the lower righthand corner of the application. The conversion took between 1 1/2 and 2 minutes. The file's parameters were:

Container and general information
MPEG-4 (Base Media): 14.6 MiB, 57 s 912 ms Overall bit rate: 2 114 kb/s 1 video stream: AVC 1 audio stream: AAC
First video stream
2 000 kb/s, 1920*1080 (16:9), at 25.000 FPS, AVC (Baseline@L1.3) (2 Ref Frames)
First audio stream
91.7 kb/s, 44.1 kHz, 2 channels, AAC (LC)

Then I tried to finetune Any Video Converter so that it produced an mpeg4 video with a frame rate of 25 and overall bit rate of 1273 kb/s, and an mp3 audio (there's no way - or I couldn't find it - to select exactly the same parameters as in the original file or to keep all streams of the original file intact and change only the container). Conversion time was less than 1 minute. File 046_mpeg4.mp4 had the following parameters:

Container and general information
MPEG-4 (Base Media): 14.2 MiB, 57 s 912 ms Overall bit rate: 2 064 kb/s 1 video stream: MPEG-4 Visual 1 audio stream: MPEG Audio
First video stream
1 936 kb/s, 1920*1080 (16:9), at 25.000 FPS, MPEG-4 Visual (Simple@L1)
First audio stream
128 kb/s, 48.0 kHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 3) (Joint stereo/MS Stereo)

I couldn't see any difference in quality though a drop in frame rate from 30 to 17 in the remuxed file must have had some effect. Otherwise, it's only obvious that Any Video Converter raises the overall bit rate to 2000+ kb/s irrespective of whether you ask for it or not, probably for better results. Or probably I didn't find all the subtle settings of Any Video Converter. The idea was to stick to the default settings as much as possible, though.

[ame]

thank you unp!
i also made some simple experiments.
first i recorded the Youtube stream with aTubeCatcher. it records in wmv-format. my original recording was 1 min 27 s long and the file size was 61788 kBy. then i cut the video shorter with different methods.
in the first two cases i used AVC.
the cut on the left is converted to mp4. the result was 37 s-long and the file size became 27357 kBy.

the cut on the right was made with no apparent conversion, i.e. the output format was WMV as the input. the length of the output video was 37 s and the file size 9802 kBy. on my screen the resulting picture quality was clearly much worse than in the mp4-format and also much worse than in the original longer video which was in WMV format. on the forum page it is difficult to see any difference.
.

i also cut a 40 s-long piece of the test video with Solveig avi trimmer which made no conversion. (i tried to get the same length as in the other version but it was impossible.) the resulting file size was 26561 kBy. the resulting file size was 25561 kBy. the quality of the picture was the same as in the original and the mp4-converted version (as far as i could see). this clip is on the left.

i also had a recording of the same event made with the Potplayer which records stream in ts-format. i then made a clip of the jays with the Potplayer, recording it in MP4-format. the result was 38 s long and the file size became 9980 kBy. this is less than half of the file size of the other good quality cuts. this clip is on the right. on the forum page the looked a little clearer than the other clips.
.

if one opens the videos in the Youtube and especially in larger view then on can see that the WMV version has worse quality than the others.

in all cuts made of the TubeCatcehr video the shorter versions were about half of the duration of the original (about 37 s of 87 s). the cut with AVC from WMV-format to WMV-format produced the smallest file size but the picture quality was bad. in the other cases the sizes of the shorter videos scaled as the lengths of the clips and the quality remained good.

[unp]

i also cut a 40 s-long piece of the test video with Solveig avi trimmer which made no conversion. (i tried to get the same length as in the other version but it was impossible.)

This is because compressed videos consist of groups of pictures (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_pictures) and can be cut without conversion only at key frames (I-frames). If a video is to be cut between I-frames re-encoding is necessary.

This explanation (https://www.macxdvd.com/mac-dvd-video-c ... outube.htm) of best formats for uploading to YouTube can be useful.

It can be also useful to see what codecs and parameters are used by YouTube (information can be found here: https://addons.mozilla.org/ru/firefox/a ... d-youtube/ and https://github.com/gantt/downloadyoutube).


Interestingly, there's a link between downloading and the environment - 'download less, save water'.

[Liz01]

I found a new software. it is freeware oCam
german version
http://www.chip.de/downloads/oCam_61209152.html

here is the english version
http://ocam.en.lo4d.com/

it seems it is better than a Tube Catcher or Screencast-O-Matic. Date and time will be set automatically while recording or snapshots. I like the snapshot option
I've tried it. It works very well.

..............
oCam is a screen recording application which, apart from supporting basic Windows applications, isn't really suitable for anything more than slideshows or tutorials.

The program is rather easy to use and can create videos by select an area on the screen and hitting the large "Record" button. Among other things, it has a variety of options from which to configure including codecs.

The program is definitely suitable for creating basic presentations, but not for recording high definition gaming like Fraps.

oCam features and highlights:
Computer screen, video recording is possible
Recording using the built-in video codecs(AVI, MP4, MOV, TS, VOB) and audio codecs(MP3)
Have large video formats to support more than 4GB
Recording sound from your computer as you can
Audio recording is made possible without the stereo mix setting.(Windows 7, Vista SP1 or later)
A variety of sound quality when recording can be selected
Screen capture is possible, too
Recording area of the keyboard can be easily controlled
Can record the full screen and window area
During recording, the mouse cursor can be set to be included
Bug reporting is available to developers
Record the results can be stored in a specific folder, you have the option
oCam dual-monitor support
Flash in the IE browser, the target area can be selected
Preferences from the FPS setting is possible
Automatically recording the end of recording timeout function is available

test video


test picture

[Liz01]

OCam Video Codecs

I have downloaded an external codex.
X264vfw ...
You must choose Codecs from the menu
Then external codecs
there is forwarded and you should chooses x264vwf
This codec must be started
Then restart the program.
Now you can select the external codec. The video files are smaller with this codec than with other codec



Menu: Resize
You can directly choose youtube video sizes
HD; FDH; QHD; UHD 4K and UHD 8K!



Menue: Sound you choose : Stereomix
Menue: Capture = snapshot

[Fleur]

Thank you for posting

hm, a lot of stuff to read....wich one is the best....

@Liz, the last one can only one of the time?

[Liz01]

......
@Liz, the last one can only one of the time?

Fleur, unfortunately yes! Also the potplayer allows only one instance. Multiple instances works only with VLC. but the VLC Player doesn't work with youTube

[unp]

PotPlayer does allow multiple instances
Preferences -> General: General Settings -> Multiple instances: Disable... / Enable: Allow more than one PotPlayer instance / Disable...

[Liz01]

PotPlayer does allow multiple instances
Preferences -> General: General Settings -> Multiple instances: Disable... / Enable: Allow more than one PotPlayer instance / Disable...

wooow! thank you

hmmmm!
i can not find it.
I find multible instances and disable "play Files in existing instance" also disable Playlist in existing instance

but not "Allow more than one PotPlayer instance"

I found this:
"Check the configuration settings to allow multiple instances of this application; and if there is none, create another user on the PC and right click the executable file and select Run As. The application will run as your default username the first time you launch it, and when Run As is used, it will run again in another instance using the other username."

http://answers.informer.com/49999/can-i ... -same-time

my english is not good enough to understand it.