Expression Encoder Screen Capture is already a robust feature that many of you have used as your primary tool for obtaining both motion grabs of on-screen action. Combined with the flexibility of Encoder’s video and audio codecs and options, you can end up with a pretty impressive presentation that goes a bit beyond the traditional idea of “screen capture.” This worked fine if you wanted to create your captures offline. You ended up with a file that you could stream using all of the encoding power of Encoder. But, could you perform the same capture and have them stream in real time? Well now, with, Expression Encoder 4 SP1, you can.
The SP1 adds the ability for you to designate your screen captures as a live source, alongside the previous ability to declare files, a webcam, or an audio device as possible sources. So, now, in Live Broadcasting projects, you can throw in screen capture as one of things you can stream in real time, thereby opening the door to even more rich presentations. For instance, you can perform a real-time software training session that can possibly be seen company-wide or all over the Web, in the spirit of a webinar. And, because you can save the broadcast as a file, your training will also be available for distribution or playback later.
Live Screen Capture is a powerful option for creating presentations. Let’s take a look at setting one up.
Designating Screen Capture as a live source
In a Live Broadcasting project, you originally had the option of choosing live video devices, such as a webcam or attached camera, as the video source from which you could stream video and audio. Encoder 4 SP1 adds the ability for you to designate screen capture as a video device.
To choose Screen Capture as a device:
- First make sure that you don’t already have an open instance of the standalone version of Expression Screen Capture. Then, in a Live Broadcasting project, click the Live sources tab.
- Click Add device source
. - Choose Screen Capture Source from the Video Device menu.
Choosing Screen Capture as a live device.
If you like, you can also choose an audio device, in case you want to narrate your presentation.
Defining the area to capture
Now, you will need to decide which area of the screen you want to capture. You can either pick to capture Expression Encoder, or you can pick any other open window or area on your screen. Here’s a quick run-through covering both instances.
To capture the Encoder screen:
- Launch another instance of Encoder and open the pertinent project that you want to capture. Set the screen to the size that you prefer and follow the below procedure.
To define an area for capture:
- Make sure that the window or area that you want to capture will be immediately visible when Expression Encoder minimizes.
- Click Pick Rectangle.
- Expression Encoder minimizes so that you can pick an area of the screen. The area that you pick will be the area that is captured during your broadcast. To pick an area, do one of the following (to abort the picking process, just press ESC):
- To pick a window or a rectangular segment of the UI, position the pointer over the window or segment that you want to capture. You will see a red border appear over the UI element that you want to capture. To capture the full screen, move the pointer to any corner of the screen. Once the area you want to capture is highlighted, click the mouse.
Picking a full window.
Picking a rectangular segment.
- To manually define an area to capture, drag the pointer over the area that you want to capture. A red triangle will define the area as you drag. You will also see a box that displays the dimensions of your capture area. Once you have defined an area, release the mouse.
Dragging to select a specific area.
- To pick a window or a rectangular segment of the UI, position the pointer over the window or segment that you want to capture. You will see a red border appear over the UI element that you want to capture. To capture the full screen, move the pointer to any corner of the screen. Once the area you want to capture is highlighted, click the mouse.
- Once you define your area, Expression Encoder maximizes and you should see the area you defined displayed in the thumbnail in the Live sources pane. If you do not see the exact window that you defined, you will need to move the Expression Encoder window away from the location, because the Encoder window is likely covering the spot, keeping Windows from being able to render it. Having multiple monitors is helpful in this case, but if you don’t have the real estate, don’t worry. You can choose to have Encoder minimize once you begin your capture (more on that later), so you will have full access to the area you defined.
The area to be captured.
- You can now further refine your capture area, or relocate it entirely, by clicking Configure. In the resulting dialog box you can do the following:
- You can enter the X and Y coordinates of the rectangle, which determines where on the screen the capture rectangle is located.
- You can enter the height and width of the capture rectangle, in pixels.
- You can choose a frame rate for the capture.
- You can choose to capture the mouse cursor. Click Enlarge to increase the size of the cursor.
- You can choose whether to capture the layered window. A layered window is a pop-up window that appears when you hover over a UI element, such as a button or icon. For example, a tooltip is a layered window. Also, if you are working in Windows XP or Vista, choosing to disable this option will prevent the cursor from flashing during capture, which is an issue with many screen capture programs.
The Configure options.
- Back in the Live Sources pane, you have other options that pertain to the capture itself. Choose a Resize Mode to determine how Encoder resizes your capture image when the source dimensions are not the same as the output dimensions. The source dimensions, in this case, are the dimensions of your capture area. Choose Stretch to adjust the source image to match the output dimensions. Choose Letterbox to letterbox the image.
- Set your audio options now, if you plan to narrate the broadcast. You can choose any audio device that your system recognizes and, depending upon what you choose, you will have varying options to adjust when you click Configure. If your chosen device has multiple lines that you can control, you can choose one from the Audio Line menu. Adjust the volume by either entering a figure or dragging in the box. The highest figure you can enter is 1, which means that you have increased the audio volume by 100%.
The audio settings.
Adding other sources
As you perform your live, screen captured broadcast you can, if you like, switch to any number of file sources. When you switch back to your screen capture, Encoder returns to the capture area that you defined so, there’s no need to worry that you will have lost your capture. The capture area will not change until you define a new one. For more information on setting up file sources, see the Set File Sources topic in the Expression Encoder User Guide.
Now, you are ready to set your Encode and Output options.
Setting Encode and Output options
Now that Encoder 4 Pro supports Live IIS Smooth Streaming, you have the advantage of broadcasting several real-time streams from your Smooth Streaming Server. You can set all of your encoding options, including output formats and codec settings, in the Encode pane. It is beyond the scope of this article to explain Live Smooth Streaming, but you can consult the About Live Smooth Streaming and Prepare a server for a Live Smooth Streaming broadcast topics in the Expression Encoder User Guide for a full description of this feature.
Choosing Smooth Streaming.
Of course, you can also choose Windows Media as your output format and publish a single stream of a quality that you choose.
Next, you can choose how to deliver your presentation. Encoder 4 SP1 now enables you to simultaneously broadcast your presentation from a local port and publish your presentation to a server publishing point. You can also choose to save your broadcast as a file that you can distribute later, or just archive. In addition, in the Pro version, you can now add Digital Rights Management encryption to both your broadcast and your archived file. You can read more about these features in the topics Set Live Broadcasting Output options, About encoding and playing back DRM content, and Set DRM options in the Expression Encoder User Guide.
Once you have visited the Encode and Output panes, it’s time to start your live broadcast.
Broadcasting your screen capture
Before you fire up your broadcast, there is one more thing you need to consider. In the Live sources pane, you can choose whether Encoder minimizes when you begin your capture. You may want to choose this to remove the distraction of Encoder. (Note that if you plan to switch sources, you don’t need access to the UI to play a source—you can use keyboard shortcuts to play a source. See the Live Broadcasting Project shortcuts in the Expression Encoder User Guide for more information.) If you do not select this, the UI stays visible as you perform your broadcast, and you will be able to view your broadcast in the Preview pane. If, however, you choose not to minimize but you don’t want to view a Preview (possibly to ease the graphics load), you can click Show/Hide output preview
Another thing to consider is what you would like to have happen should there be any sort of application error during your broadcast. You can specify this in the On Error menu. Choose Stop to force the broadcast to end. Choose Hold to pause the broadcast. Or, choose Jump To, and then choose the source that you want to automatically begin playing when the error occurs.
Choosing from the On Error menu.
So, as the Preview window indicates, you can now click Start to begin your recording. Perform your presentation. If you chose to minimize the window and you need to stop the recording, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+F12. Otherwise, click Stop when you are done.
The Preview pane.
That’s all there is. If you chose to archive the presentation, it’s waiting for you wherever you saved it. You can bring it back into Encoder, in a Silverlight or Transcoding project and perform further edits or add it to a longer presentation.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
Great tutorial and timely too. I had a client ask me about this kind of thing last week. Now I can go back to him and tell him that yes it is possible and yes, I can help him make it happen.
Thanks.
Well great thing.I was looking for this type of option for long time.I some time write software tutorials, think it might help as a little video can replace hundreds of words.
This option showed when I was using the free version. Now that I have the pro version, screen capture is not available. Any thoughts?
Tim, you can contact me at linyang at microsoft dot com and i can help you with it.