# How can I record what's on my PC screen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 7, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101 "2003-10-07T17:12:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/1 "2003-10-07T17:12:04Z")
I’m currently producing a PowerPoint presentation and I want to record it as an .avi file so I can burn it to CD. I had the brainwave of connecting the S-Video out of my graphics card (64 MB GeForce2) to the S-Video in on my TV card (Hauppage WinTV), but the capture programme I use did not display anything as coming in from the S-Video. I also tried going from the yellow video connector to the S-Video via an adaptor but that heralded the same results. Do I need to change a setting somewhere to get my graphics card to display out of the S-Video? Is there an easier way to do this? ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/2 "2003-10-07T17:31:02Z")
Um, if you “pack and go” from PowerPoint, all that other rigmarole is unnecessary; it will create a self-sufficient file that you can easily burn to a disc. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/3 "2003-10-07T19:24:03Z")
Let me get this straight: you want to make a video of a PP presentation?!? \ ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/4 "2003-10-07T21:32:42Z")
Try CamStudio 2.1 Free from [download.com](http://download.com) With the Video Annotation feature, you can also personalize your movie by including a Webcam movie of yourself into the AVI. I’d like to see PP do that itself 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tuco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/5 "2003-10-08T21:15:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by qts \* > \*\*Let me get this straight: you want to make a video of a PP presentation?!? > > \ \*\* I want to hand out the CD so people can watch it on DVD players that can play video CDs. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/6 "2003-10-08T21:23:42Z")
You can “pack and go” it onto a disc; why is this not adequate to your needs? ---
**Author:** ![Jake4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/7 "2003-10-08T22:33:38Z")
Because people with dvd players don’t necessarily have computers. Have you tried using 2 separate computers, one for the playback, one for the record? Even though you’re using two different cards, there may be some funky stuff going on there. ---
**Author:** ![Jake4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@Jake4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake4)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2003, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/8 "2003-10-08T22:48:14Z")
Regarding video-out modes: yes, you may have to change display settings. If you’re using Windows, right-click on the desktop and click properties (or click on Display in the control panel). Go to the Settings tab and click Advanced. If there’s a software answer to your problem, it’s most likely in there somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-record-whats-on-my-pc-screen/206101/9 "2003-10-09T02:18:25Z")
[Camtasia](http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp) by TechSmith is a good product for doing just that, and they offer a free trial version. I used it while conducting a usability study on the intranet of the company I was interning for last summer, got 45 minute videos of what users had onscreen during the tests. Definitely got the results I needed. I think I had the company (it’s a large Fortune 500 corporation) purchase me a copy of the full version, so I don’t remember if the free version is complete or not.