I need to make a video of a flight in Flight Simulator. On the recommendation of some “friends,” I bought Pinnacle Studio 9 to capture the video and edit it for further consumption. Two problems have since arisen.
The first is that I can’t seem to get Studio to record off of anything but a digital video camera. I’m thinking this is because I bought the wrong program, not getting the correct one to grab video off of the screen. Would another program be able to do this, or am I using my current one incorrectly? How does one go about recording what is currently on-screen? What is that feature even called in videoeditingspeak?
The other problem (and this one is more of a rant), is that I can’t seem to find anything close to an answer of what I’m looking for elsewhere on the 'net. Maybe technology is finally surpassing me, but I just can’t seem to get a hold of any sites, forums, or phone numbers to figure this out.
I have and use Pinnacle. I don’t believe you can do any computer screen captures (moving images) with it. I can capture in “real time” what’s coming from my camcorder but not what’s going on in Windows.
Unless FS can make in-game movies, you’re better off making a video using an external camcorder. I don’t know if what you’re looking for exists. Also, if it does, it’s going to take a lot of CPU power to capture something like that.
What you’re trying to do is commonly called “screen capturing.” You can achieve your goal a bunch of ways, ranging in price from expensive to super cheap. For non-IT people, the most intuitive way is to physically connect your computer to a recording device, generally a VCR or DVD recorder. This requires a “TV tuner,” though, in the form of a video card or as an external device that plugs into your computer’s USB port. Tuners come with a standard screw-on CoAx connection, digital video and audio ports, or both. This is the expensive solution.
Less intuitive, but free of charge, is a program called Windows Media Encoder 9. I use it to capture what’s happening on my screen so I can make tech support tutorials for my friends and family. It’s simple, powerful, and you can download it here. Click the top drop-down box and select Windows Media Encoder. The help/readme is extensive and it’s fairly tech-heavy, but you should be able to get it to work. Good luck!