This section describes problems you may encounter when working with Total Recorder VideoPro Edition.
1. "Black screen" problem
Probable Symptoms
When you record video from a screen, you get only a black rectangle recorded.
Possible Causes
You are recording a screen video that is played back using hardware acceleration.
Solutions
Total Recorder VideoPro Edition contains a special utility to solve the "Black screen" problem. If you encounter this problem, close all applications that are playing video. Then in Total Recorder, from the Tools menu, select Turn video acceleration off. This activates the utility and the text "Hardware video acceleration has been turned off" should appear in the utility's window. With this window open, proceed to capture video from the screen. If this does not resolve the problem, contact Technical Support.
2. Low video quality caused by computer overload during video recording
Probable Symptoms
Recorded video is jerky (due to a large number of dropped frames), video and audio are not synchronized, or video is of a low quality.
During recording, pay attention to the "Drop frames" field in the Total Recorder main window. If you see that more than 30% of frames are dropped then your computer is most likely overloaded. You can display the CPU usage during a recording from the Windows Task Manager -> Performance tab. The CPU usage should not exceed 70-80%.
Possible Causes
1) Values for the resolution or frame frequency are set too high in your video recording parameters.
2) Either you have chosen a slow video codec or the settings for the codec consume too many resources.
Solutions
1) Try to adjust the resolution and frame frequency parameters to an acceptable
level. For details on selecting these parameters, see the Primer
on Digital Video Recording. To obtain a high-quality video,
resolution should not normally exceed 640x480, and the frame frequency
should not normally exceed 30 frames per second (DVD quality).
When capturing video from a device, you can decrease the resolution
and frame frequency. See How to Record Video from Video Devices
for details. If you capture video from a computer screen, try
to decrease the size of the window being captured and then decrease
the capture area in Total Recorder's video settings. See How to Record Video from a Screen or Software Player Using Total Recorder VideoPro Edition.
2) If the video codec you've chosen requires too many computer resources during recording then try to adjust the codec's settings. For example, you can set a lower value for the quality parameter. You can also try to use a faster codec, such as HuffYUV or MJPEG. If you have a high-capacity hard drive, record the video without compression. For detailed information on choosing video recording formats and codecs, refer to the Primer on Digital Video Recording.
3. Poor video quality caused by an "Interlace" problem
Probable Symptoms
When played back on a computer, the recorded video has frequent distortions in the form of thin horizontal stripes and image shifts.
Possible Causes
You have recorded interlaced video, which is video intended to be played back on a TV screen. This video may have been recorded from an analog TV-tuner, a DV-video camera, or the analog input of a video card.
Solutions
It is very important to set the full vertical resolution in your capture device's parameters: 576 lines for PAL or 480 lines for NTSC. Distortion caused by interlacing can be removed by a video codec if the recording uses a codec with a deinterlacing filter, such as DivX, VP6, or a WMV codec. This feature should be turned on prior to using the codec.
For additional information on codec settings using an example of the DivX codec, see How to Convert Video Using Total Recorder VideoPro Edition. You can also refer to the Primer on Digital Video Recording, which explains how to select the correct resolution for recording "interlaced video".
To capture a recording with a lower quality, you can use exactly half the vertical resolution: 288 lines for PAL or 240 lines for NTSC. In this case, there should be no distortion caused by interlacing and you do not require the use of a deinterlacing filter.
Using any vertical resolution other than full or half may prevent you from reproducing your recording with an acceptable level of quality and from applying a codec with a deinterlace filter during recording.
4. Recorded video has poor quality
Probable Symptoms
Recorded video has poor image quality, such as low definition, blurring, or the picture is divided into a big square.
Possible Causes
1) The initial video source is of a poor quality. Internet video often has low image quality.
2) The codec or its settings are not selected appropriately.
Solutions
1) Try to improve the quality of the video being recorded. For example, many websites allow you to select the quality of video being played back. When capturing video from a device, you can improve the video quality by selecting a higher resolution in the device settings or by changing other device parameters. For more information on setting the capturing device, see How to Record Video from Video Devices.
2) The codec itself can often cause poor video quality or even
compression errors. Many codecs are designed to get the maximum
quality for only a certain type of video. Also, not all codecs
support different values for video parameters, such as the resolution,
frame frequency, etc. In such cases, applying another codec or
using other codec settings can resolve the problem. In particular,
you can achieve better results by increasing the "quality" (or
"bit rate") parameter. For more information about codec settings,
refer to the How to Convert Video
Using Total Recorder VideoPro Edition section.