The Camera Tab


With the addition of camera video to your repertoire of recordable streams, you now have the Camera tab to select the appropriate video device and adjust the camera’s settings. If you’re going to record camera video, then the first thing you need to do is to choose from the drop-down list of Available video devices. If you only have a single webcam attached to your computer, then that’s probably the only video device you’ll see. However, there are other devices that can also be attached and used as a video device besides webcams, such as:

  • A digital video camcorder, attached to your computer via IEEE 1394 (Firewire) or USB

  • Certain digital cameras

  • A video capture card that records video from an analog source (such as a VCR)

  • A television capture card

The Camera Properties… button allows you to adjust a variety of settings for your webcam or other video device. While I can’t tell you exactly what you’ll see when clicking this button (as all these settings come directly from the driver software of the individual device), you’re likely to see some or all of the following:

  • Screen image settings (contrast, hue, saturation, gamma, etc.)

  • Gain control (adjusting the level of exposure, for example)

  • Image mirror (flipping the captured image on the vertical and/or horizontal axis)

  • Other enhancements such as low light boost and anti-flicker compensation

Like Camera Properties, the Video Format… button also offers settings from the capture device’s display drivers, this time focusing on the file output settings. While obviously varying from device to device, you can generally alter settings like:

  • The video frame rate

  • The number of colors

  • The dimensions of your video output (window size)

  • Key frame control

  • Overall image quality/compression

If you start monkeying with these various settings and get in too far over your head, note that you also have the Default button at your disposal. A click of this handy “do-over” button will reset the Video Format options, restore the default video capture device, and reinitialize everything.

Note that this dialog also sports a useful Preview window. This window will not only let you ensure that you have the correct video device selected but will also update in real time, so if you altered any of the camera properties, you’ll see those changes right away in the preview. It’s a practical way of helping you figure out which tweaks enhance the video quality and which detract from it.

When capturing the stream from your webcam or video input device, this data is saved in WMV format inside the CAMREC file, using the WMV7 codec. This codec features fast encoding so that your captures with camera video don’t experience too much of a slowdown.

When you’re finished adjusting your settings, click OK to exit the dialog.




Camtasia Studio 4. The Definitive Guide
Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library)
ISBN: 1598220373
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 146
Authors: Daniel Park

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