Improving performance when encoding screens
Because of the amount of data being manipulated and the CPU power required, capturing screens is a performance-intensive process. Use the following guidelines to ensure that the screen image you capture will encode and play well:
- Use a fast processor.
- Set your monitor to use a lower display size. For example, capturing at a 1024 x 768 resolution yields more data than capturing at 640 x 480.
- Set your color display to 16-bit color. Or, to further improve the CPU usage set the encoder to run in 256-color mode. Keep in mind that running in 256 colors can introduce a palette change when switching between programs that have different color schemes. The encoder does not support palette changes for real-time screen capture. Therefore, you should use 16-bit colors or capture to an .avi file first, then use the encoder to convert the file to Windows Media Format.
- Use the Windows Media Screen 9 codec.
- Use a low frame rate. You may have to experiment with the setting to determine the frame rate that meets your needs.
- Capture a smaller image.
- Use as high a bit rate as possible.
- Avoid multiple scene changes, such as opening and closing windows in rapid succession during the capture.
- Capture screens or regions only from the primary monitor when using a dual-monitor scenario.
- Make hardware acceleration unavailable.
- Quit all programs you are not using.
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