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.
• Use the Windows Media Video 9 Screen codec.
• 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 or 8-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 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 a higher bit rate.
• 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.
• Disable hardware acceleration. (However, enable hardware acceleration after completing the screen capture for best results with other programs.)
• Quit all video programs you are not using.
• Set up the output frame size to be the same as the source. Do not use the encoder to resize the source video.

Related topics

• Capturing screens
• Hardware and software requirements