Ultra ScreenRecorder

[Rudi De Vos]

There exist a lot of screen recorders, but al lack the speed for doing
some real full screen recording. The speed is just to low or cpu to high.
Online compression can only be done with some real-time disk eating codecs....
Even the 300$ camtasia studio is slow.

As i needed something faster to make some manuals, i found it quite
simular to the problem that VNC has. I guess most screenrecorders
use the same capturing method as vnc under the hood.
Playing around with some code, i found that the driver could be used the
same way as for VNC.

Just download and try it yourself...


Required: Ultravnc driver installed. !!!Driver from Rel1.00 or Rel 1.01 is needed !!!
OS: win2000 and later
Speed: 1280x1024x15Fps + online divx compression -->25%CPU on 3GHZ cpu,
so plenty of cpu left to run your applications.
Codec: All codecs that support vfw.
Only check if the codec does not require the hight or width being a multiple
of 4 or 8. Check if your custom region fullfill the demands of the encoder.
License: Freeware
Limitation: UltraVNC watermark icon in the bottom left corner

[Rudi De Vos]

Missed something essential in previous messages

Download
http://sc.uvnc.com/SR/UltraRecorder.zip

[bevtech]

I tried your Ultra Recorder. I couldn't get it to playback in winamp or windows media player. Plus I had to close the application after saving the avi file or I would get a bunch of errors. Maybe I am doing something wrong??

Sorry Windows media Player 10 10.00.00.3802 avi mode
winamp 5.1 surround edition avi mode

After a create an avi save it then try to record another capture I get this

Note: Error Creating AVI file...I still think it is something I am doing wrong..

When I try to playback the avi I get a blank screen

Thank you so much for all of your help and time in creating great applications.

[Rudi De Vos]

what encoder did you use: video options encoder
What recording speed did you selected...default 200fps !!!
The default players does not support all your installed codecs.

bunch of error....please tell what errors.

The recorder make use of the same driver is UltraVNC.
Both applications can not use the driver at the same time.

Other people having the same problem ?

[eo]

Cool project -

Am also having an issue, the play records, when I playback the .avi in windows media it shows a black screen with color pixeled lines like static. The the player crashes.

Am using, Microsoft Video Compression 1.0 in the video options.

Where should the "Ultravnc driver installed. " be installed? Perhaps I dont have a full installation of this.
\

[Rudi De Vos]

Retested on a XP and w2k PC.
Both record the screen in my case...

If you have vnc Rel (100/101) with a working driver installed
it should also work for the recorder.

Where should the "Ultravnc driver installed.

Installation is done by the system, location doesn't matter.

[eo]

Rudi,

http://s42.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2E4J ... 8ZYGLPGESY

Is a link to the test.avi that it created. Am using Microsoft Video 1 - default settings.

I also installed Ultravnc 101 to make sure. How can I verify the driver is installed correctly?

[Rudi De Vos]

If you have ultravnc 1.01 installed, you have the button
"check driver" polling menu.

This give the status of the driver parts.
During a connection with a viewer, and driver enabled, the "check driver"
button should tell you if he is active or not.

[eo]

Re-installed UltraVNC with the WinVNC server (before had no server).
Then rebooted everything.

Seems to be working now. Will test more. What a perfect fit!

[eo]

Video is working properly.

Audio is not recording. I tried different Compression and different input lines. The volume button to the right does pull up anything, could be related?

[eo]

Would there be a simple way to select an entire window to record, so you dont have to draw a box around a particular application?

[rheckhau]

I am looking for a screen recorder that I can control remotly from an application. No need for a GUI. That may be no big deal to incoorperate into UltraScreenRecoder. What is the licence behind UltraScreenRecorder? Is it open source?

[rmoller]

Hi,

I need record/replay for auditing external consultants' sessions.

I built a quick TCP forwarder (like the repeater), which saves the session traffic to a file. For each buffer forwarded, a fixed header with direction, timestamp and bufferlength preceeds the stored buffer.

During replay, any traffic from the viewer is discarded, and the stored server traffic is force-fed to the viewer.

I succeeded in saving and replaying a session with fixed chosen encoding (like ZRLE,Nocache), but the viewer aborted during replay of "Auto Encoding".

I have tried the ScreenRecorder, but it is detached from the VNC session in question, and it doesn't capture viewer input (not that I use the captured viever input for anything right now...)

Actually our external consultants want to use RDP (Remote Desktop), but RDP cannot be replayed, and as we use UltraVnc in general, I am going to use a VNCviewer instead of Explorer.exe for the RDP sessions.

So is this viable, you think? And are there other things to consider to ensure that a saved session can be predictably replayed?

Rasmus

[Eugene Sukhodolin]

Actually our external consultants want to use RDP (Remote Desktop), but RDP cannot be replayed, and as we use UltraVnc in general, I am going to use a VNCviewer instead of Explorer.exe for the RDP sessions.

Btw, RDP can REALLY be replayed.
Just look at our DemoForge Studio (http://www.demoforge.com/trial/dfstudio.exe) to see how it looks like. Or feel free to contact me privately for additional details.

[rmoller]

Actually our external consultants want to use RDP (Remote Desktop), but RDP cannot be replayed, and as we use UltraVnc in general, I am going to use a VNCviewer instead of Explorer.exe for the RDP sessions.

Btw, RDP can REALLY be replayed.
Just look at our DemoForge Studio (http://www.demoforge.com/trial/dfstudio.exe) to see how it looks like. Or feel free to contact me privately for additional details.

Thanks. I checked out your demo, it looks neat, but it looks like it is basically an interactive program requiring me or someone else to start and stop the recording. A repeater-like program could automatically record any session without manual intervention by me or someone else.

I really appreciate the feedback, though now I managed to record AND replay RDP(WTS) as well as RFB(VNC). The trick for RDP is to set RDP encryption level to Low, then the server to client traffic is not encrypted and will replay nicely. I also disable any client mappings to make the session as "stateless" as possible.

Rasmus Møller

[lfkpoa-69]

http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/

It's opensource.
It let's you create a swf (Flash) file from a connection to a vnc server.
The file ends up being smaller than creating video files like avi.

UltraScreenRecorder would be greater if it could create swf files too.
How about making it open source so that people could contribute with this kind of feature?

[Rudi De Vos]

The recorder does not contain vnc code, making it hard to implement vnc2swf.

Use divx or xvid encoding and set framerate to 15 fps.
Default it use MS video I and 200 FPS--> this generate huge avi files.

[echo airete]

ok when i try and record something.. i get nothing but a black screen. I have Ultra VNC installed and stuff. Am i missing something?

[rahularora]

I have read thru this forum, now I want to understand that out of all the suggestions which is the best way to record a remote control session.

I am using Ultra/Tight VNC, and I need to record the remote control session for any desktop/server. The objective is for Auditing and security.

awaiting to hear your thoughts on the same.

warm regards
Rahul

[mahjohn]

Rudi....

I have Ultra VNC Server/Viewer on my admin machine, as well as VNC Scan. I've downloaded your UltraRecorder, but cannot seem to get it to work correctly. I've left the settings as default. If I am viewing a users desktop vnc viewmode only, and need to record what is taking place, how can I do that ? I've tried full screen, selected window, or drag to size window but all seem to give me a blank screen on playback ?.

Any ideas
Thanks
Mark

[mahjohn]

umm...ya, well forget the previous post.....dumbass (me) had forgotten to install the video driver on my admin machine.....

works very well......

cheers

[mahjohn]

any thoughts ?......sometimes the video recorded when played back is "skewed" and virtually illegible. Any ideas as to what causes this ?

Mark,

[noksagt]

This program looks a lot like CamStudio, which is free/open source. If you've "borrowed" source code from them, can you please comply with the GPL & release your source? If you haven't borrowed from them, can you please make a statement regarding how the similarities between the two products originated?. Thanks--this looks useful.

[Rudi De Vos]

==============================
RenderSoft CamStudio
==============================


Unless otherwise specified, RenderSoft Software and Web Publishing owns all title to this software and its copyright, which are protected by international copyright law.

This product is FREEWARE and you are free to duplicate and distribute this software through the internet or any preferred media.

This product is OPENSOURCED and you are free to edit and modify its source code for your needs. The source code may be obtained from the product's website at : http://www.rendersoftware.com/products/camstudio

If you create an product that contains code derived from CamStudio, you are free to distribute it for any purposes, including commercial purposes. However, your product must include an acknowledgement that mention it contains code from RenderSoft CamStudio. A simple statement like "Part of this product is derived from RenderSoft CamStudio" in the AboutBox will do. You are not obliged to reveal the source code of your derived product but are encouraged to do so.


RenderSoft Software and Web Publishing specifically disclaims ALL warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infingement with respect to this software, its source code and any accompanying written materials.

IN NO EVENT will RenderSoft Software and Web Publishing be liable to you for damages, including any loss of profits, data, or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of your use or inability to use this software, even if RenderSoft Software and Web Publishing has been specifically advised on the possiblility of such damages.

By agreeing below, you indicate that you have read and understood the above licensing aggreement, and accept it as legally binding upon you.

If you choose not to accept any of the terms of this licensing agreement, please click the 'Exit' button now

---------------------------------------------------
Look at the about box of the application, this fullfill the license
---------------------------------------------------

[noksagt]

Thanks for the response. The way back machine does have the text you snipped from 2002, which I didn't realize.

By 2003, the license changed to the GPL.

You first released this in 2005. If you used a version released after 2002, you must still comply with the GPL. However, assuming you used the 2002 version as the basis: I apologize for the misunderstanding.

[UltraSam]

BTW, when I download their Setup and their source file zip from here:
http://www.camstudio.org/

The only licence if find is the one Rudi posted above (in the src zip) and almost the same in the CamStudio install directory

So I don't understand how even the current CamStudio can be GPL at all:
the GPL licence is nowhere in the files they distribute

[noksagt]

BTW, when I download their Setup and their source file zip from here:
http://www.camstudio.org/

That version has always been GPLed. The site has claimed this and inspect vscap20s/Producer/swfsource/actioncompiler/swf4compiler.tab.cpp and vscap20s/Producer/swfsource/actioncompiler/swf5compiler.tab.cpp
Anything that links those will also be GPLed.

So I don't understand how even the current CamStudio can be GPL at all:
the GPL licence is nowhere in the files they distribute

It is their copyright--they can change it to the GPL if they wish. I do agree that they should have a more prominent license.

[UltraSam]

I think the GPL licence MUST be in the distributed software package, easy to find or even displayed during the setup.
But I can be wrong...

[Rudi De Vos]

Richard,

CamStudio was originally released by a company called RenderSoft,
they released it as a bsd style license (there latest version was v2.0)
RenderSoft sold the software and stopped the develoment. (2003)

Then someone else took the old Camstudio code and hosted it on sourceforge and changed the license to GPL.....

That version has always been GPLed. The site has claimed this and inspect vscap20s/Producer/swfsource/actioncompiler/swf4compiler.tab.cpp and vscap20s/Producer/swfsource/actioncompiler/swf5compiler.tab.cpp
Anything that links those will also be GPLed.

Thoose files are auto generated from swf4compiler.y and swf5compiler.y,
nobody can claim GPL on it....the only thing you see is that they are made with a bison parser.
Even if the GPL was mentioned in all files, it would be resticted to all changes made after 2003...

I just follow the license of the original author.

Just wondering, why do you want the source of the " screenrecorder"...
Is it for an opensource project at Caltech ?

[noksagt]

I'll assume you were addressing me.

CamStudio was originally released by a company called RenderSoft,
they released it as a bsd style license (there latest version was v2.0)
RenderSoft sold the software and stopped the develoment. (2003)

Then someone else took the old Camstudio code and hosted it on sourceforge and changed the license to GPL.....

Not quite--as per my links above, RenderSoft was the first to change the copyright to GPL (from the BSD-like license). They did this for v. 1.8 and 2.0. Then v. 2.0 was adopted by Nick Smith as a sourceforge project & he retained the GPL.

(Parenthetically: RenderSoft was purchased by eHelp, who released a v. 2.1 that has all-but-disappeared & eHelp was purchased by Macromedia.)

Just wondering, why do you want the source of the " screenrecorder"...

I use a combination of CamStudio & vnc2swf (both free/opensource). ScreenRecorder seems like a good idea, but it is limited enough that I wouldn't use it. Someone mentioned it on the CamStudio blog as a possible GPL violation (which, per this discussion, it isn't) & I did wonder if it could be leveraged by Nick or someone else to make the GPLed CamStudio better.

Is it for an opensource project at Caltech ?

Not that I know of--I'm not at Cal-Tech & my personal development time is limited.