Stream It. Record It. Keep It.

Replay Video Capture 9 User Guide

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview

Welcome to Replay Video Capture, the on-screen video recorder specifically designed for hassle-free video capture.

main

Replay Video Capture is especially well suited for recording:

High Quality Video Recordings

Capturing and compressing on-screen video in real time can require a lot of your PC CPU power. Replay Video Capture is designed for this task, as it uses high quality MPEG-2 and WMV codecs that give perfect-looking recordings of videos without reducing your PC performance.

Game Recordings

When playing games in Windowed mode, Replay Video Capture can record your game with little or no impact on game performance and frame rates. Recording of Full HD game windows (1920x1080) is equal or better than recording in Full Screen mode even on computers that don't use standalone video cards (Windows 7/8/10 running on Intel HD Graphics or higher versions CPUs).

Background Recordings

Background mode is a unique feature introduced by Replay Video Capture. This mode lets you capture videos from your screen in the background so that the video RVC is recording doesn't have to be visible. The video can be covered by other windows and that won"t affect the recording at all. The Background Mode allows you to keep working on the computer while capturing videos.

Thumb Drive Mode

This is another unique feature introduced by Replay Video Capture. You can enable the Thumb Mode by clicking on the "?" icon in the main program window and click on Enable Thumb Drive Mode. When you enable the Thumb Drive Mode, you can run the program from a USB drive without the need for another installation.

Convenient

To make it easy to capture a video, Replay Video Capture often automatically locates the region of your screen where the video will be played. You can also choose to mark an area of the screen manually. Either way, setting up your recording area is a snap.

System Requirements

(see also the Quick Guide under Settings/Help)

Installation

Replay Video Capture should only be installed on the administrator account, however all clients will automatically get shortcuts if the option "Make shortcuts available to all users" is checked during the installation. Every user has his own recording folder and settings. The administrator installation doesn't need to run in order for the clients to run their versions. Only the administrator can uninstall the program.

Make a simple two-clicks recording (no setup required)

Notes:  If you're running Windows 7/Vista - when opening Replay Video Capture your desktop theme is changed to Windows Basic. The Basic theme greatly enhances the performance and speed of your system. Your current theme will be restored when you exit Replay Video Capture.

Only motion videos can be automatically detected when using the Get Video  button. A transparent marking window is shown over the video area (see below). You can resize or move this window to fine-tune the recording area or click "Retry" to redo the detection. You can also mark the recording area manually by using the Mark Video Window  button.

How to Screen Capture Videos

First, you need to mark a region of the screen to record as a video. You can do that by clicking on the Get Video button or selecting the Mark Video Window radio button. Then, click on Record to start the recording. You can stop or pause the recording at any time. 

get-video

Important Note:  In almost every situation, you don't need to record the entire screen to get the best video quality. Most video sources broadcast at no more than 640x480 or 720x480 pixels, and then up-scale the video to fit a full screen. This means that you can record at 100% (rather than 200% or full-screen), and get great quality. Plus, recording from a smaller video window ensures that Replay Video Capture uses less CPU power. This makes smaller files and greatly reduces the chances of dropped frames and choppy recordings.

If your recoding looks choppy or the audio is out of sync, follow a simple rule to make the recording window not bigger than 1/3 of your screen area (640x480 or 1280x720). If you're recording a large window located inside the browser, you can use the zoom out function (Ctrl -) to reduce the size of the browser and the recording square.

Changing Windows 7 or Vista Desktop Theme

Replay Video Capture changes the Windows 7/Vista desktop theme from Aero to Windows Basic. This greatly improves the general speed of your Windows system by disabling the Aero video effects. This results in better quality video capture of your screen. The initial theme is restored when Replay Video Capture closes. We highly recommend using this feature but if you want to keep Aero enabled, open Settings - Tools - Setup Windows theme. Note that the Windows Basic  feature is not available in Windows 8 and 10.

To select or deselect the Windows Basic  theme click Tools / Setup Windows theme. Make your selection in the dialog window that pops up.

theme-options

Another way to increase the performance (speed) of your system and avoid dropping frames is setting Windows Performance Options to "Best performance" instead of "Best appearance". "Best appearance" is the default Windows setup. This can be done from Replay Video Capture Settings -Tools - Windows Best Performance.

Marking a Recording Region

To change between different marking modes click Settings - Tools - Setup video detect mode

setup-video-detect

Replay Video Capture provides a Window mode and a Marker mode to mark the video recording area. The Marker mode is provided for compatibility with previous versions. The coordinates of the marked window are shown on the main screen (x-Top, y-Top, x-Bottom, y-Bottom (width, height)).

Window Mode

In this mode a semitransparent marking window is displayed on the screen. The marking window can be moved and resized to fit the recording region.

The easiest way to mark a region is to use the Get Video  function available from the Replay Video Capture main screen.

get-video-button

Replay Video Capture can detect motion videos and automatically mark the recording screen area. Begin playing your video then click Get Video. A semi-transparent window marks the video area on your screen. If the marked area is not what you want click "Retry" to run the detection again or move/resize window to fine tune the marking rectangle. You can also drag the edges or move the entire marking window to fit your video. Note that static images cannot be automatically detected this way.

Note:  The automatic detection of the video window is done by a motion detection process. Therefore, it is important to start playing the video before using the Get Video function.

You can also mark a video window manually:

  1. Click on the Mark Video radio button. A semi-transparent window will be shown on the screen. Move and/or resize this window to fit the video area.
  2. Click Mark Video Window again to remove the marker display.
    mark-video

Marker Mode

This mode displays two markers, which can be manually dragged from Replay Video Capture main screen to the upper left and lower right parts of the recording region. This feature is provided for compatibility to older versions of the program.

To manually mark a region:

  1. Click Mark Video Window. The current position of the markers appears.
  2. Grab the upper-left marker, and drag it with the mouse to the new top-left corner.
  3. Repeat with the lower-right marker.

Recording

Once you've marked an area to capture, it's easy to record it.

Starting Recording

To start a recording, press the Record  button. As you're recording, the Record button turns into a Stop button, and Play becomes Pause.

start-record

On Windows 7, Vista and XP computers, Replay Video Capture main screen is invisible to the recording even if the main screen image overlaps the recording area. To change this, open Settings  and uncheck the box Set Top Window. However, this is not recommended when the Window detection mode is used. 

Hint:  You can also start/stop/pause recording by using the keyboard. Press the Record Hotkey  to start and stop recording when Replay Video Capture is open (see below the Hotkeys section). Click Settings, Hotkeys on Replay Video Capture to setup/enable/disable the keyboard options.

Important Note:  The motion smoothness of your recordings is highly depended on the frame rate that can be sustained by your computer. Normally, this should be higher than 20 frames per second (fps). During recording the preset and actual frame rates are displayed on Replay Video Capture main screen. For example, a 25/17 indicates a preset rate of 25 frames per second and an actual (achieved) rate of 17 frames per second. The ideal situation will be 25/25. To achieve a higher frame rate, make sure your Windows theme is set to Windows Basic  for Win7/Vista or you're using the Background  mode.

Pause and Restart

If you'd like to pause recording, click the Pause  button. Click Restart  to resume recording. You can also use the Pause Hotkey  (see below) to pause and resume recording. 

Stop Recording

Click Stop  or use the Record Hotkey  to end the recording. Your recorded file will be saved.

The Background mode

Background mode  is particularly useful in the following situations:

Setup the Background mode

Click Settings. In the Settings dialog, click Enable  under Background mode. In the Background dialog that opens, you can select a browser or other program that you want to open while recording from the screen. On Windows 8/10, you can click the question mark on the main screen, then click Switch to Background mode. This option allows switching between modes without restarting Replay Video Capture.

Maximize your video recording settings (Windows 8/10)

Open Settings and maximize your recording frame rates. When recording High Definition videos, full screen games and in general larger video windows, it is important to be able to use higher frame rates and higher video bitrates (see the Quick Guide under Settings/Help for more details on frame rates, window size, CPU).

Begin recording

Click the Record  button to begin recording. The marked video will be recorded and a small Preview  window will appear on Replay Video Capture main screen showing what is actually being recorded. A black, white or a still image in the Preview window means that the Background mode could not be setup and Replay Video Capture failed to record the desired content (see Troubleshooting below).

Picture in Picture

When using the Background mode, you can enable the Picture in Picture option by going to the Settings - Tools - Video Options - Picture in Picture, then mark your video on the screen. Click Hide , then Detach. Now your selected video window plays as Picture in Picture on your desktop.

Open another browser or program while recording

Click Browser  on Replay Video Capture's main screen to open another session of your selected browser or open another program. The marked video you're recording will continue to record even if it's covered by the newly opened windows. Use the Hide / Show  buttons to hide or show the recording window.

Stop, Playback recording

Same as above.

Tips for using the Background mode:

Set up Hotkeys and Hide Modes

hotkeys

To set up the hotkeys and the hide mode, click Settings / Hotkeys  or Tools / Hide/Minimize Replay Video Capture when recording. The default keys are: 

Alt + A - start/stop recording

Alt + S - pause/restart recording

Alt + D - mute/unmute microphone (dual audio recording)

Usually, you'd be using hotkeys for recording when Replay Video Capture main screen overlaps the recording area. Keep in mind however that on Windows 7,Vista, XP or when using the Background mode, Replay Video Capture main screen is invisible to recording so you may not need to use hotkeys.

When the Minimize  option is selected, recording stops when Replay Video Capture window is restored. You can also use the hotkey to start/stop/pause recording. Note that some browser full screen windows may switch to normal size when minimizing Replay Video Capture window.

Monitor Scaling

monitor-scaling

In some cases, your monitor resolution or text size may be scaled up (125%, 150%, etc..) HD displays (1920x1080) are automatically scaled up on many Windows 10 computers. In this case, the screen coordinates (mouse coordinates) do not match the actual windows position on the screen. Replay Video Capture will automatically rescale the screen coordinates.

Click on the "?" icon on the main screen to access monitor scaling options. These settings apply to monitors connected as Extended displays. If your displays are Duplicated you need to provide the scaling factor. Normally the display scaling should always be enabled. You can disable scaling for experiments. Note that when scaling is enabled the display scale shows 100% even if the scale factor is not 100%.

When using the Background mode and monitors with different scaling factors you may need to manually enter a scale factor as a percentage. This can be 70, 80, 125, 150, etc. depending on the resolution of the two monitors. Sometimes the recorded video appears to be moved up or down in relation to the marked area when Background mode was used. Use Move UP/Move Down  buttons to move up or down the entire marking window an amount shown in the size box.

How to Set up Replay Video Capture

For regular PC recordings, there is no setup required. Using the default video format, you'll record videos that can be played back on any Windows / Mac computers or converted to other video formats. If you need to transfer the recorded video to your mobile device, use the MPEG-4 (MP4) recording format or Replay Converter  to convert to MP4/iPod/iPhone formats.

Click Settings  on Replay Video Capture main screen if you need to fine-tune your video/audio parameters or access other options. In the dialog window, select the option you need.

To configure preset video recording settings, click Settings , then choose Recommended Settings. Choose the selection that most closely matches your system:

recommended-settings

Video/Audio Settings

To make subsequent changes, just click the Settings  button. The Settings dialog will appear.

settings

Video or Audio Bitrate (kbps):  the higher these numbers, the cleaner and sharper video and better audio quality. However, the file sizes will also become larger.

Frames/sec (fps):  the higher this number, the smoother motion quality especially for high motion videos. Note that the number of captured frames per second depends on your computer performance characteristics (speed, memory, etc.) and cannot always be setup to the desired value. In order to achieve high frame rates, use Windows Basic  theme on Windows 7 and the Background mode  on Windows 8/10. You can select a frame rate from the drop down list or type a number in the Frame/sec box.

Set Top Window:  makes Replay Video Capture main screen invisible to recording (when Windows Basic  theme is used).

Video Format:  use MPEG-2 for high motion videos (movies), Windows Media or Windows Media Screen for webinars, documents, full screen/low motion video, small size recorded files, MPEG-4 (MP4) for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android devices or for YouTube submissions.

Video Capture Options

Every time you change the video format, the Video Capture Options window pops up.

video-capture-options

Here are the video options that can be selected there:

Enhanced video settings  mode includes enhanced recording features like dual monitor, pause and video preview.

Basic video settings  is provided for compatibility with previous versions of Replay Video Capture.

Video preview displays a small video window on Replay Video Capture main screen and shows what is being recorded.

Resize video  option can be used to resize the recorded video and is available only with MPEG-2 video format. Please note that not every width/height combination is accepted.

Set Markers  option can be used to fix the marked area to a certain width and height.

Audio Recording Setup

You can access audio settings from Settings - Audio Setup.

Replay Video Capture will automatically set up audio recording settings when installed. On Windows 7, 8, 10, and Vista, the default audio driver is the Sound-Capture  driver (see below). You can also use the Virtual-Audio  driver, however the Pause option is not available when this driver is selected.

If you'd like to record audio from the microphone or line in, open the Audio Recording Sources  drop-down list and select the audio device you want to use.

audio-setup

Important Note: Replay Video Capture does not support Surround or Quadraphonic sound. It can only record stereo, 44100 or 48000 sample rates. See "Troubleshooting instructions" if you need to change your audio settings

For Windows XP:  You should use the Stereo Mix  recording option if your sound card provides this feature. To find out if Stereo Mix is available, double click (or right-click) the speaker icon on the taskbar and see if the Recording option is listed under Options or Properties. In the Recording dialog, check if the "Stereo Mix", "Wave Out", "What you Hear", "Master Volume" "Rec. Playback" options is available.

The Audio Setup can also find your audio recording sources and setup them up. To do this, open the Audio Recording Sources  drop-down list and select one of the audio sources listed. If no audio source is detected, make sure they're not disabled.

Dual Audio Recording

The Dual Audio option can be used to record a second audio source in addition to the speaker sound. In most cases, this will be an internal or external microphone. This feature is only available on Windows 7, 8, 10 and Vista computers.

To enable Dual Audio recording, follow the steps bellow. Your microphone or other external source must be set up as the Default Device in Windows Recording devices (right-click the speaker icon in the task bar, then click Recording Devices or click Replay Video Capture - Tools / Audio recording options - Open Windows Sound  to access Windows audio settings). Here is how to set up Dual Audio Recording:

The Mute/Unmute  feature can be used to mute/unmute the microphone. Muting the microphone is sometimes necessary in order to avoid the echo feedback between the speakers and the microphone. When enabling this option, a hotkey can be selected to mute/unmute the microphone and a small microphone button is shown on the main screen. In order to enable the mute/unmute option, the microphone should be set as the Default Device. Click Tools / Audio recording options / Open Windows Sound  to access Windows audio settings.

dual-audio

Recording Games

Replay Video Capture can be used to capture games played in Windowed mode. The Windowed mode offers several advantages (see https://hubpages.com/games-hobbies/Complete-Guide-On-Window-Mode-How-To-Play-Games-Windowed) and recent polls show that 69% of gamers prefer to use Windowed mode. Replay Video Capture is particularly useful for recording games due to its high speed and low CPU consumption, high quality and lower size of the recorded files.

To automatically set up game recording, click Settings  / Recommended Settings  / Games. The hotkeys dialog will pop up so you can select the Start /Stop  recording hotkey. In addition, you may want to select the option "Show a "Close" button..." if the game takes ownership of the keyboard. This allows you to stop recording before closing the game.

On Windows 8/10, try using the Background mode, which allows recording at higher frame rates (if the game allows it).

Once you've set up the preliminary parameters, open Replay Video Capture first, start playing the game, and then use the hotkey or the Record button to begin recording.

Recording Webinars and Documents

Normally, you should use the Windows Media  format to record webinars. In the Recommended Settings  dialog select Full Screen Webinars - Browser Windows (WMV).

webinars

Alternatively, use the Full Screen Video Webinars (MPEG-2) preset.

webinars-1

If the recorded file size is important use Windows Media Screen video format or select Webinars, Slide Shows, Documents (WMV Screen) from the recommended settings.

The recorded file sizes are much smaller when using Windows Media Screen but this video format can only be used for recording low motion videos, slide shows or documents. Browser windows and PowerPoint  presentations can also be recorded this way.

Prevent the Computer from Going to Sleep

To prevent the computer from going to sleep while recording, enable the Keep Alive  option in Settings - Tools and select the Keep Alive option.

In the event of a program crash, please check your regular Windows Sleep/Monitor settings.

Recording High Definition Videos

High definition videos (HD) involve display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels (720p) or 1920×1080 pixels (1080i/1080p). Replay Video Capture can record these resolutions provided that your computer has sufficient speed and memory. Usually, a dual-core 2.4 GHz / 4G RAM should be able to handle the 720p requirements. Use MPEG-2 video format (not DVD), 8000 kbps or higher video bitrates, and 192 kbps audio bitrate.

hd-video

For one hour or more recordings, expect the file sizes to be in excess of 4 GB.

Recording to DVDs

Replay Video Capture can create ISO files, which can be easily burned to DVD using Windows 7,8,10 DVD burning options or any DVD burning program such as Replay Converter. To record a video in DVD format, do the following:

dvd

Here are some tips on creating the best quality DVD files:

You need to make sure that your computer can sustain a recording frame rate of at least 29.97 for NTSC, 25 fps for PAL. XP dual-core computers with CPU speed of 1.8 GHz or higher can easily do this. However, on Vista and Windows 7, you should allow Replay Video Capture to set the Windows Basic  theme or set up Windows to "Best Performance" mode instead of "Best Appearance" as shown under Video Capture Options. 

To check if the DVD frame rate can be sustained, make a short two minute recording, use DVD video format, 6000 kbps, 29.97 fps, 720x480 size.

When recording, Replay Video Capture shows the actual achieved frame rate next to the preset rate in the Status window. Make sure the actual frame rate does not go lower. If that happens consistently, you can still record DVDs but the video quality may not be as good, especially for high motion scenes.

To maintain a reasonable frame rate of at least 20 fps even on slower computers:

WM Browser

WM Browser is a reduced version of Internet Explorer. You can use this browser to record videos that cannot be recorded from the Internet Explorer browser window. This situation occurs with some Windows 8/10 versions of the Microsoft browser, especially when the Background mode is used.

To open WM Browser, click Settings -  Tools - Browser Selection (for Background mode) - WM Browser.

Slate / Tablet Mode

As of version 8.8, Replay Video Capture is compatible with Windows 2-in-1 devices and will automatically detect when you're in tablet mode. When switching to Slate/Tablet mode, the user interface is increased by 20%. However, this is customizable in the Settings so that you can scale to a larger or smaller size if you wish.

Here's how to use Replay Video Capture in Slate/Tablet mode:

  1. Open Replay Video Capture from your tablet's taskbar. Replay Video Capture will open in full-screen.
  2. Open Settings > Hotkeys , then check these boxes:
    1. Hide Replay Video Capture window when recording.
    2. Show a Close button when hiding Replay Video Capture  (this should select itself automatically)
  3. Close Settings
  4. Tap and slide slide the top of the Replay Video Capture main window and move the entire window as much as possible to the right-side of the screen. This makes room for the window that will be recorded on the left.
  5. Open the video window that you'll be recording from. Select the Get Video button in Replay Video Capture to automatically find and mark the video window. Then select the Record  button to start recording. The Replay Video Capture application is now hidden.
  6. At the bottom right corner of your screen a blinking button will appear. Tap this button to end your recording.

How to Capture a Video Frame (snapshot)

With Replay Video Capture, you can capture a frame on screen as an image file using the Still button. Here's how:

  1. Play your video, and make sure the Replay Video Capture markers surround the area you'd like to capture. If the Full Screen button is checked in Settings , the entire screen will be
  2. Click on the Still The screenshot will be saved.
    still
  3. To open the saved image file click View / Options / Open Still image folder.

Note: You can also save a screenshot while you are recording.

How to Schedule a Recording

You can make Replay Video Capture open a Web page or a program and start recording automatically at a set time or according to a schedule. Here's how to do it:

  1. Click Settings - Tools and select Scheduler , then click on Open Now. The Scheduler will appear:

    scheduler

  2. Within the scheduler you"ll see these options: 

    File Name: What name to use when saving the file. 
    URL / File Path:  What URL to open if recording a video from the web (make sure the video window coordinates did not change). If no URL is entered, Replay Video Capture records the image or video from the screen at the given coordinates. 
    Program Name:  the browser name to open (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, etc.) or the full path of an EXE file to open if recording from a Windows application (for example C:\Program Files\wmplayer.exe for Windows Media Player). If no name is entered, the default browser will open the URL. 
    Window Position:  The coordinates of the window to record from (top, left, bottom, right). These coordinates are the coordinates saved by Replay Video Capture prior to opening the scheduler. They are transferred to when opening the scheduler from Replay Video Capture. 
    Start Time:  The time of day to start recording. 
    Duration:  How many hours, minutes and seconds to record. 
    Date:  Pick the starting date for recording. 
    Daily:  Pick the days of the week to record regularly broadcast programs. Select Once if you want to schedule a single recording. Pick Daily if you will be recording seven days a week.
  3. The Scheduler also has these action buttons: 
    Enable: Start running the scheduler so that scheduled items are recorded. 
    Disable:  Stop recording scheduled items. 
    Save Schedule:  Save your scheduled item.
    View Scheduler:  View all scheduled items. 
    Test URL:  Open the URL to make sure the program to record you want appears. 
    Set Current Time:  Insert the current time and date into the scheduled time window.
  4. To schedule a recording, set the Start Time , the Duration and a file name for the recorded file. Then click Save Schedule.

Multiple recordings can be scheduled but the recording times cannot overlap.

How to schedule a recording from the browser

  1. Open Replay Video Capture, open the website you want to record, run the video and mark the recording area (use Get Video or Mark Video Window functions) - the recording coordinates and window size will be displayed in the Replay Video Capture window.
    marked-video
  2. Open the Scheduler (click Settings, Tools, Scheduler, Open Now). The screen coordinates will be displayed in the Scheduler under Window Position.
  3. Copy the web page address from the browser address bar to the Scheduler URL/File Path. Now you can close the browser. If you want to keep the browser open waiting for a browser event in the same window, leave the URL/File Path blank (don"t copy the browser URL).
    scheduler-url
  4. Set the start time, the duration, and the Repeat Mode then click Save Schedule. When asked, click Enable Scheduler or, if you're scheduling multiple recording, click when you've finished scheduling all of them.
    set-schedule

If the start time is behind the current time the recording starts immediately.

If a web page address is used (http:// or https://) and the Program Name field is blank, the scheduler opens your default browser.

If you want another program to be opened, you can enter the full path or the Windows name of the program under Program Name. For example Chrome, Firefox or the full path of a program.

Note:  If the saved screen coordinates are the coordinates of the recording window, not the entire browser window, don"t change the browser position and size. 

Opening the scheduler

Open Replay Video Capture Settings - Tools  and click Scheduler  then click Open Now. When the scheduler opens, the file name and the screen coordinates are shown on the scheduler main screen.

Files with the same names are not overwritten. The prefix [1],[2]"will be appended to the filename.

If there are recordings already scheduled when the Scheduler opens but none of them are within the recording time frame (start time > current time < end time) the scheduler enters the "waiting" state waiting for a scheduled recording to trigger. If one of the scheduled recordings is in this range, the scheduler enters the "counting" mode counting the time to finish recording. In this case, Replay Video Capture begins recording until the end time is reached. 

Enabling / disabling the scheduler

The scheduler can be enabled/disabled from Replay Video Capture Settings - Tools - Scheduler.

You can choose to "Open when Replay Video Capture starts ". When this item is checked, Replay Video Capture opens the scheduler at startup and automatically start/stop recording at the scheduled times. If this option is not enabled, Replay Video Capture will not record any scheduled events unless you manually open the Scheduler.

You can also use the Windows Scheduler  to open Replay Video Capture if Replay Video Capture is closed. 

Scheduling multiple recordings

Multiple recordings can be scheduled however the recordings cannot run simultaneously. 

Changing / deleting schedules

Open the Scheduler and click View Schedule.

view-schedule

In the dialog window that opens right click a scheduled recording name and select Change  or Delete  from the pop-up menu. 

Using the scheduler file

You can change the file name as you wish. However you must be careful not to change its format. To open the scheduler file, click View scheduler/Open file.

Playing your Recorded Videos

Once you've finished recording, you can see the last recorded video by clicking Play.

view-recordings

To see all your recordings, click the View  button. The View screen will appear:

Double-click a file to play it, or right-click on it to play, rename, delete or convert the recording.

You can choose your default player by clicking on the Default player link and selecting the app of your choice to play the videos.

Note:  On some systems, you may need to use the supplied MPEG-2 player instead of Windows Media Player or other players that may be set up to play MPEG files in your computers. Right click the file name and select Open MPEG Player in the pop up menu.

Adjusting the Volume

The volume of recorded file can be adjusted using the Volume slider. When the Stereo Mix type audio source is used, the recording volumes as well as the audio volume of your computer are adjusted. When audio is recorded using the Sound-Capture  option (available for Windows 7,8,10 and Vista), the slider adjusts the recording volume from zero to the computer volume level.

Thumb Drive Mode

When you enable the Thumb Drive mode, you can record from a USB drive without the need for another installation. To enable the Thumb Drive mode follow the steps below:

  1. Click the question mark (Help) in the Replay Video Capture window, then click Enable Thumb Drive mode. The external drive installation dialog will open.
    • Insert your thumb drive and click DRIVES,  find the drive, then select it and click Install.
      thumb-drive

Replay Video Capture will install a folder called "Replay Video Capture" and the shortcut "Replay Video Capture shortcut" on the root of the drive. If your program is registered, the registration code is also installed on the thumb drive.

To run the program, plug the thumb drive into any Windows computer and double-click the "Replay Video Capture shortcut". The recorded files will be saved in the Replay Video Capture\WMC Recordings folder on your thumb drive. 

Note:  If you want to record high quality videos, you may need to have a higher speed and higher capacity drive. In this case, it may be better to use external hard drives instead of thumb drives due to their higher speed and storage capacity.

Help Menu ("?") Guide

help-menu

This section describes the Help Menu ("?") menu.

Quick Guide: here you can access the Replay Video Capture quick start guide.

Switch to Background Mode/Screen Capture: use this option to switch between the Background and Screen Capture modes without having to restart Replay Video Capture.

Monitor Select and Scaling: use this option to select the monitor you want to record from and scale the recording.

Replay Video Capture screen size: adjust RVC's screen size.

Restore initial settings: restore RVC's default settings and undo any changes you made to the setup.

Check recording: use this option to configure and record a test recording.

Help / customer support: access the support area on Applian's website and get in touch with Customer Support.

What's new in this version: read the release notes for your installed version of RVC.

Enable Thumb Drive Mode: use this option to enable or disable the Thumb Drive mode.

Settings Guide

This section is a reference for the Settings dialog:

Recommended Settings:  Use this button to automatically configure Audio Settings and Video Settings for the desired type of screen capture, optimal PC characteristics, and desired output quality.

Audio Settings:  Set the Audio Bitrate  for the recorded audio. In general, 128 Kbps is fine for most recording, but higher bit rates are better, especially when music is involved. Click Audio Setup  to manually set the audio driver to be used for recording as well as the dual audio recording (if necessary).

Video Settings:  Choose the Video Bit RateFrames per second , and Video Format  (MPEG-2, MPEG-4 or Windows Media). The Recommended Settings  button will do this for you, but you can manually adjust these parameters if you"d like.

Recording Options:

Recording File Size / Time:  This lets you limit the time or file size for your recordings. Handy for unattended recordings.

Video Capture Options:  Click Video Capture Options  from the top menu in Settings to access this.

The Enhanced video  mode includes enhanced recording features like dual monitor, pause, video preview.

Basic video  is provided for compatibility with previous versions of Replay Video Capture.

Video Preview  " when this button is checked, a small video window on the main screen shows what is being recorded.

The Resize video  option can be used to resize the recorded video and is available only with MPEG-2 video format. Please note that not every width/height combination is accepted.

The Set Markers  option can be used to fix the recording area to a certain width and height. 

The Tools  menu:

Troubleshooting

If you're having trouble using Replay Video Capture, follow these troubleshooting tips to fix common problems.

Marked screen region not detected

Marked coordinates are out of the current monitor area. This could be happening when a second monitor is used but is turned off. To fix the problem, disconnect the second monitor, select Monitor #1 in the Settings and reset the screen coordinates (under Settings - Tools - Video options - Reset markers). 

Video quality is choppy

To get the best quality video - especially on slower machines - try the following:

  1. Go to Settings , and make sure you are using the MPEG-2 video format.
  2. On Vista and Windows 7, use theWindows Basic  theme, the Background  mode or the "Best Performance" mode instead of "Best Appearance" mode. The Windows Basic  theme is the default setting for Replay Video Capture. To change Windows performance mode, open Settings - Tools - Windows Best Performance. On Windows 8, try to use the Background
  3. Try recording from a smaller video window by resizing your video to about 1/3 of your screen (usually 640x480 or 1280x720 pixels) instead of using the full screen. In most cases, this won't affect the video quality because the original videos are scaled UP from smaller sizes to fit a full-screen picture. Smaller-sized video screens require less computer power to capture, which will result in smoother videos.
  4. Use a lower frame rate, for example 20 fps or even 15 fps. 

I'm having trouble recording audio (see Settings / Help / Audio Troubleshoot).  The recorded video is all black or white

This occurs when a media player or a browser uses exclusively GPU (overlay) playback. The now obsolete Internet Explorer may be doing this, in which case you should use a modern browser - Chrome, Firefox, Opera  or the WM Browser  that's installed with Replay Video Capture.

If this happens while recording a DVD, use a DVD player that plays DVDs without using hardware acceleration (for example, VLC Media Player with disabled hardware acceleration).

On Windows XP, disabling hardware acceleration should help. Here's how to do it:

  1. Right-click on your Windows desktop and select Properties.
  2. In the Display Property window click Settings, Advanced, Troubleshoot.
  3. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to NONE.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. Click OK in the message box displayed by the video card.
  6. Click OK to exit

I can't play MPEG-2 files created by Replay Video Capture

Some older versions of Windows Media Player cannot playback MPEG-2 files. In this case, use VLC media player or any other modern player.

MPEG-2 video sizes are half the recorded size when played with Windows Media Player

This happens when MPEG-2 files are played with some versions of Windows Media Player. Use a different media player (VLC for example). 

I'm not able to play DVD's any more since installing Replay Video Capture (some XP computers).

On XP computers, Replay Video Capture disables video acceleration for Windows Media Player when it's installed. This is required for capturing the screen section where Windows Media plays the video. Otherwise, the recording will show a black window. This feature can be activated or deactivated in Replay Video Capture's Settings - Video Capture Options by unchecking the "Enhanced video settings" check box.

I get a "Cannot Run Graph" error message

This error can also indicate a failure to set up recording. Some of the reasons this error occurs are listed below.

I get a "Cannot install ... filter" error

This error indicates that the screen capture codec was not installed in your computer. In some rare instances this may be the result of very restrictive security software not allowing ActiveX components in your system. However this problem can also occur on some custom Windows installation (especially Windows 7). Make sure the file regsvr32  located in the folder C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and the regsvr32 file located in C:\Windows\System32 have the same version.

I get "Recording error (x013). Replay Video Capture will close now"

This error indicates that recording could not be started in less than 20 seconds for an unspecified reason. Most of the time this occurrence shows that your system cannot handle the specified frame rate and/or the size of the recorded video window. Lower the frame and/or the size of your video. Also, disconnect the second monitor and use Windows Media video format. Another reason may a marked area that exceeds your monitor resolution.

Audio out of sync

This could happen if the selected frame rate or the video window size are too high.