The best video codec for screen capture software (recording screencasts)

Phosphate · #1 06-14-2011, 02:45 AM

I am just wondering if there are more efficient and lossless codecs than the default MPEG-2 and Windows Media that come with WM Capture. Thank you.

I am a noob so please be kind

#2 06-15-2011, 12:36 AM

MPEG-2 and Windows Media are great for real time recording even on slow computers. I don't see much sense using lossless codecs. Even near lossless HUFFYUV and MOTION JPEG usually require a very fast hard drive or even a raid array.

If your computer is powerful enough, you may use an MPEG-4 AVC (h.264) video codec like free x264. MPEG-4 AVC is great because of hardware support in many devices including portable ones. And its quality is very good.

If you create videos for the web, then you may consider less popular VP8 .WebM videos. You may find these HTML5 WebM videos on youtube.

If your computer is not powerful enough, you may use 2-pass encoding:
http://stream-recorder.com/forum/sho...8&postcount=17

Note: It is always a good idea to experiment with different codecs and their settings to find the best codec for your needs.

adam07181 · #3 06-15-2011, 11:31 AM

Both AVI and WMV formats are fine for recording screencasts on a average PC.

#4 06-15-2011, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adam07181

Both AVI and WMV formats are fine for recording screencasts on a average PC.

AVI and WMV are containers. While few video codecs can be used in WMV files, lots of different codecs can be used in AVI files.

When you say that AVI is fine, it doesn't help at all.
Another problem is that that the AVI container is pretty old and should be avoided in many cases. MKV and MP4 containers are much better and are supported by many newer devices.

ccc · #5 11-19-2011, 04:06 AM

My interest is getting a fairly high quality, and file size isn't such an issue. Using Applian's Replay or WM Capture, I can use MPEG 2 up to 12000 bitrate (which is the top setting). Or I can use its MPEG4 codec, with MPEG-4 Visual format and codec MP43, which is set to 3000 bitrate by default (this cannot be modified).
With visual inspection of the results for one recording was similar. But if file size is barely an issue, would I be correct in thinking MPEG 2 is likely to give better results? THanks