Applian Technologies Support Desk

Overview
Installation
Make a Simple Two Clicks Recording
How to Screen Capture videos and documents
The Background mode
Marking a recording region
Setup hotkeys and hide modes
Monitor scaling
Recording games
Dual audio recording
Recording webinars and documents
How to Set up WM Capture
Prevent computer from going to sleep while recording
Recording high definition videos
Recording to DVD Files
How to Capture a Video Frame
How to Schedule a Recording
Playing your Recorded Videos
Adjusting the Audio Volume
Thumb Drive mode
WM Browser
Settings Guide
Troubleshooting

Overview

Welcome to WM Capture, the on-screen video recorder specifically designed for high-speed video capture.

WM Capture is especially well suited for recording:

• Movies and Video Shows
• HD / Full Screen Movies and Videos
• Video Games
• Webinars
• Skype
• Streaming Web Cams and Video Chats
• Video Messengers
• Power Point presentations and documents
• DVD’s
• Any other video you can’t otherwise capture.

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

Game Recordings
When playing games in Windowed mode WM Capture can record your game with little or no impact on game quality and frame rates. Recording of Full HD game windows (1920×1080) is equal or better than recording in Full Screen mode even on computers that don’t use video cards (Windows 7/8/10 running on Intel HD Graphics or higher versions CPU’s).

Background Recordings
Background mode is a unique feature introduced by WM Capture. This mode allows capturing videos from your screen in the background  such that the recording video doesn’t need to be visible. The video can be covered by other windows without obscuring the recording. This allows you to use the computer screen for doing other things while capturing videos.
Silent operation (Thumb Mode)
This is another new, unique feature introduced by WM Capture. When you enable the Thumb Mode you run the program from a USB drive without the need for another installation.

Convenient
To make it easy to capture a video WM Capture can often automatically locate the region of your screen where video will be played. Or, you can choose to mark an area of the screen manually. Either way, setting up your recording area is a snap.

System Requirements

• Windows 7, 8 10, (Windows 8/10 Desktop mode), Windows XP-SP2, Vista, Mac (with Bootcamp or Parallels installed)
• CPU Speed: 2.0 GHz dual core recommended, 2.8 GHz single core
• RAM memory: 512 MB or higher
• Recommended with XP Computers: Sound Card with a recording line (Stereo Mix, Master Volume, Wave Out Mix, What U Hear or similar)
• Recommended for HD/Full Screen recordings i5/i7, Intel HD Graphics CPU

(see also the Quick Guide under Settings/Help)

Installation

WM 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)

• Open WM Capture
• Begin playing a motion video
• Click Get Video to automatically find and mark the video on your screen
• Click Record

Notes:
If you’re running Windows 7/Vista – when opening WM Capture your desktop theme is changed to Windows Basic. The Basic theme greatly enhances the performance (speed) of your system. Your current theme will be restored when WM Capture closes.

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 and documents

First, you need to mark a region of the screen to record as a video. Then, you can start, stop or pause recording.

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 640×480 or 720×480 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 WM Capture uses less CPU power, and 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, a simple rule is to make the recording window not bigger than 1/3 of your screen area (640×480 or 1280×720). If you’re recording a large window located inside the browser you can use the ZOOM function (Ctrl -) to lower the size of the browser and the recording square.

Changing Windows 7 or Vista desktop theme

WM 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. The result is a much improved video capture of your screen. The initial theme is restored when WM Capture closes. We highly recommend using this feature. If you want different options open Settings, Tools, Setup Windows theme. Note that Windows Basicfeature 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.

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 WM Capture Tools / Windows Best Performance.

Marking a Recording Region

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

WM 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 WM Capture main screen.

WM 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 play the video before using Get Video.

You can also mark a video window manually as follows:

1. Click Mark Video Window. A semi-transparent window is 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.

Marker Mode

This mode displays two markers which can be manually dragged from WM 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 from it. Here’s how:

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.

On Windows 7, Vista and XP computers WM Capture main screen is invisible to 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 WM Capture is open (see below the Hotkeys section). Click Settings, Hotkeys on WM 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 then 20 frames per second (fps). During recording the preset and actual frame rates are displayed on WM 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 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 is saved.

The Background mode (BCK)

Background mode is particularly useful in the following situations:

• on Windows 8 considerable higher frame rates can be obtained and larger video windows can be recorded
• you can use the screen to run other programs while recording without obscuring the recording area

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 like 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 restart.

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 is now recorded and a small Preview window appears on WM Capture main screen showing what is actually recording. A black, white or a still image in the Preview window signifies that the Background mode could not be setup and WM Capture fails to record (see Troubleshooting below).

Open another browser or program while recording
Click Browser on WM Capture main screen to open another session of your selected browser or open another program. The marked, recording video continues to record even though it may be covered by the new 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

• Background mode is particularly useful when recording large or full screen windows or when you need to use the screen to do other things while recording. When recording full screen windows from browsers start recording after the window is set to full screen. In this way the proper window name is detected.

• The recorded video is all black, all white or shows a still image. Some versions of Internet Explorer may be doing this in which case you should use a different browser – Chrome, Firefox, Opera or WM Browser which is a reduced version of Internet Explorer installed with WM Capture.

• The message “No window selected for Background recording” is displayed. In this case there may be no visible window except the desktop on the screen. If a window is present, click the caption (top) bar of the window or restart WM Capture (don’t click the main screen until the recorder is ready).

• The window name was not detected and no message is displayed. This could happen if you switch the video to full screen while WM Capture is recording. You need to start playing the full screen video first then click the Record button if WM Capture main screen is visible or use the Start Record hotkey to begin recording.

• The recorded video rectangle is shifted upwards. In some cases the recorded video rectangle has an offset equal to the size of the taskbar. You need to move the entire marking rectangle upwards by the same amount. Use one of the options Move DOWN or Move UP under ?(Help)/Background mode.

• Use the Show/Hide button on WM Capture main screen to Hide or Show the recording window.

• Avoid to have multiple windows opened.

• WM Capture main screen is not visible in recording even if it overlaps the recorded video window.

Setup hotkeys and Hide modes

To setup the hotkeys and the hide mode click Settings / Hotkeys or Tools / Hide/Minimize WM 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 WM Capture main screen overlaps the recording area. Keep in mind however that on Windows 7,Vista,XP or when using the Background mode WM Capture main screen is invisible to recording so you may not need to use hotkeys.

When the Minimize option is selected, recording stops when WM 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 WM Capture window.

Monitor Scaling

In some cases your monitor resolution or text size may be scaled up (125%, 150%, etc). HD displays (1920×1080) 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. WM Capture will automatically rescale the screen coordinates.

Use Control Panel / Monitor select and scaling 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 expirements. 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 WM Capture

For regular PC recordings there is no setup required. Using the default video format you 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 WM Converter to convert to MP4/iPod/iPhone formats.

Click Settings on WM 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:

Video/Audio Settings

To make subsequent changes, just click the Settings button. The Settings dialog appears as shown below.

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

Frames/sec (fps): the higher this number the smoother motion quality especially for high motion videos. Note however 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 WM 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

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

Here are the video options that can be selected here:

• The Enhanced video mode includes enhanced recording features like dual monitor, pause and video preview.
  
• Basic video is provided for compatibility with previous versions of WM Capture.
  
• Video Preview – when this button is checked, a small video window on WM Capture main screen 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

WM Capture will automatically setup the audio recording when installed. On Windows 7, 8, 10, 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 used.

If you’d like to record audio from the microphone or line in, open the Audio Recording Sources dropdown list and select the audio device.

Important Note: WM 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 the “Stereo Mix”, “Wave Out”, “What you Hear”, “Master Volume” “Rec. Playback” options if available. The Audio Setup can also find your audio recording sources and setup them up. To do this open the Audio Recording Sources dropdown 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 may 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 setup as Default Device in Windows Recording devices (right click the speaker icon on the task bar then click Recording Devices or click WM Capture Tools / Audio recording options / Open Windows Sound to access Windows audio settings). Here is how to setup Dual Audio Recording:

• In WM Capture Audio Settings Check the Sound-Capture then the Dual Audio checkboxes.

• In the Audio Sources drop down list that opens select a microphone source (internal or external).

• Click OK to exit.

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. ClickTools / Audio recording options / Open Windows Sound to access Windows audio settings.

Recording Games

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

To automatically setup the game recording click Settings / Recommended Settings / Games. The hotkeys dialog pops 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).

Once you made the preliminary setting, open WM Capture first, start playing your game then use the hotkey or the Record button to begin recording.

Recording Webinars and Documents

Normally you should use Windows Media format to record webinars. In the Recommended Settings dialog select Full Screen Webinars, Browser Windows (WMV). 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 Power Point presentations can also be recorded this way.

Prevent computer from going to sleep

To prevent computer for going to sleep while recording enable the Keep Alive option in Settings, Tools, Miscellaneous, Keep Alive. (In the event of a program crash please check your regular Windows Sleep/Monitor settings)

Recording High Definition videos

High definition video (HD) involves display resolutions of 1280×720 pixels (720p) or 1920×1080 pixels (1080i/1080p). WM 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. For one hour or more recordings expect the file sizes to be in excess of 4 GB.

Recording to DVDs

WM Capture can create ISO files which are easily burned to DVD using Windows 7,8,10 DVD burning options or any DVD burning program. To record a video in DVD format

• In Settings select the DVD format, TV standard and aspect ratio. The video bitrate is calculated to fit a 4 GB DVD in relation to the recording time specified.

• Start recording. When recording is finished click View then right click the recorded file name (file name extension must be .dvd.mpg – do not change this extension).

• In the pop-up menu select DVD then click Make DVD files. The authoring process begins. This makes the ISO folders and the VOB files. The DVD has chapters distanced every 10 minutes but no menus. Therefore the DVD begins playing when inserted in the DVD player.

• When authoring is Done click File on the “Make DVD files” window and select Open DVD folder. The two folders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS are the DVD ISO folders.

• Insert a blank DVD, open your DVD burner (for example Roxio), set burning type to Data or Data Disc, drag the two ISO folders in the burner window and begin burning the 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 WM Capture to set the Windows Basic theme or setup 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, 720×480 size.  When recording, WM 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 this 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:

• The recording video size must be smaller than 720×480 pixels or about 1/3 of your screen.
• Do not use the Full Screen videos. Always try to make the video window smaller.
• If the video plays in a web page use the Zoom function of the browser to make the web page and the video smaller.

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 version of the Microsoft browser especially when the Background mode id used. To open WM Browser click Tools / WM Browser.

How to Capture a Video Frame (snapshot)

With WM 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 WM Capture markers surround the area you’d like to capture. If the Full Screen button is checked in Settings, the entire screen is captured.
2. Click the Still button.
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.

1. Click Settings, then Scheduler from the top menu, then Open Now. The Scheduler appears:

2. Within the scheduler are 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 WM Capture records the image or video from the screen at the given coordinates.
  
• Program Name: the browser name to open (Firefox, chrome, iexplore, 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 program to open the URL is used (for example, your default browser to open web pages or files).
  
• Window Position: The coordinates of the window to record from (top, left, bottom, right). These coordinates are the coordinates saved by WM Capture prior to opening the scheduler. They are transferred to when opening the scheduler from WM Capture.
  
• Start Time: The time of day to start recording.
  
• Duration: How many hours:minutes:seconds to record.
  
• Date: Pick the starting date to record from.
  
• Daily: Pick the days of the week to record regularly broadcast programs. Select Once if you will be recording just once. 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.
  

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 web browser

1. Open WM Capture, open the web site you want to record, run the video and mark the recording area (use Get Video or Mark Video Window) – the recording coordinates and window size are displayed in the WM Capture window.

2. Open the Scheduler – click Settings, Tools, Scheduler, Open Now. The screen coordinates are 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).

4. Setup the start/end time and the Repeat Mode then click Save Schedule. When asked click Enable Scheduler or, if you’re scheduling multiple recording click when you’re finished.

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 WM Capture Settings 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 is 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, WM Capture begins recording until the end time is reached.

Enabling / disabling the scheduler

The scheduler can be enabled/disabled from WM Capture Settings. Click Scheduler then check or uncheck the item “Open when WM Capture starts”. When this item is checked WM Capture opens the scheduler at startup and automatically start/stop recording at the scheduled times. Otherwise WM Capture will not record any scheduled events unless you manually open the Scheduler. You can use the Windows Scheduler to open WM Capture if WM Capture is closed.

Scheduling multiple recordings

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

Changing / deleting schedules

Click View. 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 modify this file if you find it more convenient. 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 your last recorded video by clicking Play.

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

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

Click the Open Storage Folder menu option to open a file explorer window for your recorded video files.

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 setup 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 Win 7,8,10 and Vista) this 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:

• Click the question mark (Help) on WM Capture window then click Enable Thumb Drive mode. The external drive installation dialog opens.

• Plug your thumb drive and click DRIVES until your drive name is listed. Then select the drive and click Install.

WM Capture installs the folder “WM CAPTURE” and the shortcut “WM 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 USB and click the “WM CAPTURE shortcut”. The recorded files are saved on the folder WM CAPTURE\WMC Recordings located 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 regard it may be better to use external hard drives than thumb drives due to their higher speed and storage capacity.

Settings Guide

This section is a reference for the Settings dialog:

Recommended Settings: Use this button to automatically configure the Audio Settings and Video Settings for the speed of your PC 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 Rate, Frames 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 here if you like.

Recording Options:

• Record Audio: Turn on or off audio recording. This is useful for making “silent movies”.
• Record Video: Turn this option off if you want to make WM Capture into an audio-only recorder.
• Set Top Window: This lets you set the recording window on top of other windows and makes it invisible to recording if Windows Basic theme is used.

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 WM 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.

Tools menu:

• Setup Storage Folder: Choose the folder on your PC where recorded files are to be saved.

• Setup video detect mode: Use this option to setup video window detection mode (using the Get Video / Mark Video Window buttons and the semi-transparent marking window) or the two markers used in previous versions.

• Setup Windows theme: Use this option to setup the desktop theme for Windows 7 computers (use Windows Basic theme to increase the recording performance of your computer).

• Hide/Minimize WM Capture: Opens the Hide Mode dialog. This is useful to setup hotkeys and hide modes for recording full-screen videos or games.

• Scheduler: Opens the Scheduler. For instructions to use the Scheduler click the Scheduler tab then click Help in the Scheduler dialog.

• Keep Alive: use this option to prevent computer to go to Sleep or prevent screen savers to open while recording. The monitor is also kept ON until recording is finished.

• Installed Video Codecs: you can select an already installed codec from your computer (not installed by WM Capture).

• WM Browser: this is a reduced version of Internet Explorer which can be used instead when videos played by Internet Explorer or Edge browsers cannot be screen captured.

• Miscellaneous/Reinstall WM Capture codecs: use this option to reinstall WM Capture DirectX components.

• Miscellaneous / Video Acceleration: Use this option if you record Windows Media Player or Real Player windows on Windows XP. Otherwise keep this option unchecked.

• Miscellaneous/My registration: Use this option to check your current registration information.

Troubleshooting

Marked screen region not detected
Marked coordinates are out of the current monitor area. Maybe a second monitor is used but is turned off. Disconnect the second monitor, select Monitor #1 in Settings and reset the screen coordinates (under Settings, Tools, Miscellaneous).

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 Windows Basic theme, the Background mode or the “Best Performance” mode instead of “Best Appearance” mode.Windows Basic theme is the default setting for WM capture. To change Windows performance mode open Settings / Tools / Windows Best Performance. On Windows 8, try to use the Background mode.

3. Try recording from a smaller video window by resizing your video to about 1/3 of your screen (usually 640×480 or 1280×720 pixels) instead of using the full screen. In most cases this won’t affect the video quality (since the original videos are scaled UP from smaller sizes to fit a full-screen picture). This requires less computer power to capture, which will make for 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. Some versions of Internet Explorer may be doing this in which case you should use a different browser – Chrome, Firefox, Opera or WM Browser which is a reduced version of Internet Explorer installed with WM Capture.

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

On Windows XP you can disable “hardware acceleration” on your PC. Here’s how to do it:

1. Right click on your Windows desktop.

2. Select Properties in the pop-up menu.

3. In the Display Property window click Settings, Advanced, Troubleshoot.

4. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to NONE.

5. Click Apply.

6. Click OK in the message box displayed by the video card.

7. Click OK to exit

I can’t play MPEG-2 files created by WM Capture
Some older versions of Windows Media Player cannot playback MPEG-2 files. In this case use the VLC media 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 WM Capture (some XP computers).
On XP computers WM Capture disables the video acceleration for Windows Media Player when installed. This is required for capturing the screen section where Windows Media plays the video. Otherwise, the recording shows a black window. This feature can be activated or deactivated in WM Capture’s settings “Disable Video Acceleration” check box.

Here how to re-enable video acceleration in Windows Media Player (Windows XP):

1. Open Windows Media Player.

2. From the menu., select Tools, Options, Performance.

3. Move the “Video Acceleration” slider to Full and click OK.

I get a “Cannot Run Graph” error message
This error can also indicate a failure to setup recording. Some of the reasons this error occurs are listed below

• audio recording cannot be setup when different programs try to take exclusive control of the audio device.  In Windows 7/8/10 Sound dialog open the Advanced tab and disable the Exclusive Control.

• an audio source (like a microphone or Stereo Mix) is disabled

• video window size is too big or the video window extends on more than one monitor

• DirectX failure. You need to have DirectX version 9 or higher installed in order to run WM Capture. In order to find out what DirectX version you have click the Start button, type dxdiag in the Search box the hit ENTER. You can update your DirectX from Microsoft’s site here.

Try to run WM Capture again.

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). WM 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.