Cam Studio and Swish - Audio Recording

In various posts it has been mentioned that CamStudio can be used to make streaming audio and video.

I'm trying to use CS to make streaming audio,but it doesn't seem to work properly. It wants to record video at the same time.

Could you pleae explain to me the steps needed to have CamStudio record audio only from the speakers in a streaming swf.

Also.... when CS is finished making the swf and I loadMovie... what is the difference between loading the moving made from CS and simply place a "PlaySound" command on the timeline of an empty movie and then using a LoadMovie command to load that "Music"swf into the main movie. Is there a difference?

Thanks for your help.

Blessings

JWR

Hi,

First the swish part.
Swish cannot stream files and cannot import video.
If you import a streaming swf into swish it will not stream.
Most times it will not play. The same goes for streaming audio.
It's just not possible in swish.

Ergo you must use load movie.

Next the Cam Studio part.
Cam studio includes SWF Producer
Which will convert avi only to streaming swf.
You can find it in the program files
Start>Programs>Cam Studio>SWF Producer
Or you can open up Cam Studio and
Go to Tools>Swf Producer.

Frets

Frets,
Thank you for your note. I was taking it for granted that I would make a swf movie and using Load Movie command to load this swf made movie by Cam Studio into a Swish made movie in a level other than 0... perhaps level 1.

I have Cam Studio on my computer and have read your tutorial on Cam Studio, but am still a little confused. According to the Cam Studio help files Cam Studio will record avi- and audio from speakers and or a microphone as well...ie >options>video options>audio Options> ...using the options you mentioned in your post and including the aduio from the speakers would this make the audio streaming as well as videio in swf format- using eventually SWF Producer?

If that is possible, could I some how make a "dummy" video but include the aduio in the Cam Studio produced swf that would make it a streaming audio that could be loaded into a main Swish movie?

I'm not really sure if I'm explaining myself properly. But any suggestions you might have would be great.

Frets, thank you.

blessings

JWR

sorry Frets, I referred JWR here to you. I was under teh impression that CamStudio could record anything going through the sound card. Am I confused?

Please say I'm not wrong - I've told a LOT of people it could.... :crazy:

Hi DR,

Apparently it can. Here is the help file note on recording audio from the speakers:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++
Recording Audio from Speakers
(From the main menu, choose Options->Record audio from speakers)

By selecting this option, CamStudio will record the output from your speakers while it is capturing video. This is ideal for recording a gaming session or a movie stream. You will need a sound card with speakers attached to use this option.



Please note that not all soundcards support this function. (Most modern and branded soundcards usually allows you to record from your speakers)


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++

I was just wondering if there was a way around having to record avi at the same time?

Blessings
JWR

Just guessing, but maybe you could select the tiniest screen area possible? If you load the movie into a sprite, and the sprite is offstage, you won't see the video.

Unfortunately not
However,,,,,

You can select a small area of your desktop
for the cam part.

As well you can load movie into sprite
then move the sprite offstage.

Make sure to set mask offstage objects
That way your visual part of cam studio
won't be visible.

You can also resize the sprite and hide it behind
other objects (this isn't possible with levels only sprites)

Make sense?

Great minds think alike...

WooHoo! I type faster than Frets!!

Frets and DR,

That's a great idea. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

Am I correct in assuming if the videio made this way would be a streaming video via swf producer that also the audio would be a streaming audio as well?

Thanks

JWR

Yup.

Great!... Thank you again.

JWR

Just a point of clarificaton for my understanding.

If I do the streaming audio thing mentioned in the above posts and hide the video portion by hiding/masking as suggested.... and load this with a a Load Movie command in a main Swish movie.....

What is the essential difference in this and just making a separate movie in Swish (not using Cam Studio) - puting a play sound command on level 0 and then load this movie ... via a Load Movie command in the main Swish movie .... say in level 1 or so?

Did I explain this right? I know this may be a silly question, but Oh well.... I'd like to know the answer.

Thanks for you help.

JWR

Play sound in swish means
play the sound you have imported into swish.

Swish can't stream. so If your audio is large and
long it's going to be a long long wait to hear
the sound.

If all you needed was a soundbite from recorded
material
(lets say a quick hello spoken by you )
Then you could record via mic to your windows
sound recorder and save as wav.
Then import the wav into swish.

OK, That's good... Thanks Frets.

One last question.... DR

If I were to use a third party product like SWF Studio and use the FScommands associated with "Media" ie... "PlayMedia" etc and doing this without importing the sound directly into Swish .... would this give me the streaming audio effect without loading down Swish?

Thanks again.


JWR

The reason I'm asking these questions is because I'm working on a CD project that involves Swish Movies, but I wanted to include audion naration with them.... and wanted to know the best way to do this... without killing Swish or crashing the viewers computer.

Thanks

JWR

If your using swf studio you shouldn't need to stream
unless your building a desktop app that must connect
to the web.
When a file is stored on a cd it's all about the spin
rate of the cd.

If you are building a desktop app that connects to the
internet then, most likely it would have to be in
a stream friendly format.

Frets

Frets,
Thank you for the info and help.

Blessings

JWR

I agree completely.

You'll notice that as the filesize of the projector increases, so does the initial start time for the CD as a whole. Beware that this makes some users (my business partner, for one) think the disc is not working and eject it before it loads.

Use normal economies when adding the sounds, but using an external movie that is part of the .exe will not make a difference. The only way to do that is to make the sound .swf an external reference in SWF Studio. This will start the movie more quickly, but may cause the sound to lag.

You'll have to find the tradeoff.

The Autorun Reference Guide has instructions on how to test Autorun without burning CDs and will allow you to guage the approximate load time (because SWF Studio will still unpack and copy the project to the temp folder), but you'll need to actually burn a CD or two to test the actual time (spinning the CD up to speed takes a few seconds, depending on the drive). The actual time will, of course, vary from computer to computer.

If it's a problem, post a new thread and I'll tell you how to create a "preloader" for projectors.

Thanks DR,

I've read you projector article and it's excellant. I've found using Third Party projector software is they don't always work well with Swish when it comes to FSCommands via video/or ?Audio..... unless the Audio )for instance) in included in the projector. The problem is this will load down the users computer.

The audio timing is not critical since the project will invole naration. What I had in mind was this:

Main move = projector (SWF Studio) and making another movie called Nar1.swf.... using a FSCommand>LoadMovie>Nar1.swf in level 1 of the Main movie.

While the main movie is playing the naration can also play.

Now if I put this Nar1.swf in the same folder as the projector it should load withou having to be in the projector tree and thus will not heavily load the users computer. Since Nar1.swf is not the main movie I'm thinking/hoping that this might be a type of streaming audio.

If you have any further thoughts please let me know.

I would love to have you explain how to do a preloader as you suggested.

Sorry for the long post.

Blessings

JWR

The methods you are using will work, and that's the basic premise of a preloader for a projector - start with a smaller movie that loads an external movie from the CD.

Using streaming audio will help Swish lock the framerate, but from CD, you sould be able to just use normal Play Sound actions. It's less work and just as effective.

Also, use Swish's Load Movie action rather than using the FS Commands from SWF Studio. Once again, it's easier to test & edit, and is more reliable as far as upon which frame it begins.

Good Luck!

DR and Frets,

Thanks again for your help and advise.

JWR

Hi,
To record streaming audio on your computer, I'd like to recommend you this powerful Streaming Audio Recorder which can record any voice of computer and microphone. Also, you can capture desktop activities, create video tutorials, presentations and record game process with ease. And the recorded file is very good. You can try it for free, just download the free trial version. http://www.icoolsoft.com/guides/how-...ing-audio.html