Premiere & CamStudio solution +screen capture

Filed under obscure Windows reference, via Mathias Mohl on the AE-List...

Premiere Pro doesn't interpret the alpha of the CamStudio 2.0 screen capture codec well. CamStudio is a free screen capture tool; the codec is a recent update. Joseph Labrecque has a solution beyond transcoding in After Effects -- the LZOCodec works with Premiere CS3 once you disable the alpha channel. The LZOCodec can be found at http://usuarios.lycos.es/lzocodec/.

By the way CamStudio seems to perform better than Microsoft's free Windows Media Encoder 9 and of course is far cheaper than Camtasia. Sean Kennedy prefers Easy Video Capture, which can be found among his list of screen recorders for Windows.

On the Mac, it seems that Snapz Pro has competition from cheaper and more recent apps like iShowU, Screenflick, and Screenflow. Plus there's Mouseposé for cursors highlighting, overlays of keystrokes, etc., and a new Mac utility Layers, which captures windows as layers in a Photoshop file.

Update: A roundup of apps and browser tools can be found at Screen Capture Tools: 40+ Free Tools and Techniques.

Update 2: Here's another roundup of Window tools from April 2010 35 Irresistible Free and Commercial Screen Recording Tools.

iShow: $20 Screen Capture on the Mac

from Kingsley's Blog:

"I spied that this is what Mark Christiansen was using to record his FXPHD class on After Effects. It's only $20!" ...Shiny White Box's iShow: Screen Capture on the Mac.

Windows Media Encoder screen capture

The free MS app Windows Media Encoder can do screen capture -- just don't use VBR encoding. Black recordings mean you have to turn off DirectX overlays. In Windows Media Player, go to options >Performance >Video Acceleration>Restore Defaults.

The situation is similar in Real Player, in case you want to delay viewing of Harold Pinter's 2005 Nobel Lecture.

If you want to capture action going through Direct X or other Video Acceleration, you can record from the video out port of your graphics card or use Fraps, ACA Capture Pro, or similar utilities.

Erotic images can turn you blind

Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners’ calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents.

The new study by US psychologists found that people shown erotic or gory images frequently fail to process images they see immediately afterwards. And the researchers say some personality types appear to be affected more than others by the phenomenon, known as “emotion-induced blindness”.

http://www.newscientist.com