The fast track to e-learning content: LECTURNITY, the award-winning Rapid Authoring Tool.
The high-speed, low-cost way to get your point across. To any audience you choose. LECTURNITY not only helps you deliver your lecture, it also turns it into multimedia e-learning content. Together with your PowerPoint slides, your handwriting, your personality. And why not add test questions, and interactivity? Once you’ve finished planning, disseminate your ideas efficiently — our rapid authoring tool gives you easy access to the latest media technology.
The number one choice of professors and professionals: Without it, a modern university would be unthinkable. And now, more and more companies are also discovering the advantages of LECTURNITY. Hardly surprising, when you think about it: this authoring tool not only helps you record lectures or presentations in no time at all, it also gets your interactive training courses up and running with maximum efficiency.
Video recording with LECTURNITY
On this page, you will find the most important questions on the subject of video recording. Customers can find more information in the CustomerServiceCentre.
Hardware
Question: What video hardware is supported?
Answer: Every Windows Driver Model (WDM)-compatible video source is supported.
Question: What video hardware is recommended?
Answer: For professional results in video recording, the following hardware is recommended:
- Video-Capture card for the PCI bus, such as the Osprey-100 by ViewCast,
- Analogue video camera, connected to the Capture card via S-VHS. Alternatively, the following combination has also been tested successfully:
- Digital (DV) video camera,
- Powerful computer with FireWire interface (also known as i-Link).
Please also note the hardware recommendations.
Question: How can I record video with my notebook?
Solution: There are several ways of recording video using a notebook and LECTURNITY:
- With a USB camera,
- With a DV camera and a FireWire interface,
- With an external capture device, such as the Osprey-50 by ViewCast together with an analogue video camera.
Please also note the page on hardware recommendations. The best results are achieved using a DV camera or an external capture device with an analogue video camera. For high-quality applications, the use of USB cameras is not recommended.
Support of different cameras
USB cameras
Question: Are USB cameras also supported?
Answer: USB cameras are also supported for video recording with LECTURNITY provided they are WDM (Windows Driver Model) compatible. This is the case for most cameras, such as the USB cameras by TerraTec. Please also note the hardware recommendations.
Please note, however, that with certain models of USB camera the transfer of data from the USB bus to the LECTURNITY Assistant takes up a lot of processor performance, so that optimal results cannot be achieved. This is also due to the restriction of the transfer rate for the USB bus, which is approx. 12mbps (slightly more than 1MB per second). This data applies to USB cameras in accordance with USB 1.1 specification.
DV cameras
Question: Are DV cameras also supported?
Answer: Yes, DV devices (digital video) are explicitly supported.LECTURNITY offers functions that enable DV data to be coded directly with any desired codec.
Video codecs
Question: What is a codec?
Answer: A codec (encoder-decoder) is a piece of software used to compress video data during recording and then decompress it again during play back. A video recording in LECTURNITY is always made in AVI format, but the video data in this AVI file is usually compressed by a codec.
A video compressed or recorded with a specific codec can only be played back on computers on which this codec is installed. Therefore, it is possible for a computer to be able to play back some videos in AVI format, but not others. You can't immediately tell which codec was used to compress an AVI file.
A video file can also be decompressed; in this case, the video data is saved directly in an AVI file. Such videos have a very high data volume (often many MB per second).
Suitable codecs
Question: What codecs work with LECTURNITY?
Answer: With the LECTURNITY Assistant, you can record videos with any desired Windows Driver Model codec installed under windows (WDM codec, in contrast to DirectShow codecs, which cannot be used with LECTURNITY). Please note that the same codec must be installed for playback. Please also note that not all codecs can be used with all input formats.
Available codecs
Question: How can I find out which codecs are installed on my system?
Answer: Under Windows, you must open the control panel ("Start", "Settings", "Control panel"). With Windows XP, the codecs are located under: "Sounds and Audio Devices", "Hardware", "Video Codecs", "Properties", "Properties"
Recommended codecs
Question: Which codec do you recommend?
Answer: For video recording with LECTURNITY, we recommended using codec iv50 (Indeo Video v5.10 or v5.11). This codec has a good compression rate (i.e. a good quality-to-file size ratio), is stable and, above all, is already installed on most computers. With Windows XP SP 1 however, it may be necessary to install the codec.
- Figure 1: Project settings, "Codec" tab
- Figure 2: Configuration dialogue box for the Indeo Video 5 codec
Tip: When using the iv50 codec, the "Quick Compress" mode setting is usually very important. Without this, real-time compression is not usually possible. Compression without Quick Compress is only possible on 1.4GHz computers or above (with a resolution of 320x240 pixels). To set this mode, proceed as follows: In the project options search for the "Codec" tab and then click on "Configure" (Fig. 1). Then check that "Quick Compress" is activated in the codec configuration dialogue box (Fig. 2).
Codecs that are not recommended
Question: Which codecs are not recommended?
Answer: Amongst others, we do not recommend the following codecs, as they are not powerful enough for real-time compression of video:
- cpak: Cinepak Codec by Radius Inc.
- msvc: Microsoft Video 1
- mrle: Microsoft RLE Video
This list includes codecs that are installed on every Windows operating system, but are only provided for compatibility reasons.
- Figure 3: "Format" button for setting the colour model and the frame rate
"Inteo Video"
Question: I cannot select the "Indeo Video 5" codec, even though it is installed on my system. Why? Generally formulated: Why can certain codecs not be selected even though they are installed on the system?
Answer: The "Indeo Video 5" (iv50) codec can only work with RGB data as the input data and not with streams coded in any other way, such as YUV or i420-coded video streams. Most video devices can output several formats; click on the "Format" button in the "Video" tab and select an RGB input format in the device dialogue box (24 or 15/16 bit RGB) (Fig.3). The video format selection is device-dependent and is not part of LECTURNITY.It can also be the case that other codecs will not work with other input formats. The known codec "DivX", for example, can process RGB data in 24 bit format as well as data in i420 format, but cannot format RGB data in 16 bit format (RGB555 or RGB 565).
DivX and LECTURNITY compatibility
Question: Can the "DivX" codec also be used with LECTURNITY?
Answer: Videos can also be recorded with LECTURNITY using the DivX codec.
As with all codecs, the prerequisite is that the computer is powerful enough and that the codec is configured correctly (quick compression). Please note that this codec must also be installed on the computers on which the video is to be played back. With a video size of 320x240 pixels, good results are obtained if DivX is set to around 250-400kbps and "1-pass Slowest Compression", especially with relatively static scenarios (such as presenter against still background). Please note that version 5.0.3 of DivX causes significant problems. If this version of DivX is installed on your system, you should install version 5.0.4 or higher. Please also note that videos created with older versions of DivX can usually be played back by a newer codec without any problems, but that this is not the case in the other direction.For example, videos recorded with DivX 5.0.5 cannot always be played back easily with lower versions of the DivX codec.
Subsequent change of a codec
Question: I have recorded a video with a codec that is not installed on the target computer. This problem can also occur if a hardware codec (such as MJPG [Motion JPEG] on some expensive capture cards) is used for the recording. Can I change the codec subsequently?
Answer: Yes. Using the LECTURNITY Editor, you can recode the video recording. Load the recording document into the LECTURNITY Editor, set the desired codec under "Export and preview settings", and then export the project into a new recording document. Please note that this process can take some time, depending on the size and length of the recording document. The video recording can also be recoded using other programmes, such as VirtualDub, which is available free of charge. First, the original file must be renamed and then the recoded version used in the presentation instead of the original. Please note that version 1.5.2 of VirtualDub is not suitable for recoding.
Digital video (DV)
The following section relates to questions that could occur if you use a DV device to record video with LECTURNITY.
Notes for recording with DV cameras
Question: What general notes must I take into account for DV video recording?
Answer: When recording video files using a DV camera, very large data volumes can occur. The DV transfer rate is 3.6MB/s. If you use a different codec than the installed DV codec, the DV data must first be converted into a more prevalent colour space before it can be compressed again. This is a very time-consuming operation. Therefore, your system must meet the following minimum system prerequisites:
- Fast CPU, such as Pentium 4, minimum 1.4GHz or similar (AMD XP1600+),
- Fast hard drive
- During recording, no other programmes should be running in the background.
- Only this will guarantee a fluid and uninterrupted video recording.
Type 1 and type 2 DV video
Question: What is the difference between a type 1 DV AVI file and a type 2 DV AVI file?
Answer: There are two ways of saving a DV video in an AVI file: Either you save the entire DV data in a single stream (type 1, media type ivas), or you split it into video and audio (type 2, media types auds and vids). For many programmes, including LECTURNITY, it is necessary to split the data. You can convert DV videos from type 1 format into type 2 format using an additional programme, such as the DV Converter by ULead. Then these DV videos can be imported into the LECTURNITY Editor without restriction.
General settings for DV recording
Question: I would like to use my DV camera to record a video to accompany a presentation, and then integrate it in LECTURNITY. How should I configure the LECTURNITY Assistant so that I can record DV video?
Answer: Please follow these steps to make a DV recording without any problems:
- Ensure that the DV camera is switched on (and integrated in the system) before starting the LECTURNITY Assistant; otherwise the device cannot be recognised by the LECTURNITY Assistant
- Activate the video recording by clicking on the "Record video" checkbox.
- By clicking on the "Settings" button you can change the settings of the DV device. Here, the "DV RGB Converter" is of particular interest: This can be used to convert DV data directly into an uncompressed (RGB) video format, so that any desired codec can be used for compression. You can choose four different video sizes here (see Fig. 4).
- Important: Remember to also activate recording on the DV camera before you start the LECTURNITY recording. Otherwise, the DV camera may switch off during the LECTURNITY recording (to save power).
- Figure 4: DV decoder settings
Troubleshooting for video recordings with a DV camera
If you have problems when using a DV camera with LECTURNITY, please check the following points:
- DirectX version: To ensure smooth recording of video in LECTURNITY with a DV camera, we recommend that you install DirectX version 9.0c or higher. DirectX 8.0 in particular can cause problems. With DirectX 8.0, some DV cameras are not automatically recognised by Windows, and therefore also by LECTURNITY.
- Driver: A DV camera does not require any drivers under Windows 2000 and Windows XP to work with LECTURNITY. If you have already installed drivers for the camera on your system and have problems during video recording, we recommend that you uninstall the driver.
- Enter fixed video offset: With the Sony Digital Handycam DCR-VX 1000E model, it has been reported that it is not possible to calculate a correct video-audio offset. You can download the latest DirectX by Microsoft here: DirectX by Microsoft.
Miscellaneous information on the subject of video recording
English dialogue boxes despite having the German version of LECTURNITY
Question: When I click on one of the "Format", "Source" or "Display" buttons for the settings of a Video-for-Windows video device, English dialogue boxes appear even though a German version of LECTURNITY is installed. Why does this happen?
Explanation: The dialogue boxes responsible for the video device settings are provided by the drivers of the video device. These are not directly part of LECTURNITY. If you have installed an English version of the drivers, the corresponding dialogues in LECTURNITY are also displayed in English.
Solution: Install German drivers for your video device.