Optimize Screen Capture
There are several factors that affect the performance of your encoding session. The following suggestions will help you in achieving optimal quality.
- Make sure you have adequate processor speed and available memory to encode a session. The minimum requirements are: Pentium II 450 MHz processor, Windows 98 Second Edition, 64 MB of RAM.
- Reduce the display size of your monitor if necessary (for example, from 1024 x 768 to 640 x 480), because the higher the display size, the more data the capture yields.
- Configure your monitor to use 256 colors or 16-bit color. Greater variations in color depth can cause difficulties in the compression process.
- Avoid capturing motion video, rapidly opening or closing windows, scrolling up or down a Web page, or similar kinds of excessive movement on the screen during the encoding process.
- Use a profile that has a low frame rate.
- If your computer is using a dual-monitor configuration, capture images only from the primary monitor.
Optimize Audio Capture
There are ways to improve the quality of the sound that you capture so that it will be clear when you play it on Windows Media Player. One way to improve sound quality is to try to eliminate background noise. Another is to use microphones properly. An echo-canceling headset microphone will give good results. If you use a clip-on type of microphone, face it away from clothing and do not place it too close to a speaker’s mouth. Holding the head of a microphone can also cause noise or feedback.
The Audio panel on the Windows Media Encoder user interface is useful for monitoring recording levels. It is helpful to keep the encoder maximized during encoding so that you can see whether audio levels are too soft (consistently in the lower part of the green zone) or too loud (consistently in the red zone) so that you can adjust microphone usage and recording volume accordingly.