Windows Media Center black screen when trying to screen capture a demo

[MrWolf]

Hi gents,

Stupid issue really, pretty much nothing to do with Vox other than I'm trying to create a youtube video to promote Vox... but basically I'm trying to screen capture Windows Media Center and the playback of the video just goes black as soon as I switch to MCE. It doesn;t go black whilst I'm recording so it would seem it's an intentional block by Microsoft (I don't have the same issue with XBMC)

I've tried the following capture programs..

Sonne
Debut
Replay
Fraps

The only one that can capture it at all (but it's all jittery and disjointed) is Fraps.  But Fraps won't record me switching between programs so is no good anyway.

Why does the screen go black?  Is it Microsoft intentionally making life difficult?  I've googled for hours but I can't find anyone suffering the same issue.

I tried adding a registry DWORD (EnablePrintScreen) but that doesn't help.  I installed Shark007 free codecs and swapped everything away from Microsoft but that didn't help either.

I'm totally lost as I've seen people capture it so it has to be possible, but I feel like I've tried everything.

I can't see anything in NVIDIA Control panel that seems relevant, but I switched everything to "NVIDIA Settings" to be safe and the screen still goes black when playing back any capture of MCE.

Any ideas?

-P

[jitterjames]

I don't think it is necessarily intentional, but MCE takes total control over the screen when in full screen mode.  If it is possible to run it in a window you could try that and see if it makes a difference.  (alt-enter to switch to windowed mode?)

note: XBMC has two fullscreen modes (true fullscreen and fake) and in true fullscreen it may exhibit the same symptoms.

You could also try Camtasia to record.  It is pretty state of the art and though not free, they have a 30 day trial I think.

Other options (though not really very good) are to use a video camera or to use a special device which records from hdmi ($$)

[MrWolf]

Thanks mate, great advice as always.  I was aware it was the full screen that was causing the issue but running one or both XBMC or MCE in windowed mode spoils the demo as I'm trying to show how Vox can allow you to seamlessly switch from one program to another if you should prefer the PVR functionality in MCE to XBMC (as I do).  Using the windowed mode spoils the seamlessness and hence spoils my demo.

I shall give Camtasia a go.  Failing that I just found this off the back of you reminding me that the thing causing my issue is called "True full screen"... http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/19380/enable-full-screen-mode-in-media-center-without-trapping-the-mouse/

Maybe this program disables the true full screen aspect of MCE in the same way as you can with XBMC by default.  I shall report back shortly.

-P

[MrWolf]

I have no idea what I've done but it seems to be working just in time for me to go to sleep for work tomorrow

I shall have another pop at it tomorrow and it probably won't work again being as there's no rhyme nor reason to what I have done.

Camtasia didn't seem to work on its own, same issue as the other recorders (very nice though).

So I installed that Maxifier program and it does have some options that seem like they might help related to fitting the window to the screen rather than full screening it though I can't remember which option I'm currently using as it doesn't tick the option you've selected.

I also fear that if I close Media Center and reopen it that it won't automatically use maxifier in the correct setting, but I think for the purposes of the demo I can probably work around it.

Bonkers.  For anyone else scouring the web for a way of demoing media center in full screen I shall report back tomorrow when I've finally got it working properly.

-P

[MrWolf]

Yeah, so the black screen situation has been a total pain.  There is no easy way of sorting it for my purposes but for most people wanting to just demo Media Center at full screen 720p/1080p (or near as dammit) it can be achieved with the below workaround...

•   Download and install the Maxifier from the link earlier in this thread
•   Set your video capture software running
•   Run the maxifier and select "Full screen on Main screen"
•   Open the Maxifier again and go to options
•   In the adjust Window size option set the  "Bottom" section to a nominal value such as 5 (it won't even be noticeable in the results)
•   Press "Test" on that screen and it will open Media Center in non-true full screen and it is now capturable unless you move away from media center and come back to it at which point it loses its capturability

Right, on to editing and I can finally get another Youtube demo up.

Thanks again James.

-P