Stepok Development

Some users asked us, is that possible to license SCREEN2SWF on flash disk? The reason they need install a screen recorder on a flash disk is, when they use public computer, they may need to record something they need.

The answer is no, unfortunately, for SCREEN2SWF. Because there will be license problem to do this, and there will be ‘can not run’ problem too when install it on a removable drive. But, there is a way to do it!

As you know, SCREEN2EXE is totally free software and we allow you use it for any purpose and install on any numbers of computers/devices. And it works well on a USB flash disk. So, it is possible to install a SCREEN2EXE on flash drive and share project file with SCREEN2SWF on a registered computer. Let me show you how to do it.

First, install SCREEN2EXE to a local folder. Then, copy the following files and folder on flash drive (you need to create a folder manually). Now you have a portable screen recorder that supports ‘plug and record’ on any computer.

After that you can uninstall the local SCREEN2EXE copy.

Next, you can connect flash disk to any computer, run SCREEN2EXE manually to record… But, remember to save the result to a project file (*.svp) instead of exe. And, please ignore the email dialog in first running; don’t leave your personal information on other computers.

Final step, when you come back to your computer where SCREEN2SWF is installed and registered. You open the project file to get everything you recorded. You can continue editing it and exporting it to any format you need. Easy, isn’t it?

After you upload your flash file (SWF file) to you server, this file is open for visit and that also means open to downloading. Every program has its copyright that nobody should use it without your permission. So, what if some visitors download your movie in SWF format and upload it to their website without your permission? Is that possible to control the copyright of your flash movie? The answer is yes, by using the ‘URL restrict’ function of SCREEN2SWF.

How it works?

After specify a domain or a segment of domain of your website URL, when the SWF file is load, the internal action script will check for the current URL where the SWF file uploaded. If it does not meet the condition you set, the flash will stop play and show an error message.

Let’s take a sample. You have a website A.com, now you make a tutorial movie named name.swf, you upload it to 

1) http://www.A.com/name.swf,

And you visitor can play it with this URL. Now assume you have set the restrict to ‘A.com’, when visitor X try to upload to his website with URL

2) http://www.B.com/newname.swf

The movie can not be play, because there is no substring of ‘A.com’ in the URL (2). Now you get the idea. But there is still some problem.

First, what if X change the file name to ’A.com.newname.swf’, and the URL turns to be,

3) http://www.B.com/A.com.newname.swf

Will, there is a substring of ‘A.com’ so will the URL works? Don’t worry, there is an option ‘in domain’ only for you to check on, (in default). That means the substring ‘A.com’ must exist in the domain part.

There is another issue, the movie with a URL restrict can not be played on local hard disk either. That means you can not preview it in local. I put it here to say, it is not a bug. And it also means your visitors can not download and play your movie to their hard disk.

You may ask “what if I authorize a website to use my SWF file? How can I remove the restriction?” Well, that’s easy if you have same your movie to a project file before. Load it, change the restriction to the website you authorizing, and export again. So the new movie can only played on the authorized website only.

[SCREEN2SWF]

We have updated the looking of annotation object in both SCREEN2EXE and SCREEN2SWF. Annotation is a very useful tool for a screen recorder to show visitors what happens now. Let’s compare the old version and current:

Change the color, font and transparent you can create more variants.

You can update your old *.svp projects by loading them, select each annotation object, and make some changing( to update the image ) in this new version.

[SCREEN2SWF/EXE]

There are tools that convert powerpoint to Flash files (*.ppt –> *.swf) in file level. But most of them can not combine you audio with the pages and readers have to click on each page for each step.

Now, it is possible to convert Powerpoint to flash with sound, and making it like a real speech. The trick is using SCREEN2SWF to just record them all.

When you present a presentation, we may take many rehearsals before real speech. When you are ready, you can run SCREEN2SWF, set it to capture all and ‘include audio’ from microphone. Then, open and play the powerpoint file and click ‘Start recording’.

Now, act as you are making the presentation to your audiences. When finished, press F10 to stop recording. You don’t need any editing before directly save it to SWF file. That’s all, a Powerpoint file now becoming a flash video with sound.

The following sample is a testing of this idea, BTW, SCREEN2EXE user can also convert powerpoint to a self-play exe file by same way.

This is good idea because now you have a file to share the presentation with your audiences and publish it on web for more visits.

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[SCREEN2SWF]

Although SCREEN2SWF already have a option in setup to prevent others use your movie outside your website.(The ‘URL restrict’ option), you may still need to add water mark to your movie.

A typical water-mark is to type on it a copyright text of your website. You can do this by add a ‘Annotation’ object, and set period to whole movie, set ‘Opacity’ and disable the cloud. Like this,

You can also use a advanced way of transparent image. First prepare a image with mask in tools like Photoshop. The format can be GIF or PNG which support transparent. The use ‘Image’ object instead of annotation. Like this,

A image with mask,(you can save it as GIF or PNG)

Insert as image for preview,

It is easy, isn’t it?

In this upgrading from v3.0 to v3.1, we have 3 major updates include,

First Support hierarchy structure of centralization servers. Build a log file network with multiple level to support thousands of terminals.

There is a figure to show the structure of Screen Anytime log network:

So, the folder&file structure on a center server will be more complex than before, (include local and remote, and remote include sub-servers, and so on …). So we provide a new interface to choose a computer on server edition, that is a list you ser can click on group or single computer.

Second, Optimize capture speed to occupy less CPU time. About 50-70% CPU load compare to precious version. This is great because in precious version, our customers complain that the server edition can only support recording 20-30 RDP sessions at one time, otherwise, the CPU goes 100% full. Now, it can support more after optimizing.

Last, fixed a bug cause black screen. This bug happens when user have tun setup but have not click on the new ‘Application’ page(a bug comes with last upgrade).

We have also optimized setup file to make sure user can directly upgrade without uninstall the old.

Registered user can download this new version from the link they get in email after purchased.

In SCREEN2EXE/SCREEN2SWF menu, there is a item ‘Save project…’. A project file contains all video, audio and objects in its original format and status. You can open it for editing again.

It is highly recommend that you save your work into a project file, for 6 reasons.

First, for next editing. If you can not finish your work or you may edit it in future, you have to save it to a project for next editing.

2, If we have a better upgrade version, you may open the old project and export your demo again for better performance.

3, A project file can be share between different editors. That allows more than one person work on same project.

4, There is a bug or question need our help? Send us the project file.

5, For backup purpose.

6, If you are using SCREEN2EXE which is free but not support flash, in case you will purchase SCREEN2SWF in future, and you don’t want to do your work again, you need a project file for saving your current work. A project file from SCREEN2EXE is compatible with SCREEN2SWF.

[Turbo Photo]

The new 6.5 version brings an upgraded ‘Noise Reduction’ function to Turbo Photo, and this is not the first time we optimize it. So, how it works? Will we upgrade it again in future?

This article will do some real testing of this new algorithm, and compare it to other 2 famous noise reduction software (These two software is the top 2 in noise reduction market, most professinals use them as plugins in Photoshop). We select 3 sample photos for DSLR and normal DC, cover different noise level to compare them.

Round 1 ，Nikon D3X ISO1600 Sample, Noise amount: 4 of 10

Area 1, Pure part

Area 2，3，Details

In this round, a DSLR sample photo with middle noise amount was selected. From the result we can find Turbo Photo and software A are very close in result. Software B seems add a post-sharpen processing to enhance the detail, that make the result sharper than original. In this round, Turbo Photo and A win.

Round 2，SONY DSLR-350, ISO 1600 Sample, Noise amount: 7 of 10

This is a photo with higher noise and dark area.

Area 1，Edges

3 Software remove shadow noise good. But comparing on the edge, Turbo Phot is the most clear one.

Area 2，Small details

Look at the vertical lines in central, the difference is obviously. The software A have lost some of the details by blurring the lines; the Software B keeps the lines but remains noise; Turbo Photo perform the best balance by keep details and remove noise.

Area 3，

Like area 1, Turbo Photo has its advance on keep edge smooth (compare the edge of ball). So the round 2 shows Turbo Photo is better than the other 2 software. Turbo Photo wins!

Round 3 ，Canon IXUS 950, ISO1600 Sample, Noise amount: 9 of 10

A non-SDLR DC has a smaller CCD size that may cause worse noise than DSLR. Most of them have a hardware-noise-reduction inside the camera. So the pattern of noise may different from original.

We find Turbo Photo treat the noise as normal details to keep, so the result in this round is not good anymore. The algorithm have still space to improve (and, of cause we will keep going!). In conclusion, for current version Turbo Photo, if you are using a DSLR, it will perform the best quality on Noise Reduction.

[Turbo Photo]

If you love a Flash movie on web, you may want to save it to disk for play in local. Some flash movie in SWF or FLV format can be downloaded as a file from internet and play again, but some of them are bind with the website domain that can only play on the site.

Is there a way to record flash movie just like record a TV program? The answer is yes by new v2.4 SCREEN2SWF software.

This new version SCREEN2SWF has optimized its speed of capturing, that generate more sooth recorded movie. The usage of it is very simple, run capture in ‘as fast as it can’ mode, and save result to AVI format. You may also need to change the sound record source to ‘Stereo Mixer’ to capture the movie sound.

The reason why here we choose AVI format as output instead of self-play exe or SWF is, the internal compressor of exe or swf format (SSCV2) works great for normal screen operation, but poor for video-like flash movie. And, AVI format is easy to convert to other formats include MP4, 3GP…that allows you play them on different devices include iPhone and PSP.

Here is a demo show “how to record movie sound by set ‘Stereo Mixer’ as sound inputting”. Some sound card may not support it.

And this is a demo that recorded to avi file. You need xvid codec to play it.

[A Demo AVI recorded by SCREEN2SWF ]

[SCREEN2SWF]