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BB FlashBack has two ‘record modes’ – two different ways of recording the screen.
Sometimes you might need to change record modes if you’re to get the best performance while recording. This article explains when you might need to do this and how to change modes. |
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| The Two Modes |
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GDI mode
This mode is a good all-rounder, and is selected by default. It is the only mode that can capture Vista's Aero graphics mode.
It is better than the capture driver at recording moving graphics, like a movie player, game or a Flash animation on a web page. Select GDI mode if you're recording any of these things – using the capture driver will probably produce a more 'choppy' or jumpy movie.
Capture driver mode
This mode works great at recording ‘standard’ windows applications. By ‘standard’, we mean programs like MS Word, Excel or Windows Explorer, where there’s usually not a whole lot of animation and moving images going on. The capture driver can record these at a high frame rate with very little impact on your PCs performance.
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| How do I change modes? |
- Go to the Record mode step in the Record Wizard or the Record mode tab in the Recorder Options window.
- Select a mode.
If GDI mode isn’t available for selection, this means that BB FlashBack has disabled it because your PC isn’t capable of running it at a high frame rate. If capture driver isn't available, the driver has failed to install - rebooting your PC may correct this.
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| Frame rates |
The frame rate of a movie is the number of images (or ‘frames’) shown in a second. The higher the frame rate, the smoother any movement will be.
You can set a frame rate when using GDI mode - the number of frames BB FlashBack records every second. A sensible value is set automatically, but if you find your PC slows down a lot while recording moving video in GDI modes, reducing the frame rate might help.
Change it on the Record Mode step of the Record wizard or the Record Mode tab of the Options window:
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| Recording Media Players |
Some applications, like media players, use hardware acceleration features of your video card to speed up drawing of graphics. BB FlashBack can't capture applications that use this feature, so you may see a blank rectangle in your recording where you expected to see some video playing.
Switching off hardware acceleration ensures that your recording will have everything as you saw it when it was being recorded.
BB FlashBack turns off hardware acceleration by default when recording with GDI mode. If need to keep hardware acceleration on, you can change this by going to the Record mode step in the Record wizard and unchecking the 'Turn off hardware acceleration while recording' box. |
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| If you upgrade your PC: |
When BB FlashBack Recorder runs for the first time, it tests your PC’s video capabilities and figures out which record modes you can use, disabling those that won’t run well.
If you change your video hardware and want to re-run the test, to enable GDI mode for example, go to the Record mode step of the Record wizard or the Record mode tab of the Options screen and clicl the 'Retest' button.
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