BB FlashBack - Support FAQ

Home / Products / BB FlashBack / Support
Support FAQ

When recording I see an error message referring to the BB Capture Driver.
This may be due to a corrupted install of the Capture Driver, which can be reinstalled through a repair program included with FlashBack. Please browse to your BB FlashBack installation directory and run the file "DrvInstaller.exe". From this program you can select "Uninstall BB Capture Driver" and then "Install BB Capture Driver" to reinstall the driver correctly.

Back to top

What affects the file size of my final movie file?
The file size of your FBR movie file is determined more by the content of your movie, rather than it's duration in time. A long movie showing only a static desktop is likely to be much smaller in size than a short movie containing numerous graphics and photos. Material which will boost movie size considerably includes photos, custom Windows wallpaper, website images, animations, scrolling windows and Windows graphics effects.

In BB FlashBack you can switch off graphical wallpaper and Windows graphics effects automatically while recording. These options can be found in the Recorder Options dialog, Graphics tab.

A soundtrack will also raise the final size of your movie. To reduce the size added by a soundtrack you should enable the "MP3 Compression" in the sound recording options (Recorder Options --> Sound tab) and import MP3 rather than WAV files when adding sounds in the Player application.

File sizes vary considerably when exporting to another (non-FBR) format. EXE format should be only 200-300K larger than the original FBR file. Flash format is often the next smallest. AVI and WMV files are often the largest format, although the codec selected when exporting is a major factor in determining the file size.

Back to top

When I replay my movie graphics or text are not displayed correctly or missing altogether.
If you are using a computer with more than one graphics card, you should go to the Windows control panel --> display --> settings tab --> advanced - and switch the primary graphics card to your other video card.

If you are using the capture driver to record (the default on Windows 2000 and XP PCs), you may see distortions upon replay if recording special technology such as Flash, Games, Movie Players, or if recording animating material. Another method of recording may better suit your needs. To change your method of recording go to the BB FlashBack Recorder Options --> Record mode tab, and select either "GDI" or "DirectX" recording. Try recording again with one of these modes to see if this removes the distortion problems.

Back to top

I cannot hear any sound when replaying my movie.
The first thing is to test whether sound is working in general on your computer. Try playing a sound file - if you can't hear the music file play, then your system probably hasn't got sound correctly configured.

If you are using your PC microphone to try and record sound, a good test is to run the standard Windows' Sound Recorder program to try and record and replay a test. If you cannot hear the test, it is likely that your PC is not correctly configured to use the microphone as a sound recording source. You may need to change the sound source or increase its volume. Do this via the Edit ' Audio Properties menu item in the Windows Sound Recorder. Select the correct sound device for sound recording and ensure that its volume is adjusted ok by recording and playing back a voice recording.

By default you can find the Windows' Sound Recorder program under Start menu --> Programs --> Accessories --> Entertainment.

If you know that sound is correctly installed on your computer, please go to BB FlashBack Recorder --> Options --> Sound tab and check that the "enable sound recording" option is switched on (if switched off no sound will be captured when recording a movie). If this setting is enabled then you should see a button marked "Set...". Press this button to display a list of all the sound channels installed on your computer. The channel checked with a tick is the channel captured by BB FlashBack upon recording, which can be changed by selecting another checkbox. This will ensure you don't have a situation where BB FlashBack is capturing your microphone when you are trying to record your system sounds.

Back to top

I cannot update my copy of BB FlashBack with the check for updates wizard.
Firstly, please check that your computer has a working internet connection. You can test this by trying to open a website in your web browser. The updates wizard should report an "error during check" if you do not have a working internet connection.

Serial keys are checked upon using the check for updates wizard. If you are using a shareware version of BB FlashBack within the 15 day trial, an extended trial key, or a full key after purchasing - then your key should be accepted. If our server does not have your key listed the update wizard will report "Licence key not recognised". If you see this error message please contact us for assistance.

There is a known bug in the check for updates wizard when updating from version 1.3.x to 1.4.X. In this case, an update will be detected and downloaded, but you will be continually prompt to close the BB FlashBack Player - regardless of whether it is actually running or not. To solve this issue please download and install the latest version of BB FlashBack from here: BB FlashBack download page

Back to top

My full or extended trial key is not accepted by the program.
Please note that trial keys are case sensitive and include spaces.

Once an extended trial key has been used in a copy of BB FlashBack, it will refuse all future extended trial keys (i.e. you can only extend once). If you require a further trial please contact us to discuss this.

Please note that all serial keys generated after the 1st of February 2005 from our server (whether an extended trial or full purchased key) are a digit longer than those used previously, and require BB FlashBack version 1.4.1 and above - they will not work with earlier versions. You can download the latest version of BB FlashBack from here:
BB FlashBack download page

Back to top

My FBR movie file will not open in the Player.
Cases where an FBR movie file does not open include where the player displays an error message, closes immediately after opening or crashes outright.

Your movie file may have been created or edited with version 1.4 of BB FlashBack, but is now being opened in an older version of the Player which does not fully support movies created by version 1.4. Therefore you should download the latest version of BB FlashBack from here: BB FlashBack download page

The other possible cause is if the file has become corrupted. This can happen when BB FlashBack is interrupted upon saving the file, or when the file has been stored on a disk with hardware errors. If the file is corrupted there is no automatic way of recovering the file and the best option is to restore from your most recent backup.

Back to top

I am using BB FlashBack on Windows NT and I cannot run the BB FlashBack player.
Unfortunately the BB FlashBack player does not support Windows NT, although the recorder should work as normal on this platform.

Back to top

My system is runs extremely slowly when recording.
If you are recording in GDI or DirectX mode (default on Windows 98, Me and NT 4.0) then this may be because the frame rate is set at a value too high for your system to comfortably handle.

Please open BB FlashBack Recorder --> Options --> Record mode and check which recording method you are using. If available, 'Capture Driver' should provide the fastest method of recording. If using either GDI or DirectX recording mode, reducing the frame rate value may speed up your computer upon recording.

Please also ensure your computer meets the minimum system requirements for BB FlashBack:

300 megahertz (MHz) or higher CPU clock speed required; 600 megahertz or higher recommended.
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher.
20 megabytes (MB) of available hard disk space for application files.
Graphics card with 4 megabytes (MB) or video memory required; 8 megabytes (MB) recommended.
Super VGA (800x600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor.

I've exported my movie to an AVI or WMV file. This plays fine on my PC but not on other computers.
When you exported to either of these formats BB FlashBack prompts you to select a codec from a list of all the codecs installed on your machine. The selected codec also needs to be installed on other computers that need to view your AVI or WMV movie.

You should either advise the viewer to install the relevant codec, try another codec or export to a different format.

Back to top

I've exported my movie to Flash but the SWF file appears distorted or low quality.
When exporting to Flash format BB FlashBack creates both a HTML and a SWF file, both of which are required to view your movie. You should open the HTML file in order to see your movie at the correct size and quality.

Back to top

I'm trying to record a DVD or video clip with BB FlashBack, but it fails or the results are poor.
BB FlashBack works best when recording normal Windows applications. Unfortunately, all screen recording software, including BB FlashBack, struggle when recording video clip footage. This is because video clips are stored in files using compression technology specially designed to store video/movie recordings. When you try and record this with a screen recorder, all the screen activity has to be recorded without the benefit of the codecs and compression engines used in the original video file.

If you attempt recording and see no output at all, please go to BB FlashBack recorder --> options --> record mode and select either GDI or DirectX mode. Then start recording and load the DVD (you must start recording before loading the DVD or video clip) - this should produce a capture of the video, although as stated above the performance will be variable and the files produced may be large.

Back to top

Welcome

Guest