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 TestAssistant 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.
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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 TestAssistant 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
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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 TestAssistant 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.
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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 TestAssistant 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 TestAssistant upon recording, which can be changed by selecting
another checkbox. This will ensure you don't have a situation where BB
TestAssistant is capturing your microphone when you are trying to record
your system sounds.
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I cannot update my copy of BB TestAssistant
with the Check for Updates wizard.
Firstly, please check that you have a working internet connection on your
computer. You can test this by trying to open a website in your internet
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 TestAssistant 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 TestAssistant Player
- regardless of whether it is actually running or not. To solve this issue
please download and reinstall the latest BB TestAssistant manually from:
www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBTestAssistant_Download.aspx
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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 TestAssistant,
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 TestAssistant
version 1.4.1 and above - they will not work with earlier versions. You
can download the latest version of BB TestAssistant from here: www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBTestAssistant_Download.aspx
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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
TestAssistant, 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 TestAssistant from: www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBTestAssistant_Download.aspx
The other possible cause is if the file has become corrupted. This can
happen when BB TestAssistant 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.
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I am using BB TestAssistant on Windows NT
and I cannot run the BB TestAssistant Player.
Unfortunately the BB TestAssistant player does not support Windows NT,
although the recorder should work as normal on this platform.
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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 TestAssistant 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 TestAssistant:
- 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.
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I've exported my movie to an AVI file. This
plays fine on my PC but not in other computers.
When you exported to either of these formats BB TestAssistant prompts you
to select a codec from a list of all the codecs installed on your machine.
The selected codec needs to be installed on the playing computer in order
to view your AVI movie.
You should either advise the viewer to install the relevant codec, try
another codec or export to a different format.
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I've exported my movie to Flash but the SWF
file appears distorted or low quality.
When exporting to Flash format BB TestAssistant 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.
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I'm trying to record a DVD or video clip
with BB TestAssistant, but it fails or the results are poor.
BB TestAssistant works best when recording normal Windows applications.
Unfortunately, all screen recording software, including BB TestAssistant,
will 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 TestAssistant
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.
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