BB TestAssistant has three recording modes. The best one to use depends on your PC hardware and version of Windows.
Capture driver - this gives the highest performance, but is only available to Windows 2000 and XP users.
DirectX mode - this mode would be used when:
You are running Windows 98, ME or NT4.0
You are recording screens containing a lot of moving graphics. The capture driver may not give optimal movie file size in this situation - it works best with 'normal' Office-type Windows applications.
You are running Windows 2000 or XP, but for some reason the capture driver does not operate correctly on your PC.
You are recording a DirectX application.
GDI mode - you would use this mode for any of the reasons given above for DirectX mode, but your video hardware is incapable of running DirectX mode at a reasonable frame rate.
Because the Capture Driver offers better performance, you would normally only use DirectX or GDI modes if you are running Windows 98, ME or NT4 or if you are experiencing problems with the capture driver.
The recording mode is set on the Record mode tab of the Recorder Options dialog.
Setting the frames per second
When using DirectX or GDI modes, you can adjust the frames recorded per second.
A higher frames per second (FPS) value means the final movie should be smoother, but there will be a greater performance impact on your PC while recording.
A lower FPS value means that your PC will perform better during recording, but the final movie will be less smooth.
Testing your PC performance
Selecting a recording mode unsuited to your PC graphics hardware or setting the frames per second to too high a value can severely degrade PC performance while recording.
For this reason, BB TestAssistant tests your PC performance before allowing you to set these options. It disables settings that would result in poor performance.
If you upgrade your PC you may want to retest, to reenable recording mode settings that were disabled by previous tests. Just click the Retest button in the Record mode tab of the Recorder Options dialog.
Improving poor performance
If you have run the test and found that DirectX and GDI recording modes are disabled, or only available at low FPS values there are some actions you can take to improve your PC's graphics performance:
Update your DirectX installation and graphics card drivers. We have found that updating graphics card drivers from the defaults supplied by Windows can result in a dramatic performance improvement. Browse to your PC or graphics card supplier's website to find driver updates.
Upgrade your graphics card. Certain graphics hardware (mainly older and 'onboard' cards) does not perform well with DirectX and GDI modes.