Presentation Podcast Capture?

January 29, 2008 1:34 PM

How can I record video of a powerpoint/impress/etc slideshow in a format suitable for inclusion in a video podcast? Presenters use their own laptops and I have access only to a vga cable carrying the image, so screencapture tools are not a preferable option.

I'm working on setting up the supporting technologies to enable my university department to podcast a lecture series. The speakers often present slides, video, etc from their own laptops using a variety of presentation tools. We provide a VGA connection to an LCD projector. I am not able to ask that they present from one of our machines because of the variety of output software they use, or install software on their machines. I would like to capture what's displayed on the projector to intercut with images of the speaker at the podium. Direct-to-disk capture is preferable to something that requires taping and later capturing the tape to disk.

We're capturing video and audio of the presenter from a production-grade DV camera direct to disk on a Powermac G5 already.

Any thoughts on hardware/software solutions to enable this?

posted by Alterscape to computers & internet (2 comments total)

In view of the lack of answers so far: With all the restrictions you mention, the simplest & cheapest option that comes to mind is a VGA->TV converter coupled with a video capture device. Preferably, s-video or better.

There are a few VGA capture devices around (e.g. from Epiphan), but sticker shock might put paid to dreams of using one of those.

Optimally, the thing to do would be to get your hands on the presentation slides & render them to video yourself, but that doesn't help if you also want to capture from a visualiser, etc.
posted by Pinback at 8:44 PM on January 29, 2008

On a mac? IshowU or snapzpro (I prefer iShowU). Then you'll throw that into your editing software. Realize that a full screen (1024x768) powerpoint/screen captures with text, when scaled down, may likely be unreadable (and need to be rebuilt in the edit.

Camtasia would be the software on a PC.

Now, if you can't get them to present from your machine...and they can't use yours....

You're really going to have to get a scan converter...and then tape the footage (and handle it like you do from your DV camera.) The results will be so-so...but that's what you'll get with the restrictions you're giving.
posted by filmgeek at 3:03 AM on February 6, 2008