Screencasting on Windows

I always find screencasting quite difficult to set up on Windows. Here are some notes on a recent successful attempt that uses the well-known ffmpeg library/command-line tool to record from a Direct Show screen capture device.

Set up the screen capture device

Install Screen Capture Recorder and configure by selecting the shortcut "configure by resizing a transparent window". Start broadcasting the desktop by choosing the shortcut "stream desktop local LAN", and "Start Normal 10 fps".

Capture the screen

Install 32-bit ffmpeg (even on 64-bit Windows) and capture as follows (press "q" to stop):

ffmpeg -f dshow -i video=screen-capture-recorder -r 10
       -y recording.mp4

Convert to the target format

For example, convert to .wmv and retain just the first 60 seconds (see "-ss" for skipping the start and "-q:v 10" to control the size/quality):

ffmpeg -i recording.mp4 -t 60 -b:v 1000k
       -vcodec wmv2 myfile.wmv