Frequently Asked Questions
How do I use the license key in my application?
How do I use the license via XML?
How do I configure VHScrCap via XML?
How do I prevent VHScrCap from showing up as a video source/virtual camera?
How do I turn off User Account Control in Windows Vista/Windows 7?
VH Screen Capture Driver keeps crashing, what can I do?
What happened to the 64 bit version of VHScrCap?
Why am I having problems with playing Flash videos in my 64-bit browser?
How do I remove the watermark?
I'm getting bad quality when I play back my recordings. What can I do to fix this?
When I try to record animations or video, only a few frames seem to be captured. How do I fix this?
How do I work around hardware overlays?
How do I use the license key in my application?
Here's a code snippet (in C++)that shows you how to apply the license given to you:
HRESULT hr = m_pFilter.CoCreateInstance(CLSID_VHScrCap);
if (FAILED(hr)) return hr;
CComQIPtr<IVHScrCap> pUnlock = m_pFilter;
if (pUnlock != NULL) {
pUnlock->special_unlock(CComBSTR(L"<user>"), CComBSTR(L"<key>"));
}
Substitute your registered username for <user> and your registration key for <key>.
How do I use the license key via XML?
Note: If you have a Commercial (Non-Branded) License, you cannot use it via XML. You must activate your license via code.
- Open the email that contains your VH Screen Capture Driver XML License (e.g. mycompanyname.xml) and your license key (e.g. AB1D2-C34DE-5F6G7) and keep it open because you will need both to activate your license.
- Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\VHScrCap (or C:\Program Files (x86)\SplitMediaLabs\VHScrCapture if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7).
- Open vhscrcapset.txt in Notepad or your favorite text editor.
- Change its contents to something that resembles the text below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<configuration>
<redirect type="relative" file="mycompanyname.xml" /></configuration>
<redirect type="diskfile" file="mycompanyname.xml" />
<redirect type="url" file="http://www.mycompany.com/mycompanyname.xml" />
Notes:
- Substitute your XML license name for mycompanyname.xml.
- For the redirect types that you will use, remove the underscore from <_redirect /> so that it reads as <redirect />
. - You don't need to have values for all three redirect types unless you plan to use all of them. This means that if you won't use a diskfile or url redirect, do not change the default values (see code snippet below):
<redirect type="relative" file="mycompanyname.xml" />
<_redirect type="diskfile" file="c:\vhscrcapset.xml" />
<_redirect file="http://www.splitmedialabs.com/vhscrcapset.xml" />
- Save vhscrcapset.txt as vhscrcapset.xml then close the file.
- Open vhscrcapset.txtagain.
- Substitute your license key in key=AB1D2-C34DE-5F6G7. See example below:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<!-- save this file as vhscrcapset.xml to enable settings loading -->
<configuration>
<_redirect type="relative" file="vhscrcapset.xml" />
<_redirect type="diskfile" file="c:\vhscrcapset.xml" />
<_redirect type="url" file="http://www.splitmedialabs.com/vhscrcapset.xml" />
<params sampletime="400000" event="" mousemagnitude="1000" key=" AB1D2-C34DE-5F6G7" >
<window hwnd="" name="_logs" />
<rect left="0" top="0" right="1024" bottom="768" />
<output cx="640" cy="480" alignx="-1" aligny="-1" />
<border r="255" g="0" b="0" />
<frame r="255" g="0" b="0" cx="3" cy="3" />
<flags align="1" notfresize="1" trackwnd="0" trackscr="0" showframe="0"
showmouse="1" showclicks="1" caplayered="0" resize="1" resizetype="1" resizeaspect="1" trackmouse="1"
optcapture="1" optdeliver="1" regrot="0" outputsize="0"
limitinst="1" noprocess="0" renderblank="0" />
</params>
</configuration>
- Save vhscrcapset.txt as [yourcompanyname].xml (substitute your XML license name).
- Change the settings inside the XML file to your desired settings.
- The next time you configure VHScrCap, your settings will automatically be loaded.
How do I configure VHScrCap via XML?
Copy and paste the XML code below into Notepad (or your favorite text editor) and save it as "vhscrcapset.xml" and place it in the same folder as VH Screen Capture driver:<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?>
<configuration><redirect type="relative" file="vhscrcapset.xml" />
<_redirect type="diskfile" file="c:\vhscrcapset.xml" />
<_redirect type="url" file="http://www.splitmedialabs.com/vhscrcapset.xml" />
<params sampletime="400000" event="" mousemagnitude="1000">
<window hwnd="" name="_logs" />
<rect left="0" top="0" right="320" bottom="240" />
<output cx="320" cy="240" alignx="-1" aligny="-1" />
<border r="255" g="0" b="0" />
<frame r="255" g="0" b="0" cx="3" cy="3" />
<flags align="1" notfresize="1" trackwnd="0" trackscr="0" showframe="0"
showmouse="1" showclicks="1" caplayered="0"
resize="1" resizetype="1" resizeaspect="1" trackmouse="1"
optcapture="1" optdeliver="1" regrot="0" outputsize="0"
limitinst="1" noprocess="0" renderblank="0" /></params>
</configuration>
Then make your desired changes to this file.
If you want to redirect using an absolute path or a URL, replace either "diskfile" or "url" in <_redirect /> with the paths that you want to use and remove the underscore in <_redirect ... /> so that it reads <redirect ... /> instead.
Note: You can also use "(Drive):\Program Files\SplitMediaLabs\VHScrCap\vhscrcapset.txt" and just rename it to vhscrcapset.xml.
How do I prevent VHScrCap from showing up as a video source/virtual camera?
To hide VHScrCap, you need to create an empty file named VHScrCapNoSrc in the same folder as VHScrCap. This will prevent VHScrCap from being listed as a video capture source.
How do I turn off User Account Control in Windows Vista/Windows 7?
Windows Vista- Click on the Windows button in the taskbar, point to Control Panel and click on User Accounts (Alternatively, you can open the Control Panel, switch to Classic View and open User Accounts).
- Click Turn User Account Control on or off.
- Uncheck the box that's labeled Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer.
- Click OK.
- Save your work then restart your computer when prompted to do so.
Windows 7
- Click on the Windows button in the taskbar, point to Control Panel and open System and Security and open the Action Center (Alternatively, you can type msconfig in the Search box of the taskbar to start System Configuration, then go to Tools tab, select Change UAC Settings, then click on Launch button).
- Click on User Account Control settings link.
- Slide the slider bar to the lowest value (towards Never Notify), with the label showing Never notify.
- Click OK.
- Save your work then restart your computer when prompted to do so.
VH Screen Capture Driver keeps crashing, what can I do?
This may be due to a faulty filter. The sDirectVobSub filter is causing a serious issue with our filters. If you have this faulty filter installed then you have to uninstall it and never let it back on your machine. ;)
What happened to the 64 bit version of VHScrCap?
At the moment we recommend using the 32 bit version, which works very well on 64 bit windows operating systems. Many people use the filter as a virtual camera and trying to access this functionality from a 32 bit process like Flash does not work.
For licensed enterprise clients of the non-branded version, we can provide a 64 bit version of VHScrCap.
Why am I having problems with playing Flash videos in my 64-bit browser?
The reason, from the Adobe Knowledge Base, is: "Adobe Flash Player is not supported for playback in 64-bit browsers. Flash Player will, however, run in a 32-bit browser, running on a 64-bit operating system."
How do I remove the watermark?
To remove the watermark you need to acquire a Commercial (Non-branded) license. Currently, the only way the watermark can be removed is to include VHScrCap filter in a custom application. Read the license information for more information regarding this.
I'm getting bad quality when I play back my recordings. Why is this and what can I do to fix this?
This is probably due to the encoder, decoder or the application being developed. Please tell us what encoder or decoder you are using (and its corresponding settings) and we'll see if the problem lies there.
If you would like us to look into your application to try to pinpoint the problem, we can take it on as a consulting assignment. We usually charge 150 USD per hour for these types of assignments. Once we have an agreement, we will schedule it promptly.
When I try to record animations or video, only a few frames seem to be captured. How do I fix this?
VH Screen Capture driver tries to optimize the CPU work load by listening to UI events to discover if there are changes in the screen and doesn't capture frames if there are no UI events. When capturing videos, no UI events are generated, so to force VHScrCap to capture frames at the frame rate set, disable "Optimize Screen Capture."
How do I work around hardware overlays?
This article does a good job of telling you how to beat hardware overlays. Read it to find out how to get around this limitation.
I have a Commercial (Branded) License for VHScrCap and would include it in my installer. Is this okay? How do I do this?
Yes, provided that you have legally obtained a Commercial (Branded) license, you are allowed to include VHScrCap in your application's installer. All you need to do is include vhscrcap.ax in your installer, set the file to automatically register with Windows and tell your users that they need to have installation privileges (Administrator privileges usually do the trick) in order to install your application.