Recording

The recording option is a feature to record the mosaic viewer as a movie. There are two viewers: dynamic mosaic and flying tiles in/out and shuffle into a shape. The second viewer is for commercials and still pictures between each mosaic session/sequence when e.g. completed. The recorder only records the viewer of the dynamic mosaic. In case a commercial is shown, the recorder will not record it, but the movie will continue to record. In that case make sure your commercials have been disabled.

Recording preparations

To successfully record a movie you need to assure the following:

Install an appropriate codec in your Windows system. Good codecs are Xvid and DivX. Some systems also support X.264, but since we have some unresolved issues, we don't support X.64 VfW at the moment. To make X.264 movies you better first record in XVid or DivX, and then convert into X.264 (.mp4 format), e.g. with the freeware 'ffmpeg' application. IMPORTANT: we can only record using DShow, i.e. Windows native, so the high quality X.264 and H.264 (e.g. with FFMPEG, saved as .mp4) is not possible. Good results for VfW ('Video for Windows') is installing the Xvid codec (https://www.xvid.com/download/ ). This codec is almost as good as X.264, and it's a true Windows codec that is recognized by Windows Video Player when installed in your system.
Designate a recording folder. This done from the admin tab, File Locations > Recording (see help docs on 'File locations'). Without a designated folder you will get an error message ('Unable to create AVI file').
Close non essential applications. If you leave RAM heacy application open, some frames may be dropped in recording. Also avoid watching movies, youtube thingies, or play a game on the same system. Music won't be a problem though because it doesn't record sound. Also better close internet browsers. They tend to consume loads of RAM.
Assure that there is enough diskspace for recording. In case you decide to record in uncompressed HD resolution (e.g. 2560x1600) you may quickly run out of disk space.

Recording settings

There are a few controls for the recorder. These are:

Available codecs in the system: select the codec you want to use for the recording. Only codecs that are available in the windows system - and are installed as a system codec - will be shown here. Codecs installed e.g. via VLC player will not be shown and will not work either. the default codec is Microsoft Video 1. A very reliable, but old-fashioned codec with marginal quality. You are strongly encouraged to install XVid or DivX codecs and use these instead. The widely spread codec for X.264 can be downloaded from Sourceforge but is not supported by Dynamic Mosaic.
Recording file name: the name of the file to be recorded. the default name is 'Recording.avi' . The file extentions is antomatically added (.avi) but can also be indicated here. The file extension will always be .avi. The location of the recorded movie is indicated in the 'Locations' tab of the Admin tab (i.e. the Recording folder).
Framerate: the recording framerate. The higher the framerate (e.g. 30 fps) the more your system will require CPU power. The framerate is not equal the frequency of the animations. The framerate frequency follows its own time ticker.
Duration: the duration of a recording After the indicated time (in seconds) the recording will automatically be stopped. When the indicated value is zero there is no limit, and the user has to manually stop the recording.
When you press the 'Start Recording' button you are always asked 'Are you sure' to avoid that accidental recordings are made.