You will find the Media Capture web application here: data.tsd.usit.no/media-capture.
To make recordings, a camera ond/or a microphone must be available. The cameras and microphones used for video calls should work fine with the app. Recording sound from the computer is only supported by certain browsers, se table below.
When you start recording, data is continuously captured, encoded and securely transmitted for storage in your TSD project storage area, as a media file. If the recording stops prematurely, all data up to the point of failure is normally recoverable.
How to record video
Click Start Capturing to enable the data stream you want to record. The stream is now visible in the Capture Monitor.
Click Start Recording. You are now recording the stream form the monitor. You can pause, resume or end the recording at any time. When you finish recording the media file is published with any other imported file in you project area.
If a recording gets the same name as an earlier recording, the earlier recording will be deleted without warning.
How to record audio
Follow the procedure above, but ensure that the Capture Video choice besides Start Recording is left blank.
Changing resolution of video image
- Click Add Constraint in the Video field under Capture Setup.
- Choose Height in the Name dropdown list.
- Choose the appropriate type in the Type dropdown list, for example Must be at least.
- Specify desired vertical resolution in the Value column. 720 pixels is HD-Ready, 1080 is 1080p.
- Click Start Capturing to obtain a new stream of specified resolution.
The width of the stream will be automatically set to keep the aspect ratio from the camera.
Changing the source device
When recording from a camera or a microphone, you can choose which device to obtain the stream from as long as you have given your browser access to them.
- Click the Add Constraint button in the Video field under Capture Setup.
- Choose Device in the dropdown list under Name.
- Depending on your preferences, choose Must be or Should be in the drop-down list under Type.
- Find and choose desired device in the list of devices under Value.
- Click Start Capturing to obtain a stream from the specified device.
When recording a computer screen and, optionally audio from the speakers, the web browser may ask you which part of the screen you want to capture, e.g. a particular window.
Settings in Media Capture
The application page is partitioned into six fields of recording functions.
The Capture Setup field
Where you to set up a stream from your capture device(s). You can tweak properties of the stream you're through specifying constraints.
The Add Constraint buttons
Choose desired image resolution, frame rate, which device to use etc. with these buttons. You can also record without changing these settings. TSD will then choose the standard quality.
The Start Capturing button
Click this button to obtain a capture stream for recording. Settings changed with the Add constraints buttons will affect this stream.
The Capture Monitor field
The capture monitor shows you your capture stream and allows you to assess the quality. The video element of the capture monitor allows you to view the stream image fullscreen, and to hear/mute microphones. The Capture Setup filed lets you monitor another stream, if needed.
The Recording Monitor field set
The recording monitor shows your recording in real time. If the quality of recording compared to the capture stream does not satisfy you, stop recording and adjust the settings. The stream can be watched fullscreen, and microphones can be muted.
The Encoding field
Allows you to specify media encoding preferences for recording.
The Media type input
Here you choose which format your recordings should be stored as. This affects file sizes. The standard format is good enough for any TSD project. Observe that the format might be different from browser to browser.
Formats are specified by RFC 2046 and RFC 6381.
Read more about RFC 2046 on datatracker.ietf.org
Read more about RFC 6381 on datatracker.ietf.org
The Bitrate field
Here you can specify the bitrate for the recording. It can't exceed the amount of data transferred by your network, or what can be read when playing the recording.
The Importing field
Preferences related to importing the recording into the TSD project area.
The Filename input field
Specify a name for the recording. You can also define a pattern for names of subsequent recordings. This is advised, as recordings stored with the same name will overwrite the earlier recording without warning.
The Group input field
Define a group identifier for the recording. If left empty, TSD will decide the identifier for you, normally the project members group <project-identifier>-members-group.
The Recording field
Direct your recording with the Start, Stop, Pause and Resume buttons.
Encoding of media
Stream from cameras with microphones are not optimized for playback. Compression is necessary for playback. This entails a small loss of quality while resulting in far more manageable file sizes.
All the settings the media capture application offers to control encoding, are contained in the Encoding field, see above.
Mozilla Developer Network has published a number of articles which throw light on media encoding, container formats and video and audio codecs that may be used with these:
- Media container formats (file types)
- The "codecs" parameter in common media types
- Web video codec guide
- Web audio codec guide
Browser requirements
| Name | Version | Platform | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Chrome | 86 | Microsoft Windows 10 | Works to the best of intention (can be used as reference) |
| Android 10 | Recording works; stream and/or recording video preview animation may exhibit lag; layout issues with parts of user interface | ||
| Microsoft Edge | 86 | Microsoft Windows 10 | Works to the best of intention (can be used as reference) |
| Mozilla Firefox | 79 | Microsoft Windows 10 | Works to the best of intention (can be used as reference); capturing speaker audio during screen recording is not supported — the screen recording will only contain image and no audio track(s) |
Combinations not listed, with the general exception of later releases, should be assumed to only support the application partially or not at all.
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