SCREEN GRAB (CAPTURE) PROGRAMS:
   Are not all alike...many of the less expensive are designed for CAPTURE much like the built in PRINT SCREEN capabilities of Windows. This is a utility to the operating system and can be used by simply selecting SHIFT PRINT SCREEN. I am not going to dwell long here...PRINT SCREEN went out with the days of ASCII terminals.
   Today we function in a GIOS or Graphical Interfaced Operating System, and that means what we see on our screen is in our computer. We do not use computers like TV sets. Actually live TV on a computer screen means you are watching a TV program one frame at a time. And yes this can be captured and saved. It will require some damn fast equipment, but it can be done.
   You stream your video using Webcam 7, an upgrade from Ver. 5.0 that worked very well, however if you remember 2 years ago, we also used a program that enhanced our camera stream and that was ManyCam. That program did for us in WebcamXP, what a good screen shot program and Webcam 7 does today. Yes, that may all change tomorrow, but have no fear, we will keep up with it all.
   Today we have larger screen resolutions to play with, and the Cam Radio Info software takes full advantage of that. If you do not know, or forgot how, you can set the CAM RADIO INFO output screens to force OUTPUT as streamed or you can "double click" on the BLUE MARGIN and display a FULL SCREEN the same size as your display can deliver. Full screen webcam HD video !! Using 320 by 240 for resolution, is fine if you want to pop a postage stamp on a legal envelope...but today that resolution is nothing but a thumb nail. That resolution allows us to add more information to our camera stream. Gary's HRDstatus program does a great job for that, but the program is a simple application that does not allow font size adjustment. Gary's program is great because it is simple, but it is limited to the fact that uses Ham Radio Deluxe only. What using a SCREEN SHOT program allows, is limited only to your imagination.
   First...how does it work ?? What is it doing ?? How much memory do I need ?? What will it cost me ?? These are good questions and without further ado, I will begin...
   HOW DOES IT WORK:
   The capture program I use is Screen Shot 8.0 by Broderbund. It is a full functioned capture program that falls short of the utilities SNAGIT offers, but for sake of the application, it is reasonable in price and has great support. It does what we need it to do here...SNAGIT cannot do this...period !!
Note: Let me remind you that horsepower is required if you want to do all this neat stuff. We stream, we view, we run other applications at the same time and many of us are on the Internet too. We are computer savvy to an extent and we combine our Ham Radio experience together. Horsepower is related to CPU speed, but it is enhanced more by the amount of memory you can feed it. Windows XP is limited to 3.5 (I have 4.0 Gig of memory, but XP can only access 3.5) and that is all the numbers will allow. Don't ask why...this is not an XP tutor. What I want you to understand is, I don't care how fast your processor, or how much memory you have on board, XP can't see anymore than 3.5 Gig for program execution. Therefore you need to take stock in how you manage your computer functions. There are members on the net who have stream crashes on a regular basis, why is it others do not ?? That comes down to one thing...execution management and we must learn how to use it.
   Basically we can capture anything we see on the screen in front of us. You tube, Ham Radio Deluxe, Amateur Logic TV, Excel and more...a lot more. That is why you purchase a good screen capture program. You want to use, save or just study something you see without "right clicking" on the image only to have some POP-UP appear. Does that frustrate you ?? Remember that there are GREMLINS located in those images. It is easy to encode the image header so you get more than the image offers (cookies for one). I use the REGION CAPTURE and simply drag a frame around the image or any part thereof and save it to my documents. No fear of any "bugs" that might appear. That alone is worth the price of the app, but there is much more to it.
NOTE: Here is another one of those pesky notes...This one explains screen capture 101. Capturing a live screen and streaming the results on your STREAM is limited. That is because the latency in the stream across the internet is simply too damn slow. We do not buffer images, we use UDP a very simple stream function that does not error check and by that simplicity alone, it does not allow full frame by frame video.
   We all look like jerks when we stream...not really, but our video is, by nature, jerking along. The speed that we stream has so many variables, I can't touch on them all here, so I will not concern you with any. What I want you to know is, 500mS on Cam Radio Net is fast. That is 1/2 a second and that what we should expect if we are using "state of fart" equipment. If we do not, our stream looks like shit !! So we lower our stream rate, lower our resolution and turn off outside programs so the CPU can hack the demands.
   Running an ARCP (amateur radio control program) will require some HP. Fortunately Ham Radio Deluxe 5.0 has come along. I say this because HRD 5.0 has stripped the heavy weights out of the application. They need to do a lot more stripping but I digress. Many of you have a basic TEXT or SIMPLE MOUSE CLICK ARCP that came with your modern radio.
NOTE: Keep that thought in mind...I will reiterate later for those of you who want to show FREQ and S-METER functions without a fancy application and new radio.
   The simple ARCP's allow you to do the same thing as HRD can, that is, first of all, control your radio. The screen delivers FREQ. METER and TRANSMIT functions to the screen in real time...almost. These programs require handshaking with the radio, via some type of CAT interface along the way, and it can be a tad slow for screen updates. If you depend on an IP SERVER in the program, it too will be another hoop or  hurdle to jump through before the screen is updated. Depending on how you use your application, DYNAMIC DATA EXCHANGE is the fastest way to handle these updates and changes, but DDE is a one way street. It is READ only. That is all we want to do anyway. We want to read the radio output and place it on our stream page. HRDstatus does this very well, but a SCREEN SHOT will do it also.
   Webcam 7 allows you to place an image on the screen using the object editor and it allows you to select that image and refresh it as well. Refresh is the key !!! It will look at the image at the rate you desire and update the results as fast as possible to your live stream. HRDstatus does this with HRD, but no other ARCP can be used. So without a doubt this fine application, as good as it is, will be limited to Webcam 7 and Ham Radio Deluxe 5.0. Use of a screen grab application opens up huge doors for you to walk through. The above screen is Excel and it is a spreadsheet that HRD produces automatically. Go to c:/Program Files/Ham Radio Deluxe and look for DDE.xls...double click on it. If your radio is on and HRD is running you will see s similar spreadsheet. It will update FASTER because it is using DDE to exchange TEXT and does not require another step to show you what HRD is sending on the CAT. The HRD screen does not have to be open to see this and so you do not have to capture the HRD screen...you capture the EXCEL screen and that can be made very small on your desktop.
   Using Screen Shot Deluxe Ver. 8.0 by Broderbund is easy to set up. The program has the normal set of tabs and tools, but the one you want is the "CAPTURE" (tab) a drop-down that will reveal at the very bottom, "Capture Settings", select it now...click on the "Quick Save" (tab) and check "Automatically save..."
In the "File Name" place this in your ROOT directory or secondary partition. Very important...set the "Increment File name by" = "0". be sure the box is not checked. In the "Repeat first capture every" [.5] seconds and be sure the "Continue on error" box is checked. Now click OK. The next screen or region you capture will create a new single image file with the name "yourfilename".JPG to the location you chose. That file will be updated (over-written) by SSD every 1/2 second.
   If you did not set the increment to "0" the file will increment by the number set and eventually create a MASS of images on your HARD DRIVE. You want the setting to read "0".
  Go ahead open a you tube video. Set the CAPTURE and select CAPTURE REGION, drag your mouse over that portion and "click" the capture program will display what is under the capture region. Yes it will capture the you tube video 1/2 second at a time and save the image so it can be displayed on your web cam.
   Now in Webcam 7 the object editor, select "Local Image" from the icons below the preview screen. "Click" one time on your preview and in the dialog box, browse to select "yourfilename".jpg and "click" [Apply].
   You should see the image one frame. double click on that image and the properties box will appear like that on the left. Under "Auto-refresh" select 500 and "click" [Ok]. Now you can preview and should see the single frames pop up to be displayed as they are being captured. By the way...turn off the capture beep or it will drive you freakin' nuts.
   Ham Radio Deluxe users, if you double clicked on DDE.xls, you can size that screen and capture the information in the spreadsheet to "yourfilemane".JPG and display it on your stream page. You can adjust the Excel spreadsheet as needed. Just like any Excel application, and you can do it real time and the updates will display during and after any adjustments have been made. You can use ALL the excel functions including math applications that will read the Excel input to that cell...You can create your own DB algorithm from the RAW S-METER information and display a DECIBEL value rather than "S" + "Over 9". That may seem a little farfetched, but we never used S-METER readings till the early 50's. Most all meters were in DB's. S-Units are 6DB each while the scale above that is basically for conversation. Hence the 30 as a RAW number, 40 = 10 OVER and 50 = 20 OVER. Do the math...
The best part of the Screen Shot comes when you desire to use an ARCP that came with the radio. Simply grab the screen portion and set it to refresh as often as desired. Take a SS every 1/2 second and you pretty much will see it live.
NOTE: It is one thing to see the HRD display and another all together to use the information. This is why I like this application.
   Now as I promised, a neat way to do this without HRD. It will require another camera. Who did not see that coming? But who cares if you don't have to buy some fancy radio, cat interfaces and use an ARCP too. Point the camera at the S-METER...use Screen Shot Deluxe to capture the camera program running on your computer and display the results...capture your scope, your monitor, whatever and place it on the stream. CAPTURE YOUR ENTIRE SCREEN, scale it down and display those you are viewing. Capture your PAN or AUDIO ANALYZER and yes display it on your stream. What can a second camera cost ?? I see them at computer shows for 10 bucks. They do not have to be a Logitech Pro 9000 to do this.

BTW: If you have 2 computers net-worked together, you can use the second computer to generate the image that you capture from your network and display on your stream...

   This is a cool way to display anything going on outside your normal display.
   The entire idea is to HAVE FUN and like all good hams EXPERIMENT...K3HKR