What I would like to see in Action!

[apk]

I really like the idea of Action! software, but there is a lot of work to do to make it better. I've decided to list some of my thoughts here.

Improvements:
Better CUDA encoding quality.
Ability to choose encoding audio quality and codec.
Support for MKV containers.
Ability to disable hotkeys.
Ability to set recording hotkey to "Scroll Lock" button (LED on keyboard will indicate recording process).
Option to disable OSD(HUD) indicator everywhere by default.
Compact version of OSD(HUD) recording indicator (something like d=6px red circle in the corner).
Compact version of UI skin (the default one is bulky as for me).
Support for AVI conversion.
Option to disable frame rate locking in games (described here).
Support for windows 7 taskbar features while encoding (described here).
Option to choose different system tray icon (default looks similar to Microsoft IME).

Bugs to fix: (present in v1.2.0.0)
- (known bug) Cursor size is bigger than it should be when recording the desktop in lower resolution than actual (for example if you're recording your 1080p resolution desktop to 480p, the cursor will be giant on encoded video). Same thing with too small cursor when recording Active desktop region with res 640x360 to 720p+ mode.
- When encoding a very large file (20GB+), encoding process sometimes stuck at 100% but not finishing. But when I press "Stop" button the file is created.
- In Active desktop mode the "Record" button of Action! desn't change when you start the recording process. When you're pressing it with mouse click it feels like the recording process didn't start.
- If Action! window was minimized to taskbar or system tray and you try to open it back from system tray, program comes up behind the active windows. Here is a small video with reproducing a bug: http://bit.ly/sNnngY (~5MB, Google host)

PS: Hope it will help you.

[Ghost]

Thank you for this detailed feedback. We collect all feedback and analyse it for future versions updates.

Ability to choose encoding audio quality and codec.

Do you mean this for games or desktop recording?
In example to add AAC audio encoding for video recording as an option?

Support for MKV containers.

MKV is planned but it will not be added in the near future.

Ability to disable hotkeys.

Hotkeys can be disabled with latest version.
Only Video rec, audio rec, screenshots and benchmarking hotkeys cannot be disabled.

Ability to set recording hotkey to "Scroll Lock" button (LED on keyboard will indicate recording process).

This sounds cool.

Option to disable OSD(HUD) indicator everywhere by default.

We will try to add this asap.

Compact version of OSD(HUD) recording indicator (something like d=6px red circle in the corner).

Will consider this for future versions.

Compact version of UI skin (the default one is bulky as for me).

We plan to add show/hide recording manager button in future versions.
So UI would be half of current size.

Support for AVI conversion.

We plan to add this soon. Converting to uncompressed AVI.

Option to disable frame rate locking in games (described here).

We investigate this as Action! should not lock framerate.

Support for windows 7 taskbar features while encoding

This is planned.

When encoding a very large file (20GB+), encoding process sometimes stuck at 100% but not finishing. But when I press "Stop" button the file is created.

We will investigate this...
What is your exporting setup (any hw acceleration used)?

In Active desktop mode the "Record" button of Action! desn't change when you start the recording process. When you're pressing it with mouse click it feels like the recording process didn't start.

This will be improved, by adding similar panel as in audio recording.

[Rexedead]

Ability to set recording hotkey to "Scroll Lock" button (LED on keyboard will indicate recording process).

Also add ability to set "capture screenshots" at "PrintScreen" button and other hotkeys to NumLock keyboard, please

p.s. Thanks for best soft for recording video!

[Ghost]

Also add ability to set "capture screenshots" at "PrintScreen" button and other hotkeys to NumLock keyboard, please

p.s. Thanks for best soft for recording video!

Thanks, will keep your suggestions for future updates.

[Rexedead]

Thanks for num lock hotkeys!

First we will probably introduce multiple screenshot capturing option with user defined time intervals.

Will be good if realize in next version.

[gombazo]

ATI Streaming compatibility

[Kashimus]

I would like to see, an option to select which micropfone/input sound to record (action can only record the onboard microphone what about an external microphone throug for example a usb sound card,list all available recording devices,like we can see it in windows under recording devices tab) and also select multiple game sound sources like with the microphones not only two to mix them together.multiple sound soures example 3 , custom mixing them together option
Sound mixing option, with optional auto sound level match, and also manual sound level match like now.
And also option to mix them into one sound track (game sound+mic) or multiple each got one track (game,and microphone),and custome mixing them (1track-only game 2-track microphone 3- teamspeak, 4 ts+mic togehter, multiple options
I try to explain why i want multiple sound sorces, i play games with my 5.1 wireless headset with microphone through optical cabel so i can adjust the game sound and the teamspeak sound independ with a plus microphone/sound cable connected to the headset. My headset=http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/leg ... e-x41.aspx ,and i use my onboard/integrated soundcard for teamspeak,skypeetc, and an external usb sound card for my microphone, (you could ask why?, because my onboard mic is bad,not enough boost/gain to the mic, at night it didnt pick up my whisper,and sometimes i almsot have to shout to get it work i tested it and the onboard mic is the bad,i set it in teamspek to the highest sensitivy so its not thhat and i windows i disabled all voice modifications undet the calling tab ,but with my usb card it can detect it far better boost/gain, and i dont need to shout/speak louder so my family can sleep,i dont disturb them)
so in short i have 3 sound sorces(1game-1mic/1teamspek and i want them to record all of them at the same time,with custom mixing option example 1track-game sound 2track-mic+teamspeakmixed togehter )
Recording setting video quality more optoins high or custom, optimized
few more things i have in mind , unde the little ovelray where it show the fps, a little recording time counter which shows the how long i have been recording
i hope who reads this can understand it -sorry for bad/mistaken english its not my native language

[Fala7er]

1. I think the most important feature will be to export the .fic files to a lossless codec that any other app can use without problems, and the answer to that is the Lagarith Codec

"Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is a lossless video codec created to successfully deal especially with editing and archiving tasks. In terms of comparison with other codecs, Lagarith manages to offer a better compression than even more famous codecs, such as Huffyuv or CorePNG. That might make you think that the downside of Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is the speed. Actually that's not the case, as this smart codec offers great compression and it also manages to be faster than powerful codecs such as MSU. According to its developer, the compression provided by Lagarith is typically 10-30% better than Huffyuv, and that's only for DVD videos.

Lagarith is able to operate in several colorspaces - RGB24, RGB32, RGBA, YUY2, and YV12, and comes with support for null frames as well.

Briefly, Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is a great choice for anyone needing a powerful, fast and effective lossless video codec.

Any tool that can accept avs scripts can accept lagarith through avisynth frameserving ; for example ffmpeg can (the engine behind winff)."

I use this with sony vegas after capturing with fraps... to avoid many problems.

2. The ability to choose wich audio device Action! should record. We have the mic selection but no audio playback output selection. I have teamspeak configurated to use a virtual sound device, that way if i record audacity, it will only record the teamspeak audio and not the games/windows sounds. It will be nice to have the ability to choose this same options.

With 1+2 we already have all we need to start editing our videos with the best quality in any app we want.

[vivan]

Lagarith is slow (~20-25 fps 1080p video decoding on my system), UT Video is much faster (~90 fps). Anyway, DS decoder for FIC is planned... So it would be possible to recompress video to any format.

Btw, is 4:4:4 (or RGB24) recording planned?

[radi]

Lagarith is slow (~20-25 fps 1080p video decoding on my system), UT Video is much faster (~90 fps). Anyway, DS decoder for FIC is planned... So it would be possible to recompress video to any format.

Btw, is 4:4:4 (or RGB24) recording planned?

4:2:2 is planned first for recording as it will not stress GPU more then the current format. 4:4:4 format will be available in future Action! releases.

1. I think the most important feature will be to export the .fic files to a lossless codec that any other app can use without problems, and the answer to that is the Lagarith Codec

"Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is a lossless video codec created to successfully deal especially with editing and archiving tasks. In terms of comparison with other codecs, Lagarith manages to offer a better compression than even more famous codecs, such as Huffyuv or CorePNG. That might make you think that the downside of Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is the speed. Actually that's not the case, as this smart codec offers great compression and it also manages to be faster than powerful codecs such as MSU. According to its developer, the compression provided by Lagarith is typically 10-30% better than Huffyuv, and that's only for DVD videos.

Lagarith is able to operate in several colorspaces - RGB24, RGB32, RGBA, YUY2, and YV12, and comes with support for null frames as well.

Briefly, Lagarith Lossless Video Codec is a great choice for anyone needing a powerful, fast and effective lossless video codec.

Any tool that can accept avs scripts can accept lagarith through avisynth frameserving ; for example ffmpeg can (the engine behind winff)."

I use this with sony vegas after capturing with fraps... to avoid many problems.

2. The ability to choose wich audio device Action! should record. We have the mic selection but no audio playback output selection. I have teamspeak configurated to use a virtual sound device, that way if i record audacity, it will only record the teamspeak audio and not the games/windows sounds. It will be nice to have the ability to choose this same options.

With 1+2 we already have all we need to start editing our videos with the best quality in any app we want.

As Vivan mentioned, we are currently in progress of making our own codec that will allow Action! users to open .fic files in every application that uses DirectShow