Ah, I have not seen that comparison website before. That's really cool, thank you for that. I see what you mean with the smoothing. I had noticed a slight darkening of my footage with FICV as well, but I don't think any of my users would even notice while watching it. It still looks really good for a lossy codec, I have to admit. I don't mind large files, this is a dedicated video editing computer I work off of. I prefer having the very best quality possible to start with so that my final render will look it's best before uploading to companies media servers. Normally, I record using lossless RGB, but the current project I am working on revolves around recording the Windows desktop and my other program I normally use just hooks into AERO, so it is not well suited for what I am recording. When the mouse cursor hovers over hyperlinks and changes to the "finger" pointer icon and would disappear from the recording, also it would disappear from the recording while over certain application windows. Action! does not have any of those issues and keeps a constant framerate instead of the AERO variable framerate. I also like the built in "Show mouse clicks" option. I just really wish I could use a truly lossless vfw codec in Action!. That would really push this from being a good screen recorder to a great one. I have had my copy of Action! for nearly a year and only used it maybe twice because I am a bit spoiled
. If I am honest I was even looking last night at alternative applications to add to my collection, but most dedicated desktop recorders only use proprietary codecs like Action! does, and the ones that do let you pick codecs are dedicated to video game recording with an AERO hook added as a kind of after thought.
My guess is that Action! will eventually allow you to select a vfw codec like most of it's competition, but by that time I will have completed my current project. I can't really complain, though. It will do what I need it to do. I just have to get over my OCD knowing that I am taking a lossy source video, running it though an NLE, transcoding to a lossless codec since FICV does not work as a vfw codec (it does not appear to have a configuration interface so there is no way to pass along to the codec your quality and color range configuration options that Action! passes along) that will probably be in a different color space from the original and then transcode to the final delivery format for the company media servers since I have never seen an NLE that has fine enough controls to get a truly good looking final product that doesn't involve "throwing" unnecessarily high bit rates at the file. *Starts to hyperventilate at the thought of all that unnecessary quality loss*