Videotaping Computer/TV screens

[Jeremy L]

Does anybody know of a way to reduce/eliminate that effect of screen-refreshing (the band of darker light that moves up or down the screen) when videotaping a computer screen or TV screen? Thanks.

[Timothy D. Ginn]

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question336.htm explains why the problem happens and what you can do about it (the easiest way being to record off an LCD monitor/laptop; but, alternatively you can adjust the refresh rate of your existing monitor)

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Jeremy L

Does anybody know of a way to reduce/eliminate that effect of screen-refreshing (the band of darker light that moves up or down the screen) when videotaping a computer screen or TV screen? Thanks.

If you're only interested in the content on the television, many videocameras allow for connecting to televisions and recording as if the camera is a VCR.
We also videotape content off computer screens using video out ports on our laptops the same way. This works great for recording webcasts of regionals during the competition season.

[BuddyB309]

yes go into the manual settings of the camera and turn off any auto adjusting settings the camera has on.

[Jeremy L]

I'll be needing to tape someone looking at a computer screen with the image/text on the screen being the objective of the shot. Looks like I'll be going with a laptop on this one. Thanks for the help!

Originally Posted by Jeremy L

Does anybody know of a way to reduce/eliminate that effect of screen-refreshing (the band of darker light that moves up or down the screen) when videotaping a computer screen or TV screen? Thanks.

I supposed one way is playing around with the refresh rates on the monitor, also turn off steady shot or image stabilizer and if you're camera has shutter speed adjustments you may be able to work with that.

On my Sony DSR-570 I turn on the shutter and the scroll that side wheel down out of shutter mode to CLS and select something like 74.3hz...usually works.

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Why not use a screen capture program like Camtasia or something like that?
That program is expensive, but there are others like it for much cheaper.

[artdutra04]

I found I can eliminate those annoying black bars on my video camera when I manually set the shutter speed to 1/60 of a second per frame.

Edit: It works for CRT computer monitors and CRT television screens.