Recording screen-casts on another computer

Question

We're trying to record the desktops of users using demo versions of our software (this is an in-house lab setup). We need to have the recording happen on a separate computer (just across the room), so that the recording software doesn't interfere with the user.

Every screen recording software I've seen will only record what's happening on the computer its installed on; ie, you can't record what's happening on another computer. So it seems I need to cobble together a solution (unless anyone knows of software that will do this).

Getting the video to the other computer seems easy enough. I'm using TightVNC with the DFMirage driver on the test computer. The recording computer connects to the test computer with TightVNC and then uses CamStudio to record what's happening.

The real problem is how to deal with the audio. We need to record both what the user is saying (through a headset mic) as well as the sounds produced by the test computer. But VNC doesn't transmit audio. :(

I'm not sure how to get both audio streams (mic and sounds) over to the recording computer. Any ideas?

Answer 1

The VNC variants don't support remote audio, but many other remote desktop programs do, including Microsoft's.

See this Comparison of remote desktop software for ones that contain Audio Support.

Answer 2

Remote Desktop might be a good idea. I've had luck recording screencasts off of our Dev server via RDP. For a regular Win7 Prof. desktop, you have to enable Remote Desktop in the Remote tab of System Properties. Might have to play around with the audio mixing on the desktop.

Answer 3

Well if worst comes to worst, you could always use a Digital Camcorder that records the users facial expressions and gives you access to audio.

You could then merge the audio with the footage taken of the computer screen.

Not an ideal answer but something you may want to consider.

There were some questions on either SU or SO about redirecting audio over a network.