How to Record a Webinar Timeshifting

Webinars can be captured for playback at a later time.

Web seminars (webinars) are a valuable tool for distance learning and for self-instruction. The entity offering the webinar serves a multimedia stream with video and audio over the Internet. Attendees connect to the webinar server to have the video play on their computers, regardless of where they are located. However, webinars often happen at inconvenient times, or the taker may be interested in only some parts of the presentation. The capability to replay segments at later times and to skip over irrelevant portions are valuable. Special multimedia software can bring the benefits of timeshifting to webinars on any Windows computer.

Instructions

1. Schedule the webinar to start playing on the computer when the webinar goes live. This is done by clicking "Start," "All Programs," "Accessories," "System Tools," "Scheduled Tasks." Select "One Time Only" and set it up to start the Web browser at the time the webinar will start. Make sure to have the browser start in fullscreen mode.

   If the webinar site requires a log in, do that at the time you schedule the playback task. The Web browser will retain the login cookie, so that Windows Task Scheduler can initiate playback when the time comes.

2. Schedule the recording task to start when the webinar goes live, too. Follow the same steps outlined in the previous step to have a screen-capture utility (such as the free CamStudio or RecordMyDesktop) start capturing the region of the screen where the video of the webcast will display. The screen-capture utility will generate a video file stored locally, typically having the .AVI extension and containing the whole presentation.

   Make sure you set up the screen-capture utility to stop recording when the webinar is scheduled to be over. Add some extra time at the end to account for late starts, so that you do not miss the final portion of the broadcast.

3. Play the video file at leisure using Windows Media Player.

References

• Microsoft Support: How to Schedule Tasks in Windows XP

Resources

• Screencast: How to Capture Screen Action With CamStudio
• RecordMyDesktop: About RecordMyDesktop