Mobility Site - View Single Post - ALL Secrets of making Pocket PC screenshots

Menneisyys · 12-24-06, 06:42 AM

UPDATE (12/06/2006): Smartbar 1.2 has been released with an extremely capable and highly recommended screen capturer module. Please see THIS (making sure you also follow the link to the 1.0 review) for a complete overview. In a nutshell, the pros / cons / verdict:

Pros

Uses a 3-second delay by default; that is, it can be used to make menu screenshots (without using the periodic screenshot capabilities)
Able to capture images in periodic mode
If you use it on a device with a built-in thumb/keyboard and you enable screen capturing through Ultra Keyboard, you will be able to capture almost any game screen any time (!) by just entering the Ultra Keyboard shortcut (“CAP” by default). In this respect, the suite is unbeatable and unrivalled.
Periodic screenshot capturing is fast and, therefore, gaming-friendly (unlike, say, BeniSoft ScreenShotCE)
Both BMP and JPG output; the latter with settable quality
Can save files to anywhere, not just the main storage
Can capture images, in addition to the original (100%) size, at double and triple (200% / 300%) size – very useful on QVGA devices to avoid further enlargement and unique among all the screen capturer applications
Landscape & VGA compliant even in SE VGA mode

Cons

While the screenshot utility is a self-standing app, it cannot be invoked from a custom-written nScriptm script to fine-tune periodic screenshot making parameters
(Trial version useless: it inserts a message in the captured images)

All in all, the screenshot capabilities of SmartBar 1.2 are excellent, especially when you take the price of the suite into account. Also, as has already been pointed out, the ability to make hardware (thumb) keyboard-based screenshots of games / apps is unbeatable and unique.

UPDATE (12/24/2006): Ilium Software’s new, free Screen Capture has been released. (Current, reviewed version 1.1).

It supports both

timed operation, which must be initiated by Menu/Timer and where you can set an arbitrary delay between 1 and 30 seconds as can also be seen in here and here
hardware key-based operation, where you can assign the hotkey to any of your hardware buttons. Unfortunately, the authors don’t seem to have read my articles of programmatically getting the available buttons’ list because it lists six available hardware buttons on even the HP iPAQ h2210 (which, of course, only has four of them).

It’s WM2003+ (no pre-WM2003 compatibility, sorry) and VGA compatible (without the need for hacking).

Unfortunately, it doesn’t support any kind of advanced functionality like continuous screenshot taking (not even from an external, handmade script – upon starting the application, the GUI will come up). It only uses BMP as the output format. You can’t give it a target directory either, which greatly reduces its usability on some WM5-upgraded “old” WM2003SE models like the iPAQ hx4700 and the Dell Axim x50(v) because of the compaction triggering issues.

All in all, I don’t really recommend this application if you need the most capable (but still free!) and preferably (external, script-based) continuous screenshot taking capabilities.

12-24-06, 06:42 AM	#24 (permalink)
Menneisyys Contributing Reviewer Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4,577 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	UPDATE (12/06/2006): Smartbar 1.2 has been released with an extremely capable and highly recommended screen capturer module. Please see THIS (making sure you also follow the link to the 1.0 review) for a complete overview. In a nutshell, the pros / cons / verdict: Pros Uses a 3-second delay by default; that is, it can be used to make menu screenshots (without using the periodic screenshot capabilities) Able to capture images in periodic mode If you use it on a device with a built-in thumb/keyboard and you enable screen capturing through Ultra Keyboard, you will be able to capture almost any game screen any time (!) by just entering the Ultra Keyboard shortcut (“CAP” by default). In this respect, the suite is unbeatable and unrivalled. Periodic screenshot capturing is fast and, therefore, gaming-friendly (unlike, say, BeniSoft ScreenShotCE) Both BMP and JPG output; the latter with settable quality Can save files to anywhere, not just the main storage Can capture images, in addition to the original (100%) size, at double and triple (200% / 300%) size – very useful on QVGA devices to avoid further enlargement and unique among all the screen capturer applications Landscape & VGA compliant even in SE VGA mode Cons While the screenshot utility is a self-standing app, it cannot be invoked from a custom-written nScriptm script to fine-tune periodic screenshot making parameters (Trial version useless: it inserts a message in the captured images) All in all, the screenshot capabilities of SmartBar 1.2 are excellent, especially when you take the price of the suite into account. Also, as has already been pointed out, the ability to make hardware (thumb) keyboard-based screenshots of games / apps is unbeatable and unique. UPDATE (12/24/2006): Ilium Software’s new, free Screen Capture has been released. (Current, reviewed version 1.1). It supports both timed operation, which must be initiated by Menu/Timer and where you can set an arbitrary delay between 1 and 30 seconds as can also be seen in here and here hardware key-based operation, where you can assign the hotkey to any of your hardware buttons. Unfortunately, the authors don’t seem to have read my articles of programmatically getting the available buttons’ list because it lists six available hardware buttons on even the HP iPAQ h2210 (which, of course, only has four of them). It’s WM2003+ (no pre-WM2003 compatibility, sorry) and VGA compatible (without the need for hacking). Unfortunately, it doesn’t support any kind of advanced functionality like continuous screenshot taking (not even from an external, handmade script – upon starting the application, the GUI will come up). It only uses BMP as the output format. You can’t give it a target directory either, which greatly reduces its usability on some WM5-upgraded “old” WM2003SE models like the iPAQ hx4700 and the Dell Axim x50(v) because of the compaction triggering issues. All in all, I don’t really recommend this application if you need the most capable (but still free!) and preferably (external, script-based) continuous screenshot taking capabilities. __________________ MS MVP- Mobile Devices.