VB.NET monitor a desktop activity.

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

Hello everyone,

I have a program that automatically print screen every second an save the image using a timer. Its working well, my problem is that its eating may disk space 1 file = 120KB. Is there a way to do this which will not require much disk space... maybe a video, gif anything.

Please help.. Thanks in advance

REVISION
I use this function to get the desktop image (found this on the Internet)

VB

Private Function CaptureScreen(ByVal locX As Integer, ByVal locY As Integer, ByVal width As Integer, ByVal height As Integer) As Bitmap
    Dim NewImage As New Bitmap(width, height)
    Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(NewImage)
    g.CopyFromScreen(locX, locY, 0, 0, NewImage.Size)
    Return NewImage
End Function

In my Timer (1000 second interval)

VB

If Not IO.Directory.Exists("C:\Folder\") Then IO.Directory.CreateDirectory("C:\Folder\")
Dim bit As Bitmap = CaptureScreen(0, 0, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height)
bit.Save("C:\Folder\" & Format(Now, "yyyyMMdd hhmmss") & ".jpg", Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)

Posted 2-Oct-13 23:52pm

hansoctantan

Updated 3-Oct-13 0:13am

v2

Add a Solution

Comments

Richard MacCutchan 3-Oct-13 6:08am

That would make no difference. If each image takes 120K then it would use almost as much in a video stream. You could try using some better compression.

Sriram Bala 3-Oct-13 7:21am

Instead of .jpf format, you can try .gif format this will save you some space. http://www.siriusweb.com/tutorials/gifvsjpg/

hansoctantan 3-Oct-13 7:30am

I will try, thanks...

hansoctantan 3-Oct-13 7:33am

you are correct, gif cuts half the size but the quality is bad..
I don't know if what i did is correct change this to Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg = Imaging.ImageFormat.Gif

hansoctantan 3-Oct-13 7:35am

also the site you given, my browser cant load the images... I don't know why?

Sriram Bala 3-Oct-13 8:23am

There is a resolved post in codeproject for file conversion. This does for .png to .jpeg. Please have a look it might help you.
http://www.codeproject.com/Questions/601801/Howplustoplusconvertplus-Pngplusimageplusintoplus

member 8888995 8-Oct-13 1:38am

Use '.gif' image format. You can compress images to make a zip file , If you want to save disk space.

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Bernhard Hiller · Answer 1 · 2013-10-07T20:38:00

No, the comments above point into the totally wrong direction. The compressed file format does hardly matter, that can make up just a few percent.
What really makes a difference is the concept: instead of storing the whole screen everytime, store the difference to the previous screen only. That is, first picture is full screen, and later on it is most often almost nothing which needs to be stored. Find a way to detect the difference, and to encode them such taht you can restore the current screen. For long-term recordings, it could be appropriate to save the full screen from time to time, thus adjusting the base line.