(I posted this in Ambrosia Central originally, then I realized that it probably belongs in here. Sorry for the double posting.)

I use Snapz Pro X (2.0.2) to record some web training sessions. The problem I'm having is it takes my Mac about 50% or more of the length of the movie to save and compress, and often there is another training session I want to record right after the first. For Example: I record a one hour web session, but there is another one hour session starting in a few minutes. But it takes 30 minutes or more to save and compress the first one hour session, so I can't record the second session. Getting a faster Mac would probably help, but that is not an option right now, and I am already using the lowest possible compressor settings right now. (1 fps, graphics 256 color compession.)

My thought was this: Obviously, Snapz saves the 'raw' recording somewhere on the startup disk, then compresses and saves it to the final location, after I select the compressor type, etc. I thought I could somehow save the temporary raw recording after stopping the recording, but before compressing and saving, and then restore the raw recording later, to do the compressing and saving. But, I can not find the location of the temporary file. (The Movie Info tab shows location as just 'startup disk' which does not help much.) I have tried to do a search for new files on the startup disk, when the recording is done, but before I compress and save, but can not find anything that shows up in a regular search.

Anybody know where the temprary file is stored? Or any other way to be able to do back-to-back recordings, and have Snapz do the compress and save later? Maybe this is a possible feature to add to Snapz Pro?

Thanks for any input.

Griffin

Hello-
There is no way to do this simply with this version of Snapz Pro X 2.

The temporary files are saved in an invisible folder in your Home directory. Accessing and moving those files around is not an easy thing to do.

The ability to batch process recordings is on the To Do list for the next major revision of SP X 2.

The temprary file(s) are stored as part of the Unix file system which you normally can't see.
You'll thus either have to
- use Terminal
- use the 'Go...' option in Finder
- switch invisible files off using an uitlity like Tinkertools

The actual location is : /private/var/tmp/folders.[number]/TemporaryItems/ where [number] is the number associated with your user account. You'll possibly find 3 files there:
- [number].rMic
- [number].sSnd
- tmp.[hash]
where [number] and [hash] are randomly generated for each capture. These files are erased immediately after having been used. the rMic and sSnd files are for sound capture, the tmp for video capture. Especially the tmp file can get very,VERY large !!!

If you use ssh to log into your computer from another computer, you can watch these files grow in size like this:
First, find the process number for Snapz : ps -aux | grep -i snapz
Second, issue this command : lsof -p [process-number] -s -r 1 | grep '/private/var/tmp/folders'

For information on how to move the scratch file look here : http://www.ambrosiasw.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=92384

While we appreciate the info being provided, users need to realize that things can easily go awry in Terminal. Ambrosia is aware of the limitations currently in Snapz and we're looking to improve them in the next major upgrade. If any users decide to try this stuff out, you're doing so at your own risk. These steps are in no way supported by Ambrosia.

Indeed. However, I have the problem of having too much free space on the FW400 connected hard drives and a very busy startup drive. I try to keep the startup drive <= 65 percent full. A sound editor I liked used /var/tmp up to some new release number I can't recall. When that app used /var/tmp and I let the free space creep (say 95% used) causing a crash or exit, it would would ask me if I wanted to recover the existing files the next time it ran. Now the app allows the temporary file to be located anywhere. Well, recovery at my current rev level v2.x cannot be one unless I get v3.x at a price. Cool till today when I had to remove 68GB of a recording forever. I tell you this because I understand the problem you face and maybe there is a way out.
1) I cannot recall how but I think /var can be placed on another drive at startup. This may be just a FreeBSD thing. The app would never notice but I bet the /Tiger/private/var structure would complain. I really don't know; old brain cells may be dreaming.
2) Also, I watched the /tmp while snapz 2.1 processed. Ouch! Only saw 3 files; rVid the obvious source, rSnd generated when dubbing and rSn the final save. I see all files in finder ('cause I am that way - retentive is polite word) so I just cmd+C rVid open finder window and cmd+V the file where I want it. After the "that's a wrap" signal I put it back. The next invoke of snapz acted as if nothing happened and processed with no error. I deleted the moved rVid file. This is far from perfect and I am logged-in as admin (yes root is disabled) and the test files where only 2 minutes of 15fps with video compression "NONE" selected.

Conclusion: Safer than Terminal where a typing error can be a heart stopper for non-terminal folks. If a script can do this there is no real danger to the startup drive. Have not gotten there yet. Problem: I did assembly code for 30 yr and script looks like mutant Cobol. I may give it a go.

Disclaimer/Warning: This idea is not a recommendation. It is a theory that can mess up your startup drive, require a full reinstall of OS from the install disk. I do this "what if" testing for a living. Made my cat run for a tree once. I screamed loud and didn't hear it -- my code error made a 250GB seagate HD a paper weight; it was the startup drive. You're now I hope.
'till later -duddits

Hi Team,

Snapz Pro X is a great App… but it has a little bit lacks and whacks
on the user-friendly side.

I´ve recorded a longer session (movie and sound) yesterday
and unfortunately Snapz Pro X (2.1) finished in terminating itself
(i was´nt working at the mac at all…).
Problem was that i had
a. no file of the recording at all visible (!), like a ".mo", whatever
b. my harddrive shows that approx. 145 GB (!) where, aehm say, "lost".

Fireing Snapz Prox X up was no solution to bring back my diskspace…
I had to to this job BY HAND and with the little but lucky help
of the tipps and tricks givin above. So don´t put the blame on users.

Snapz Pro, i love it, really. But that´s no solution and should be handled
quickly. So why not write to an VISIBLE folder? To easy for programers?
Not enough pizza?

PLEASE!

Hello,
Sorry for your frustration. If something went wrong, the temp file would be placed in your Trash. I'd recommend rebooting and checking there. The temp file should only remain in thew temp folder if the Save Later feature is being utilized. Hope this helps

I'm new to SnapzPro on my system, although I've used it plenty elsewhere. I bought it primarily to make tech-support screencasts of the 3-30 minute variety.

The lack of ability to choose your temporary storage location has become a complete dealbreaker for me. Secondarily, the massive size of the files is also absolutely nutty. I'm a laptop user - my startup drive is, by laptop definition, small. Ideally I'd like to capture on my internal drive when making short recordings (say, while at a customer site) but I'd be fine using an external for the lengthier stuff.

I could connect an external drive to store the temporary files, but since you force them to /tmp that's useless (and I'm not going to go about doing a unix link to an external drive, that's a nasty hack waiting to bite one in the backside). One little preference button to choose a directory would make many users much happier. It's about five minutes of programming. This should not be a major feature awaiting a new version - it should happen with a minor update, right now.

Storing temporary files on another drive would also make everything faster - since the system drive is already busy doing, well, system stuff.

Since you're already talking about this "improvement" in the next major version of Snapz, I'm hoping you'll make it a free upgrade, at least as of your disclosure (Aug 12 2007 in the above message).

Also, many current Macs are plenty fast enough to compress on the fly, reducing the need for massive raw files.

I don't mean to sound like an whiney customer, but these current limitations just strike me as incredibly, incredibly lame, like video capture was a minor afterthought.

Hello mitchcohen,
Sorry for your frustration. Due to the way Snapz captures and it's ability to be invoked at any time, we had to develop an entirely custom saving system. It is by no means a simple change in code. If it were that simple, it would have gladly been done a long time ago!

We realize it's a limitation for some, and it will change for the better. However it will not be in the 2.x version, but part of the next generation of Snapz. As it will be a new product altogether, it will not be a free update, but there will be a fair upgrade path. We very much appreciate your feedback