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Kaltura Capture - Troubleshooting strategies

This document provides some basic information on troubleshooting Kaltura Capture issues.


Kaltura Capture is a relatively new tool - we want to remind users to keep recordings short: 4-6 minutes max. This way if there are issues it isn't as burdensome to recreate with Kaltura Capture or another tool if need be. Instructors and staff can download and use TechSmith Camtasia as an alternative - it is more capable and lets users do editing to update their screen or webcam captures. This document provides some troubleshooting strategies for addressing issues with Kaltura Capture

Minimum specifications

First - make sure your machine meets the minimum requirements to run Kaltura Capture. The minimum requirements are listed in Kaltura Capture - Installation  and Kaltura Capture - Prerequisites and System Requirements.

Kaltura Capture updates

Once installed by an end-user as described in  Kaltura Capture will attempt to auto-update itself if the application is left idle for approximately five minutes. A message will display informing the user the update is taking place, to not start a new capture until the update is complete, and a final notification letting the user know the update is finished. Kaltura Capture installations installed to lab deployments do not auto-update. Alternately you can try uninstalling and reinstalling.

Try recording one device at a time

If you're having trouble recording try recording only either your screen or your webcam. If one works but not the other, that can help narrow down what device you need to work on updating the driver or settings for.

System and display driver updates

Check to see if your operating system is up to date - generally it's a good idea to keep your operating system up-to-date. If you have local IT support staff it's best to work with them on the instructions in this section. Device driver issues can cause a number of issues on Windows with Kaltura Capture. To check your display device and driver in Windows:
  1. Start Windows Device manager by clicking the Windows click or button and typing in Device Manager. 
  2. Click Enter. Device Manager will load.
  3. Click Display adapters to expand your display drivers:
    A screenshot showing the Windows Device Manager with "Display adapters" expanded and outlined in orange to help point it out.
    The display driver is usually the issue but I've also expanded the Cameras device to show that you can also display and check your camera driver. Monitor drivers have also caused issues for a small number of users and could be updated as well.

    It's possible your computer may have more than one display adapter listed here which can cause issues with Kaltura Capture. Try disabling a non-needed display adapter. For example testing has shown that Citrix Workspace installs a Citrix Indirect Display Adapter which is not compatible with Kaltura Capture. The Citrix Indirect Display Adapter needs to be disabled, your machine restarted and then Kaltura Capture should function.
  4. Double click on the adapter. A new window will open for it.
  5. Click the Driver tab.
  6. Click Update Driver:
    A screenshot showing a display driver tab.
  7. Click Search automatically for an updated display driver software. Alternately your graphics card vendor may have updated drivers to download from their website.

Try changing the capture resolution

Try changing the resolution in Kaltura Capture Manage → Settings to record a lower quality / resolution:
A screenshot showing the Kaltura Capture settings and a detail for the options to set the "Camera recording quality" and "Screen recording quality".

Free hard drive space

The amount of free space you need on your hard drive depends on a lot of factors: if you're only capturing your webcam, your screen, or both, the resolution you're capturing, the amount of motion/change, and the duration of your capture. Generally we recommend that you should have at least 1 GB of free space available. A 1080p webcam recording records approximately 10 MB/min, and a 1080p screen recording records approximately 10 MB/min.

Testing your home internet connection

While you don't need a fast internet connection to download Kaltura Capture or create screen recordings, having a good internet connection is important when you're ready to upload them to Kaltura MediaSpace. Captures that include both the screen and webcam are twice as large and will take twice as long to upload and process. Test your speed by going to fast.com. The test will initially run and show you your downloads speed. Click the "Show more info" button to see your upload speed.

1 Mbps upload speed should be able to upload a 250 MB file in about 33 minutes. File size depends on whether you capture both the screen and webcam, and what quality you are capturing at. A test 5 minute capture which included both the camera and screen set to 1080p quality was 233 MB.

Locating your local Kaltura Capture file recordings

See Kaltura Capture - Locating the local recording files on your computer. Generally you don't want to rename or move these files (it will break Kaltura Capture's connection to them and you won't be able to upload or play them back in Kaltura Capture), but you can create a copy of them to put in another folder to rename or use with other applications, manually upload to Kaltura MediaSpace or other video streaming services.

Memory under 1 GB error message

Generally the warning message will appear if you are running too many applications. Try to close any unneeded applications before trying to create a screencast with Kaltura Capture. We have had reports of the error message when users have more than 1 GB of memory free.

macOS Kaltura Capture doesn't capture system audio

This is mentioned in Kaltura Capture - Installation , but Kaltura Capture on macOS is not able to capture system audio. For example - it cannot capture the audio from a video you play back while you are capturing. If you need to capture system audio we recommend purchasing a tool like TechSmith Camtasia.

Kaltura Capture and macOS Retina displays

macOS users who have a high resolution Retina display on their MacBook Pro or iMac may have quality issues. Some strategies for dealing with this are outlined in Kaltura - Known Issue - Kaltura Capture and macOS resolution and quality issues .



Keywords:kaltura, mediaspace, troubleshooting, error, bug, issue, update, speed, connection, internet, file, location,system, audio, device, camera, screen, driver, resolution, drive, space,connection, speed,memory,macos, capture,retina, display   Doc ID:99823
Owner:Learn@UW Madison .Group:Learn@UW-Madison
Created:2020-03-31 15:49 CDTUpdated:2020-09-25 08:15 CDT
Sites:DoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW-Madison
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