Java VNC Applet vs Screen Capture

Question

I am trying to make an application in which one component captures the screen of the user (for screen casting). I am aware that there are two options to achieve the same using a Java applet (please correct me if I am wrong). First is to use the java applet to take screen shots continuously and convert it into a video and upload it as a video file. And second is to create a java vnc server and record it as a .fbs file and play it using a player like: http://www.wizhelp.com/flashlight-vnc/index.html

I would like to know the best solution in terms of video quality, file size, cross-platform compatibility (windows and mac), firewall problems and finally ease of implementation.

I am very new to Java. Please tell me whats the best solution for my problem. Also, is it easy enough for me to program it on my own or should I get it developed via a freelancer. I have tons of programming experience (5+ years in LAMP) but none in Java.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

I agree that this is pretty hard. I implemented those two solutions (VNC and onboard screen capture) plus a third (capture from an external VGA source via an Epiphan grabber) for a former employer. I had the best bandwidth-to-quality ratio with VNC, but I got higher framerate with VGA capture. In all three cases, I reduced the frames + capture times to PNGs and sequenced them in a QuickTime reference movie. Then I made flattened video (MPEG4 or SWF) of the results. In my case, I then synchronized the screen video with a DV stream.

In the end the technology worked (see a sample of the output) but our business model failed.