RECORDING

Capture the field interface to MP4

RECORD A SESSION

Click REC or press F9.
SPECTER captures the app window to MP4 (H.264).
Stop again with F9 or REC.
If a fallback transcode runs, wait for the progress bar to finish before closing the app.

Bitrates are optimized for smaller files on long investigations, so an all-night session does not fill a drive.

RECORDING QUALITY TIERS

Configure your recording parameters within the Settings panel (accessible via Ctrl+Shift+G). SPECTER provides several quality tiers to fit your storage and analytical requirements:

Quality Tier	Bitrate	Description
Standard	8 Mbps	Optimized for long overnight surveillance sessions to prevent disk exhaustion.
Broadcast	16 Mbps	Industry standard high-fidelity output for detailed evidence and audio review.
Ultra	28 Mbps	Maximum image detail retention, perfect for frame-by-frame analysis of visual anomalies.

AUTOMATIC DETECTION CLIPS

When an active detector triggers, SPECTER automatically records an isolated 20-second high-resolution video clip of the event. Each clip is structured as follows:

10 seconds pre-roll: Pre-buffer footage captured immediately leading up to the detection trigger.
10 seconds post-roll: Post-buffer footage captured immediately following the trigger.

This automatic pre-roll and post-roll capturing ensures investigators never miss the vital physical context preceding or trailing a detection event.

TIMECODE & EVIDENCE METADATA

If you set a project start timecode and frame rate in Settings (Ctrl+Shift+G), recordings and captures share that same global timecode. In addition to being burned into the video visually, this global timecode is permanently stamped directly into each clip's evidence metadata. This allows investigators to effortlessly align SPECTER footage with external cameras, environmental logging hardware, and audio recorders during post-investigation review. See the field guide for details.

INSTRUMENT BAY RECORDINGS

If you screen-record while the Instrument Bay display (the direction-finder radar and telemetry dashboards) is running, SPECTER automatically captures a synced telemetry log alongside your main recording, tracking every proximity and magnetic-vector reading for the whole take.

That log on its own is not a video. To turn it into an actual clip, use the new render queue:

Open Settings (the gear) and go to the Recording tab.
Find Instrument Bay Recordings and click Open Render Queue.
Every take with a telemetry log is listed. Click Queue Render on one, or Queue All Pending to batch the whole backlog.
Watch it move through Queued → Rendering → Done. A live log tail shows while it renders.

The rendered clip lands right next to your main recording, named the same but ending in .instrument-bay.mp4, and shares the exact same global timecode. Drop it onto your NLE timeline at the same point as the main footage and it lines up automatically, no manual sync required.

Rendering pauses automatically while a new take is recording, so it never competes for resources with a live session, then resumes on its own the moment you stop.

Something go wrong mid-render? It's marked Error with the reason shown right on the card, and a Retry Render button to try again. A render can also be cancelled mid-flight.

TRANSCODE PROGRESS

If the app has to fall back to a temporary WebM capture, it converts the file to MP4 after you stop. A transcode progress bar appears until the MP4 is ready. Do not close SPECTER until it finishes, or the final file may be incomplete.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Symptom	Fix
Recording won't start	Check Windows screen-capture permission; run as a normal user (not an RDP-locked session).
Long wait after stop	A transcode is in progress, watch the progress bar.
Huge file	Use a medium bitrate in settings; update to the build with the ffmpeg pipe.
No audio	Check the recording audio device in settings.