How do I capture a video of my Windows 7 desktop in VLC media player?

I used to be able to capture a video of my desktop in Windows 7 in an older version of VLC media player. But they've recently changed the UI, and I can't seem to work out now how to record my desktop in the latest version of VLC media player 1.1.7.

I've searched the Internet, but all the tutorials and "how-tos" target an older version of VLC media player.

What are all the steps (how you chose what file you want to save the recoding to, etc.), not just to use screen:// or choose desktop. The problem I'm having is actually saving it out as a file.

Perhaps it's because my Windows 7 is 64 bit and VLC is 32 bit?

I'm running VLC v1.1.8

1. Go to Media
2. Click Open Capture Device
3. In the capture mode dropdown (where it says DirectShow by default), select Desktop

The show more options checkbox will allow you to adjust extra functions

Next click the dropdown arrow next too play and select convert

This will allow you to select the file save location (remember to add the file container e.g MP4) preform a test run in case you are unsure which file container you require.

Next select the settings you require from the drop down box you can edit them as required.

When you select convert the vlc screen will black out and recording will begin. Please note there is no audio capture (at least not in the settings I used)

Press stop to finish recording

Edit: Updated too add notes from my comment for an easier read

If you are really looking for a screencast, then why do you need VLC? You can always go for software such as screen-capture-recorder-to-video-windows-free and virtual-audio-capture-grabber-device which are free and open source. If you want to see how it works before trying it out, you can visit this tutorial.

The basic logic behind these is that they use ffmpeg2 which in turn uses 'screen-capture-recorder-to-video-windows-free' for its video input and 'virtual-audio-capture-grabber-device which are free' for its audio input. Both of these are configurable. The tutorial shows how smooth the recording goes. These software also provide a UI (developed in Java) for changing settings as suited to the user.

e.g use (from command line):

ffmpeg -f dshow -i audio="virtual-audio-capturer":video="screen-capture-recorder" ScreenCast.mp4

I believe "screen://" is what you are looking for.

Good discussion here: http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=48324