Recording - Slow Performance While Recording a Lesson

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Troubleshooting Guide: Slow Performance While Recording a Lesson

🛠️ Introduction

Did you turn on lesson recording and suddenly find that your computer slowed down, the video started freezing, or the whiteboard stopped responding? This happens because recording a video conference places considerable demands on your computer, which needs to manage video, audio, screen sharing, and recording all at once.

This guide provides practical solutions and optimizations to address this problem. The actions are ordered from greatest to least impact. Follow the steps in the suggested order for the best results.

1. Optimizing the Recording Extension (The Main Cause)

Since recording triggers the problem, the first step is to reduce the load it places on your system.

Reduce the Recording Resolution

How: In the extension’s settings menu, before starting a recording, avoid high-resolution options such as “4K” or “1080p”. Under Max resolution, select 720p.
Why it works: Reducing the resolution drastically decreases the amount of data the computer needs to process each second, easing the load on the processor.

Disable Your Camera in the Recording

How: In the extension’s camera selection, choose No camera.
Why it works: Your camera is already being displayed in the video conference and captured by the recording. There is no need to also display your camera through the recording extension.

Record Only the Lesson Tab

How: When starting a recording, always choose “Tab area” (record this tab) instead of “Screen” (record the entire desktop).
Why it works: This allows Google Chrome to optimize capture, focusing its resources only on relevant content and ignoring other windows and operating system processes.

2. Adjusting Google Chrome Settings

The browser needs all the help it can get to manage memory and graphics processing.

Enable Hardware Acceleration

How:
1. Go to Configurações > Sistema (Settings > System).
2. Make sure “Usar aceleração de hardware quando disponível” (Use hardware acceleration when available) is ON.
Why it works: This setting transfers graphics processing (such as the whiteboard and video) to the graphics card, freeing the main processor for other tasks.

Manage Memory and Close Unnecessary Tabs

How:
1. Go to Configurações > Desempenho (Settings > Performance) and enable “Economia de memória” (Memory Saver).
2. Keep only your Slingui lesson tab open. Close all other tabs, especially resource-intensive ones such as YouTube, Gmail, or social media.
Why it works: Chrome uses a significant amount of RAM for each open tab. Reducing the number of tabs frees essential memory for the video conference and recording.

Clear the Cache

How:
1. In Chrome, press Ctrl + Shift + Delete.
2. In the window that opens, under “Intervalo de tempo” (Time range), select “Todo o período” (All time).
3. Select ONLY the checkbox: ✅ Imagens e arquivos armazenados em cache (Cached images and files).
4. Clear the other checkboxes (such as “Cookies” and “Histórico” — History) so you are not signed out of other websites.
5. Click “Remover dados” (Clear data).
Important: After clearing the cache, close the browser completely and reopen it.

3. Adjustments in Slingui Video Conferencing

Reducing real-time video complexity frees resources for recording and the whiteboard.

Disable Camera Background Effects

How: If you are using background blur or a virtual background, disable it while recording.
Why it works: These effects use real-time artificial intelligence and consume substantial processing power (CPU) that could be used for recording.

Turn Off Your Camera When It Is Not Essential

How: If you (or your student) are focused on screen sharing or the whiteboard, turn off the camera briefly.
Why it works: Encoding and transmitting your video in real time also consumes resources. Turning it off eases the load on your system.

4. Operating System Optimizations (Windows)

Prepare your operating system to prioritize the lesson and recording.

Adjust the Power Mode

How: Click the battery/power icon in the taskbar and select “Melhor Desempenho” (Best Performance), especially if you are using a laptop.

Enable Windows Game Mode

How: Type “Modo de Jogo” (Game Mode) in the Start menu and enable it.
Why it works: Although designed for gaming, this mode helps prioritize graphics processes (such as video conferencing) and prevents Windows updates and other background tasks from interrupting your lesson.

Update Your Graphics (GPU) Drivers

How: Keeping your graphics card drivers up to date is strongly recommended. Search Google for “atualizar driver [Marca da sua placa]” (update driver [your card’s brand]), replacing the placeholder with the correct brand (e.g., Intel HD Graphics, NVIDIA, or AMD).
Why it works: Old drivers may fail to run Chrome’s hardware acceleration correctly, overloading the processor.

5. Plan B: If the Problem Persists

If your computer is older and still runs slowly with the extension after all these optimizations:

Use Windows’ Built-In Recorder

How: Instead of the Slingui extension, use “Xbox Game Bar”, which comes installed with Windows.
- Press Windows + G to open the bar.
- Click the record button or use Windows + Alt + R to start and stop recording.
Advantage: Native operating system recorders are much lighter and more optimized than browser extensions.
Disadvantage: After the lesson, you will need to upload the video file manually to the platform or another service of your choice to share it with students.