Screen capturing software, anyone?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:43 am

I’m looking for first hand experiences in creating tutorials with real time software: screen capturing software that allows you to actually record a video with sound of what you are doing in the screen.

If you know and have had experiences with this kind of particular software, could you please tell me which one of them would you recommend and why? I am looking something professional, but certainly not too bulky and not too expensive either. Cheers

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 11:55 am

This looks like the best (i've been looking for something like that recently)
http://www.turbodemo.com/eng/index.htm

Myself, I use photoshop + the "print screen" key, add text, resize the image and exprot as gif. super light, and quite fast too. not very professional, but pretty ok to show a few on-screen things...

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:26 pm

I use WinSnap on my Windows machine: It's light, it's free if you want, and it has quite some options! Check it out

If you want a photo editor a la Photoshop that's free, check out Gimp, GNU Image Manipulation Program

You can then press PrintScreen, Ctl-N to make new and Ctl-V to paste inside Gimp...

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 12:45 pm

Sorry I mentionned photoshop, but I do all animations in Macromedia Fireworks: it allows to set the timing of each frame of your animated gif, and do nice texts too, in an easier fashion than with photoshop (i think).

petal · Post by **petal** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:20 pm

Theres also Fraps:

www.fraps.com

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you'll never know

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 1:46 pm

Thank you very much you guys for your comments.

More specifically, what I want is to be able to record in real time in avi or mov, the monuments I’m doing while I’m being recorded, so I can explain freely and friendly how to use an application. You’ll find that some universities, big software companies and others are doing it today, with great success, as it seems to finally brake the coldness that there are in books. You can hear somebody explaining you things that nobody will actually write, because it makes no sense to write in this way.

This is “exactly”, what I want to do, please check it out:

http://www.cvision.co.uk/total-training-demos.htm

This breaks the traditional way of learning completely. I need to create something like this for a software company, they are in fact, a printing company that needs to show their clients how to use their software in the easiest and most friendly way, and this is way the best way I have possibly think off, that’s why I am looking for a real time recording screen and voice software, with pro quality output.

AudioIrony · Post by **AudioIrony** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 3:40 pm

I'm not sure if this is the best option - but the blurb on the page says it will do what you want - it certainly doesn't look like bloatware.

http://www.etrusoft.com/screen-recorder/

arela · Post by **arela** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:26 pm

I tried to do a Cubase LE video for a friend. so i used this http://vidshot-capturer.softonic.de/ie/47157 (thx widy)
I set it up to 10 pic a second (no sound) and *.avi file
Then i edited this files to a big 50+ min video (EditStudio5) and added some soundclip from this set.
Then i rendered this to 1 50 min wmv file (win mediafile)
and: It took 19 hours to render.
(thought my 4200 X2 where reasonably fast, but this was bad news)

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:02 am

I used Fraps too, but keep in mind that Fraps is meant to record videos while you play a game. That´s why Fraps stores the recording uncompressed, you need a hell of harddisk storage.
Anyway it works great, after the recording you have to compress the video with virtual dub or similar program.

If you connect a mic to your PC it is possible to record the video including sound.

After that I think you´ll need a video editing software to make cuts, fades and add a good look, if it should look professional.

Good luck.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:45 am

Nestor wrote:...You can hear somebody explaining you things that nobody will actually write, because it makes no sense to write in this way.

This is “exactly”, what I want to do, please check it out:

http://www.cvision.co.uk/total-training-demos.htm

This breaks the traditional way of learning completely...

in fact it does - another great way to waste a few hours and ask yourself afterwards if you're really THAT stupid... or what was that bla about ?

this is the same BS that fills meters of shelfs in bookstores - and probably influenced your judgement of 'books' in general.
A well designed and written book is unbeaten in efficiency to transmit a certain context (exceeding a minimum degree of complexity). Most books are in fact NOT written that way.
The very same applies to trainings videos - most are in the same cash cow category as their printed equivalents.

I've watched just 2 examples, the Macromedia link and the Paragraph style of Indesign CS2.
The object's focus (in both cases) is about 5% of the screen's content, the moving cursor doesn't contribute and the story (background) is about things not even visible on screen - on a printed page you could visualize the same content 'at a glance'...

Don't get me wrong Nestor - if they pay you for that stuff - do it

don't even bother about my rant - it's what pays for your living eventually

just wanted to mention that some of the supposedly outdated stuff is pretty good, still ...

cheers, Tom

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:43 am

I've used Camtasia - seems pretty good. I could not get it to record audio reliably at the same time as video - recorded audio on a 2nd machine.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:50 am

sorry Nestor, I forgot - though it's pretty obvious... (and was suggested further up)

use one of the suggested screen recorders (for realtime) or any tool that animates screenshots to a video and do whatever is to be demonstrated.
then use a video editor and record the audio track
otherwise you have to be damn good in both handling the software AND as a performing speaker

cheers, Tom

btw just found this link - didn't check the content in depth, but it looks nice and may contain some ideas to... borrow from...

http://www.badblue.com/tutor.htm

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:22 pm

ChrisWerner wrote:I used Fraps too, but keep in mind that Fraps is meant to record videos while you play a game. That´s why Fraps stores the recording uncompressed, you need a hell of harddisk storage.
Anyway it works great, after the recording you have to compress the video with virtual dub or similar program.

If you connect a mic to your PC it is possible to record the video including sound.

After that I think you´ll need a video editing software to make cuts, fades and add a good look, if it should look professional.

Good luck.

Thank Chris, that's it, I think this is what I need, it dosn't matter the space it takes to record, as then you compress it and desapears. Anyway, I don't need to do more than a few minutes per instance, perhaps about 2 to maximum of 3 minutes. This is one of my preffered so far, for the specifications, and if it can handdle to record real time games, well... of course it will handdle to record some tiny mouse movments and my voice.

Thank you again.

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 4:57 am

Were you successful?

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 6:21 am

For free image manipulation, I have found this tool to be excellent:

http://www.getpaint.net/

'Paint.NET' is the product, I think some chap wrote it as part of his Masters or PHD or something. You'll need the .NET framework 2.0 installed too, but the tool itself is very powerful indeed.

valis · Post by **valis** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:57 pm

Btw I didn't see this thread until now (busy the last few weeks), but there's also Camtasia studio which will build flash tutorials on the fly.

Shroomz~> · Post by **Shroomz~>** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:57 am

Have a look through the graphics and multimedia sections over at majorgeeks.com. >>

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads37.html
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads32.html