So many screen capture apps - which one ?

Spirit wrote on 11/26/2002, 1:24 AM

I need a simple sceen capture app. Nothing complex. I just need to include about 20 seconds of a couple of other software apps in action to include in a short demo video (to edit in VV3 of course!).

But when I start looking there seems to be a lot of choices and at just about any price you care to mention. Camtasia, Livetronix, SuperCapture . . .

Can anyone recommend a good, simple capture app that's not too expensive ?

thanks

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 11/26/2002, 6:03 AM

I prefer CamStudio...

http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc/

Free and good.

HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

rextilleon wrote on 11/26/2002, 6:48 AM

If you are going to edit in Vegas and then output to tape, forget it---The resolution will be horrible---I solved the problem by shooting my screens on a laptop.

Spirit wrote on 11/26/2002, 6:50 AM

Camstudio works perfectly - exactly what I needed ! This will be an online 320x240 12fps so it's fine. Thanks very much :)

xgenei wrote on 11/29/2002, 6:08 PM

Yuchh on the motion screen captures! (Although shooting the screen could come in handy if you have sync and super-contrast LCD) If you want a reliable way to capture video like you see it, for CD or DVD distribution, use an SVIDEO-out card. I use a G400 dual-head that has an adapter for the second port. A lot of laptops have S-VIDEO out too. Record directly to DV, and after you cut your video add sound (generally).

ON THE OTHER HAND if you want something small for download I would use screen STILLS at full resolution (JPEGS), cropped and annotated to include what you need and arrows, text, etc. In which case I can recommend Snagit. It seems like low-bandwidth motion is just not going to cut it for serious educational needs because you're going -- "what does that say?" "I can't see that." AND is ESPECIALLY bad for streaming. In fact it's impossible even for guys with cable hook ups. There's no sync, etc., even for top-dollar solutions like from Macromedia. PLUS the bandwidth is wasted mostly by stupid things, like waiting for things to happen, moving the cursor (that you can't even see), etc.

Ask me if I have an opinion.

My 2-cents then,

Xgenei

bkalamon wrote on 11/29/2002, 6:48 PM

I have been using Camtasia for years. It's works great. The Codec is Lossless and I import AVI's from Camtasia into Vegas and they look really good. You can voice Audio imput (and even extract the wav file to clean it up or minipulate it in Sonic Forge or Cool Edit Pro. You can have your cursor highlighted as you move around and capture 5 frames/second or over 30 Frames/second. Works great!

rextilleon wrote on 11/29/2002, 9:57 PM

Yeah, I have to output for tv broadcast so Camista just doesn't do it for me--unless of course you can educate me---I really would love to use it.

shawnm wrote on 12/4/2002, 2:26 AM

I work a *lot* in enterprise media (corporate talking head videos and software demos). Camtasia will most likely to be your best solution - it's a simple app that uses a *fantastic* CODEC. The best part is that you can use the demo for thirty days without restriction, so you've got time to compare it to a number of different apps before deciding if you like it enough to purchase it.

Good luck,

Shawn