What is Screencast?
You know print screen and what it does. Print screen captures a snapshot of your computer screen and lets you save that as an image. Screencast is something similar, but the difference here is that instead of taking a still image of the screen, a screencast is a recording of the computer screen output. It is a recording of the computer screen for duration of time along with the user’s activities.
Use of screencast?
Screencast is used mainly to create demo for software products and also to create video tutorials (Like this) . Most of the Screencast software allows to record audio and also to edit the frames of the videos, with stuffs like inserting an image, etc. This makes a screencast an ideal choice to create software demos. The user can view what is going on the screen and also listen to an explanation of the same.
The list below covers some of the most used software used to create a Screencast. I have tried to focus more on the freewares.
vnc2swf (Free)
Vnc2swf is a cross-platform screen recording tool for ShockWave Flash (swf) format.
Vnc2swf comes with two different implementations:
Python version (pyvnc2swf): [Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Windows. ]
C version (vnc2swf): [Unix, Linux ,Mac OS X]
http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/
AutoScreenRecorder [Free-Windows]
Screen recorder solution to record screen to a video or Flash file, so you can record screen, set schedule, auto-scale videos.
http://wisdom-soft.com/products/autoscreenrecorder_free.htm
XVidCap.[Free- Linux ]
XVidCap is a screencast tool for X-Windows system
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xvidcap/
CamStudio [Free-Windows]
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)
http://camstudio.org/
Virtual Dub [Free-Windows]
VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
http://www.virtualdub.org/
recordmydesktop .[Free- Linux ]
recordMyDesktop is an easy to use yet effective desktop session recorder for Linux. The program is separated in two parts; a simple command line tool that performs the basic tasks of capturing and encoding and an interface that exposes the program functionality in a usable way.
http://recordmydesktop.iovar.org/about.php
Jing [Free/Mac OS X/Windows)
The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.
http://www.jingproject.com/
Screenography [Free to try / Mac OSX ]
Screenography is an extremely easy program to capture your screen to various image, movie and Flash formats. Very useful for creating tutorials, training videos/CDs and demonstrations.Screenography is also available in a Lite version (Screenography Lite) which does not have the capability of recording your screen to movies.
http://www.verticalmoon.com/downloads/downloads.htm
iShowU [Commercial /Mac OS X]
Capture and record video from your screen into a Quicktime movie, in realtime
http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html
Screen Record [Free to try/ Windows, Mac OS X]
ScreenRecord is a screen recording tool that allows the user to capture continuous images on the screen as a Quicktime movie. It is useful for creating training CDs, visual tutorials, and many more. It can even be used as a monitoring device.
http://www.miensoftware.com/screenrecord.html
Windows Media Encoder [Free-Windows]
Windows Media Encoder is one of the best tool for creating a recording of the computer screen. It enables content developers to convert both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Media formats .
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
TurboDemo [Free to try / Windows)
Capture screenshots and explain software, PC applications, websites and products with animated demos and tutorials. TurboDemo uses an intelligent capturing technique for single screenshots that can then be edited as slides. Mouse movements are automatically reproduced. Projects can be exported into various formats for Internet, Intranet or published on CD’s.
http://www.turbodemo.com/eng/index.php
UVScreenCamera [ Free to try- Windows]
By using UVScreenCamera you can easily create animated demo or tutorials by recording your computer's desktop activity, including all mouse movements, window graphics, mouse clicks and everything else you see on the screen. The recorded clips are stored into UVF, EXE, SWF or AVI movie files, streaming just 30 to 400 KB per minute.
http://www.uvsoftium.com/
ALLCapture [ Free to try- Windows]
Record screen activities in real-time to quickly and easily create your own screencasts, demos, tutorials, software simulations and videos for the Internet without any programming language necessary.
http://www.allcapture.com/eng/index.php
Fraps [Commercial/ Restricted demo – Windows]
Fraps is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications
http://www.fraps.com/
Wink [Free- Windows, Linux]
Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
Camtasia Studio [Free to try/ Windows]
Camtasia Studio screen recorder is smart, and does the hard work for you. Never created a video before? No worries, Camtasia Studio will help you look like a pro.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
DemoCharge2005 [Free to try/ Windows]
Creating a demo with DemoCharge is simple: record your animation, enhance and edit the individual frames, and output your demo as a DemoGIF (animated GIF). File sizes are small enough to email, publish on the Web or include in offline documentation and Help files.
http://www.codecharge.com/download/
Snapz Pro X [Commerical / Mac]
Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime® movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
WinCAM [Free to try/ Windows]
WinCAM records all the screen activities such as the movement of the mouse, the processes of applications, the inputs from the keyboard and all the way to the execution of any programs. WinCAM's innovative object editing tools allow you to insert various shapes of caption boxes, graphics, images, narrations , background music, and sound effects in all different layers in the easiest way. Versatile frame-by-frame editing tools will help you produce your movie with a clean and professional-looking cut . Also the movies can be converted to EXE, WCM, AVI, ASF, MOV, RM and SWF files. Interactive features are available in higher versions which allow the users to interact and participate with formats.
http://www.wincam.net/wincam.htm
Adobe Captivate (Previously Macromedia Captivate) (Commercial/ Windows )
Adobe Captivate is an authoring tool to create software demonstrations, software simulations etc in .swf format. It can also be used to create screencasts. It comes with many features but if all you need is a basic screen recording function, there are cheaper options available.
http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
BB FlashBack (Free To Try/ Windows)
With BB FlashBack you can create software demonstrations, screencasting, presentations and tutorials, enhanced with sound, text and images which can be published to Flash, AVI, WMV, EXE and PowerPoint.
http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack.aspx
Demobuilder (Free To Try/ Windows)
Demo Builder is used to create interactive flash movies that show how applications and systems work. Use the full motion recording method while you demonstrate your application, or use the screenshot method to take a series of screen captures of your application. Either way your recorded sessions are fully editable, so you have full control over the look of your flash movies before publishing them.
http://www.demo-builder.com/download.html
Wildform Flair (Free To Try/ Windows)
Easily create outstanding Flash and video presentations, convert PowerPoint to Flash, author demos, tutorials and simulations and generate LMS compliant quizzes. Flair lets you create advanced Flash multimedia projects without any programming! With Flair you can -
# Create professional Flash & video presentations
# Convert PowerPoint to Flash
# Author E-learning quizzes and courses
# Generate demos, tutorials and simulations
# Produce multimedia websites, slide shows & ads
http://www.wildform.com/products/flair/
Istanbul (Free/Linux)
Istanbul is a desktop session recorder for Linux. It records your session into an Ogg Theora video file. To start the recording, you click on its icon in the notification area. To stop you click its icon again. It works on GNOME, KDE, XFCE and others.
http://live.gnome.org/Istanbul
InstantDemo (Free To try / Windows)
A simple and quick Screen Recording Software which lets you record your Windows desktop activity in real time. Not the one if you want an advanced and feature rich tool.
http://www.instant-demo.com/download.php
Envision (Free To Try/ Windows)
Envision is a cheap option provided you already own Flash. It is the a Screen Recording/Capture extension for Flash and can be used to create Desktop Screen Captures, Product Demonstrations, Interactive Tutorials etc.
http://www.digitalcuriosity.com/Envision/Envision.htm
Cankiri (Free / Linux)
Cankiri is a single file screen recorder for Linux and other systems that run GStreamer 0.10 and PyGTK 2.8 licensed under the GNU GPL
http://www.tortall.net/mu/wiki/Cankiri
Screen Mimic (Free To Try - Mac OS X)
Screen Mimic allows you to create screencasts (recordings of your Mac OS X desktop) that can be saved as Adobe Flash (SWF), Flash Video (FLV), or Quicktime (MOV) files. These files can be easily uploaded to a website, used in a kiosk system, and many other applications.
http://www.polarian.com/products/ScreenMimic.php
SnagIt (Free To Try/Windows)
With SnagIt you can –
Capture anything on your screen - from an area to a scrolling web page.
Edit your screen capture using the built-in image editor.
Share, save, and print your screen capture in the format of your choice.
http://www.techsmith.com/download/snagittrial.asp
You know print screen and what it does. Print screen captures a snapshot of your computer screen and lets you save that as an image. Screencast is something similar, but the difference here is that instead of taking a still image of the screen, a screencast is a recording of the computer screen output. It is a recording of the computer screen for duration of time along with the user’s activities.
Use of screencast?
Screencast is used mainly to create demo for software products and also to create video tutorials (Like this) . Most of the Screencast software allows to record audio and also to edit the frames of the videos, with stuffs like inserting an image, etc. This makes a screencast an ideal choice to create software demos. The user can view what is going on the screen and also listen to an explanation of the same.
The list below covers some of the most used software used to create a Screencast. I have tried to focus more on the freewares.
vnc2swf (Free)
Vnc2swf is a cross-platform screen recording tool for ShockWave Flash (swf) format.
Vnc2swf comes with two different implementations:
Python version (pyvnc2swf): [Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Windows. ]
C version (vnc2swf): [Unix, Linux ,Mac OS X]
http://www.unixuser.org/~euske/vnc2swf/
AutoScreenRecorder [Free-Windows]
Screen recorder solution to record screen to a video or Flash file, so you can record screen, set schedule, auto-scale videos.
http://wisdom-soft.com/products/autoscreenrecorder_free.htm
XVidCap.[Free- Linux ]
XVidCap is a screencast tool for X-Windows system
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xvidcap/
CamStudio [Free-Windows]
CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)
http://camstudio.org/
Virtual Dub [Free-Windows]
VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms. It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video. It has batch-processing capabilities for processing large numbers of files and can be extended with third-party video filters. VirtualDub is mainly geared toward processing AVI files, although it can read (not write) MPEG-1 and also handle sets of BMP images.
http://www.virtualdub.org/
recordmydesktop .[Free- Linux ]
recordMyDesktop is an easy to use yet effective desktop session recorder for Linux. The program is separated in two parts; a simple command line tool that performs the basic tasks of capturing and encoding and an interface that exposes the program functionality in a usable way.
http://recordmydesktop.iovar.org/about.php
Jing [Free/Mac OS X/Windows)
The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.
http://www.jingproject.com/
Screenography [Free to try / Mac OSX ]
Screenography is an extremely easy program to capture your screen to various image, movie and Flash formats. Very useful for creating tutorials, training videos/CDs and demonstrations.Screenography is also available in a Lite version (Screenography Lite) which does not have the capability of recording your screen to movies.
http://www.verticalmoon.com/downloads/downloads.htm
iShowU [Commercial /Mac OS X]
Capture and record video from your screen into a Quicktime movie, in realtime
http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html
Screen Record [Free to try/ Windows, Mac OS X]
ScreenRecord is a screen recording tool that allows the user to capture continuous images on the screen as a Quicktime movie. It is useful for creating training CDs, visual tutorials, and many more. It can even be used as a monitoring device.
http://www.miensoftware.com/screenrecord.html
Windows Media Encoder [Free-Windows]
Windows Media Encoder is one of the best tool for creating a recording of the computer screen. It enables content developers to convert both live and prerecorded audio, video, and computer screen images to Windows Media formats .
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
TurboDemo [Free to try / Windows)
Capture screenshots and explain software, PC applications, websites and products with animated demos and tutorials. TurboDemo uses an intelligent capturing technique for single screenshots that can then be edited as slides. Mouse movements are automatically reproduced. Projects can be exported into various formats for Internet, Intranet or published on CD’s.
http://www.turbodemo.com/eng/index.php
UVScreenCamera [ Free to try- Windows]
By using UVScreenCamera you can easily create animated demo or tutorials by recording your computer's desktop activity, including all mouse movements, window graphics, mouse clicks and everything else you see on the screen. The recorded clips are stored into UVF, EXE, SWF or AVI movie files, streaming just 30 to 400 KB per minute.
http://www.uvsoftium.com/
ALLCapture [ Free to try- Windows]
Record screen activities in real-time to quickly and easily create your own screencasts, demos, tutorials, software simulations and videos for the Internet without any programming language necessary.
http://www.allcapture.com/eng/index.php
Fraps [Commercial/ Restricted demo – Windows]
Fraps is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications
http://www.fraps.com/
Wink [Free- Windows, Linux]
Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users.
http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
Camtasia Studio [Free to try/ Windows]
Camtasia Studio screen recorder is smart, and does the hard work for you. Never created a video before? No worries, Camtasia Studio will help you look like a pro.
http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp
DemoCharge2005 [Free to try/ Windows]
Creating a demo with DemoCharge is simple: record your animation, enhance and edit the individual frames, and output your demo as a DemoGIF (animated GIF). File sizes are small enough to email, publish on the Web or include in offline documentation and Help files.
http://www.codecharge.com/download/
Snapz Pro X [Commerical / Mac]
Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime® movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
WinCAM [Free to try/ Windows]
WinCAM records all the screen activities such as the movement of the mouse, the processes of applications, the inputs from the keyboard and all the way to the execution of any programs. WinCAM's innovative object editing tools allow you to insert various shapes of caption boxes, graphics, images, narrations , background music, and sound effects in all different layers in the easiest way. Versatile frame-by-frame editing tools will help you produce your movie with a clean and professional-looking cut . Also the movies can be converted to EXE, WCM, AVI, ASF, MOV, RM and SWF files. Interactive features are available in higher versions which allow the users to interact and participate with formats.
http://www.wincam.net/wincam.htm
Adobe Captivate (Previously Macromedia Captivate) (Commercial/ Windows )
Adobe Captivate is an authoring tool to create software demonstrations, software simulations etc in .swf format. It can also be used to create screencasts. It comes with many features but if all you need is a basic screen recording function, there are cheaper options available.
http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
BB FlashBack (Free To Try/ Windows)
With BB FlashBack you can create software demonstrations, screencasting, presentations and tutorials, enhanced with sound, text and images which can be published to Flash, AVI, WMV, EXE and PowerPoint.
http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack.aspx
Demobuilder (Free To Try/ Windows)
Demo Builder is used to create interactive flash movies that show how applications and systems work. Use the full motion recording method while you demonstrate your application, or use the screenshot method to take a series of screen captures of your application. Either way your recorded sessions are fully editable, so you have full control over the look of your flash movies before publishing them.
http://www.demo-builder.com/download.html
Wildform Flair (Free To Try/ Windows)
Easily create outstanding Flash and video presentations, convert PowerPoint to Flash, author demos, tutorials and simulations and generate LMS compliant quizzes. Flair lets you create advanced Flash multimedia projects without any programming! With Flair you can -
# Create professional Flash & video presentations
# Convert PowerPoint to Flash
# Author E-learning quizzes and courses
# Generate demos, tutorials and simulations
# Produce multimedia websites, slide shows & ads
http://www.wildform.com/products/flair/
Istanbul (Free/Linux)
Istanbul is a desktop session recorder for Linux. It records your session into an Ogg Theora video file. To start the recording, you click on its icon in the notification area. To stop you click its icon again. It works on GNOME, KDE, XFCE and others.
http://live.gnome.org/Istanbul
InstantDemo (Free To try / Windows)
A simple and quick Screen Recording Software which lets you record your Windows desktop activity in real time. Not the one if you want an advanced and feature rich tool.
http://www.instant-demo.com/download.php
Envision (Free To Try/ Windows)
Envision is a cheap option provided you already own Flash. It is the a Screen Recording/Capture extension for Flash and can be used to create Desktop Screen Captures, Product Demonstrations, Interactive Tutorials etc.
http://www.digitalcuriosity.com/Envision/Envision.htm
Cankiri (Free / Linux)
Cankiri is a single file screen recorder for Linux and other systems that run GStreamer 0.10 and PyGTK 2.8 licensed under the GNU GPL
http://www.tortall.net/mu/wiki/Cankiri
Screen Mimic (Free To Try - Mac OS X)
Screen Mimic allows you to create screencasts (recordings of your Mac OS X desktop) that can be saved as Adobe Flash (SWF), Flash Video (FLV), or Quicktime (MOV) files. These files can be easily uploaded to a website, used in a kiosk system, and many other applications.
http://www.polarian.com/products/ScreenMimic.php
SnagIt (Free To Try/Windows)
With SnagIt you can –
Capture anything on your screen - from an area to a scrolling web page.
Edit your screen capture using the built-in image editor.
Share, save, and print your screen capture in the format of your choice.
http://www.techsmith.com/download/snagittrial.asp
1 comments:
Excellent, Thanks
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