OT: PC Video Capture Software

Hello,

I am in need of PC video capture software in order to create online demonstrations and tutorials for an integrated engineering business application I've developed (it uses SW as the core component - hence the SW user group tie-in)

Video capture is a new technical area for me and I have zero experience on this subject.

Any suggestions on what software I should use to create these files? Output formats? Anything I should be looking out for.

Initial research has me gravitating towards a product called Camtasia Studio.

??????

Thanks in advance.

Len K. Mar, P.Eng. President E-data Solutions

Reply to
Len K. Mar
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Camtasia worked very well for think3 who did their Global Shape Modeling video's in it. I use to have to use a plug in to view them but the Camtasia format is now supported by Windows Media player. I thought the GSM videos were excellent quality and very clear.

That's the extent of what I know about Camtasia.

jon

Reply to
jon banquer

I've used SnagIt for still screen captures for several years, and I'm very impressed with it.. Since SnagIt and Camtasia are from the same publisher (Techsmith) I'd bet Camtasia is a good choice.

Art Woodbury

Reply to
Art Woodbury

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look there.

--nick e.

Reply to
Nick E.

MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over. As in: "Reading these buzzword-laden reports triggers a MEGO effect." Also: Mine Eyes Glazeth Over.

Reply to
Cliff Huprich

Heres a nice (and free) sotware for it...

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Reply to
Arto Kvick

Reply to
Barry Weber

CamStudio, also free, really nice:

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Reply to
Markku Lehtola

I've used Camtasia, too. Very good features for capturing what is happening on the PC monitor, plus powerful movie editing features like concatenating clips, editing start/stop times, playback speeds. Typically my customer demo movies are constructed out of multiple little movie clips (so I don't show my "aw, crap, I didn't mean to do that" mistakes). Camtasia allows you to string them together, trim the length, speed it up to overcome your hardware's slow frame capture rate, and provide some pretty fair (for the price) annotations, even add a soundtrack if you're so set up. Pack it all up, ship it on a CD or post it on a website for download. My typical movie file is ~50MB / 20minutes. I don't bother with the esthetics too much, but it appears that one can make it as pretty and professional looking as your effort-level allows. They used to have a series of very nice looking tutorials on their website that show the possibilities. One can select multiple CODECs to make the video image look nicer than regular Microsoft Media Player, but typically it requires you to make your customer load that CODEC to his PC so that the movie will play (too much hassle for my customers).

I'm using a previous version, since updated (didn't update) but it appears the price has gone up a bit, but still a bargain for ...what is it now?...$400? Highly recommended, if it fits your task at hand.

Moe & the guys

Reply to
Moe_Larry_Curly

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