which video recorder software to use?

[mickeyren]

Hi

I was wondering what do you guys use here to record a video of your software? So rather just placing screen shots most of us right now also display a short video of the application and I was wondering which one is the favorites?

I'm hoping for a small cost software, perhaps somewhere below $50 and open source would be even better as long. My requirement is simple, just record the application while I'm using it.

Thanks.

[spacegaier]

I haven't done this a lot, but the few times I was in need of such a program, I used FRAPS which is free (don't know how about the source), that is widely spread.

[Klaim]

Here you can see how the Aquaria programmer does to make his screenshots. As he say, Fraps is not convenient with fluid moves and animations (on non-high end machine with gluton application like lot of games). Then he does an actions record of what he want to record, then replay it at low speed, taking automatically screenshots to get all the frames necessary to build a video.

[mickeyren]

Hi

I forgot to mention one little additional requirement. Though I saw Fraps and I would using that definitely but I also need to put in text / caption, sort of a tutorial on how to use the application.

Or is there a way to insert images/screenshot while fraps is running?

[Klaim]

Any video montage software will be right to do this.

[nikki]

You can just record with whatever software you want and then use whatever you want to edit it.

[^DJ_Link^]

I would recommend Snagit
http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

[Lizard]

I think Snagit is only good for capturing still images not for making videos.

Techsmith also make Camtasia Studio which is by far the best video capture program I've used but it's a lot more $$ than the thread starter wants to pay.

[enligor]

Taksi + VirtualDub = all kinds of screen capture, free, open.

As for the montage - then pretty much anything will do (e.g. VirtualDub itself, or as JustBoo said - Windows Movie Maker). Of course, if you want to go for the heavy artillery - Adobe products are your choice (or a cheaper Sony Vegas). Although that's not meant to say, that there are no OSS alternatives, and they are pretty easy-to-use too.

[nikki]

If you're on Linux you could use Cinelerra. The last time I tried to use it though, I absolutely failed. The interface drives me nuts.

[enligor]

If you're on Linux you could use Cinelerra. The last time I tried to use it though, I absolutely failed. The interface drives me nuts.

Sweet Cinerella... Trying to get it to work the first time took me several days. Once everything failed, the only solution I could think of was to bang the keyboard, which unfortunatelly snapped After some lengthy RTFM'ing , the interface became more or less obvious.
Speaking of Cinerelly, Jahshaka is quite nice too, especially if used with Kdenlive. And yes, you can get them under Windows too,via either native builds, or via your favourite emulator.

[mickeyren]

Hey guys

Thank so much for all the help.

I settled with 2 suggestions earlier here: Fraps and Windows movie maker + the open source cam studio http://camstudio.org/.

I use fraps for recording games - but it can't be use for application as it won't attach itself to it. So i need to also record my app suitable for making tutorials so I used the open source cam studio (wonder no one suggested this, its a great software).

Then yes, windows movie maker does its jobs well.

Hey everyone, is welcome to see what I have made with these 3 tools - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqedsMBlALE

I'm just proud of my accomplishment and what I have achieved and learned so far so I want to share it too!

Its my demo reel that I will be using when I start applying for game development jobs.

Anyway, thanks all for your help!