

Ask HN: What software do you use to make screencasts for you product? - psaccounts

What software do you use to make screencasts for your products? Are there any <i>good</i> tools on Windows or Mac that are available for free?
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josefresco
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=289420>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37987>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=436523>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=133349>

all found with <http://searchyc.com>

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tomsaffell
I'm glad you asked - I've been wanting to compare notes with others on this
for a while...

I use CamStudio. It's free, and easy to use. It doesnt have many bells or
whistles, but I don't need it to. I get it to output a very high bitrate avi
file. The real issue for me is how to then encode and stream the video. Here's
what I tried, and where I'm at now:

1\. Use the SWFProducer app that comes with CamStudio. It produces an SWF that
is nice and small, but it doent not allow progressive streaming, which is a
big no-no for me..

2\. Use FFMpeg to convert the avi to an .flv file, and then use FlowPlayer to
allow users to watch the video online. Works, but .flv isnt great quality for
the file size.

3\. Use FFMpeg to convert the avi to an H.264 .mp4 file. Then either use
FlowPlayer to allow users to watch the video online, or post as an .mp4 and
allow users watch it using QuickTime plug-in. It Works, but it doesn't allow
progressive streaming, which is a big no-no again...

4\. (What I'm using today). Use FFMPEG to convert the avi to an H.264 encoded
.f4v file (the new flash video standard). Use FlowPlayer to allow the user to
watch it online. Allows progressive streaming and is decent quality.

5\. (What I want to get to one day..) Encode using a codec designed
specifically for screen-casting. I tried the 'Flash Screen Video' codec in
FFMPEG and it produced a very nice quality file, but the size was ~2.5x the
.f4v file, so I decided not to go with it. I'm hoping there is a better codec
out there somewhere...

Using (4) my video is: 650x620 pixels 24 fps ~700 kbps (includes a 320x240
video - so a screen casting codec may not do the trick anyway - maybe I need a
hybrid?)

Looking forward to learning about what others are doing.

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bprater
Over at the peepcode, they have a nice video for explaining this:
<http://peepcode.com/products/screencasting-on-the-mac>. Not free, but very
good.

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jaskew
<http://freescreencast.com>

disclaimer: I made it.

But seriously, I do use it constantly.

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kungfooey
I recommend Wink. It works in Windows and Linux and creates it in a Flash file
you can embed on your site with notes, etc.

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SingAlong
I noticed a handful of sites having thir screencasts done by
<http://demogirl.com>

I had this problems of converting my screencasts sometime ago Most tools I
found were either trial or were putting a big moronic "limited version" text
in the center of the screen apart from limiting but found a good and free
converter called "Super" (it's for Windows and uses ffmpeg).

Download super here: <http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html>

Just browse and move to the bottom of that page and find the text "Download
SUPER". That page should also serve as a guide to how to use Super although
you'll figure it out yourself.

The direct download link:
<http://www.erightsoft.info/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe>

But there seems to be bug with converting .rm files. The last time I tried an
rm file it popped errors.

P.S-- Their dirty website design might give you an impression that the
software is really dumb. But actually it's really cool and powerful with a
nice pretty good UI and plenty of options (it uses ffmpeg in the background).
I waded thru the pages to give the exact download link.

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jraines
Camtasia Studio kicks the crap out of all the free products I've tried (Wink,
CamStudio, some builtin Windows Media thing).

It's easy and produces small, high-quality output files in just about any
format you desire.

I plan on trying some of the ones mentioned here, though. Anyone know of a
good one for Ubuntu?

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PStamatiou
screenflow for OSX is fantastic.

~~~
callmeed
I second that. I've tried a ton of them for both Mac and PC. ScreenFlow is
hands-down the best.

In fact, I'd even put it in the top 3 best apps I bought last year.

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amjith
A setup for screencast definitely goes beyond a screen capture utility. You
need a way of capturing and displaying keystrokes without interfering with the
application you are trying to demo. Does anyone have any recommendations? What
about adding text to the video at certain locations, like annotations?

edit: What about video sharing services, which ones are good at rendering
text? I know that youtube does a poor job, but what other services are better?

~~~
tomsaffell
> edit: What about video sharing services, which ones are good at rendering
> text? I know that youtube does a poor job, but what other services are
> better?

I decided that I didn't want the hassle of not knowing how a 3rd party video
streaming service (e.g. YouTube) might alter the quality. So I use FlowPlayer
(an OS flash video player) and hosted the video file (.f4v) and the flash .swf
on my webserver. It works fine, so long as you have BW..

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critic
Windows Media Encoder, then upload wmv to blip.tv, who convert it to flash and
host it (Got this idea from the Clojure guy)

Not sure why the other Windows Media Encoder user got downmodded. Perhaps it
would be more useful to explain why you think your approach is better (other
than your hate of Bill Gates)?

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thorax
I've been using Jing for a while now.

<http://jingproject.com>

~~~
SingAlong
Hey thanks for that! Cool tip! (and also love the fact that its free)

But sounds ridiculous to me. TechSmith also has Camtasia Studio which is a
paid software that does the same job.

~~~
pj
Camtasia is much more powerful. Jing limits to 5 minute clips and you can't
edit the resulting video.

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Hoff
Apple's Podcast Capture is a potential option here.

It's part of Mac OS X client, and connects with Podcast Producer running on
Mac OS X Server.

Which means it's either free or (if you don't have a Mac OS X Server box
around) it's not free.

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AndrewWarner
If you check out myself you can see that I do much more than screencasts with
CamStudio. I use it as a full video editing program. (mixergy.com) Email me if
you want direct questions answers about video (mail at awarner.com).

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andrewhyde
<http://www.synium.de/products/screenium/index.html> is what I use.

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davidw
I'm holding out hope that those horrid things are just a passing fad. I can't
stand them:-/

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ucdaz
I find that screentoaster.com is pretty straight forward and NO INSTALL
required.

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braindead_in
i used Windows Media Encoder 9, converted it to wmv and then used ffmpeg to
create an flv.

