CamStudio

CamStudio
License: freeware
Author: RenderSoft
Install: yes
Size: 8 MB (1.3 MB install), 33 KB codec
Requirement: Windows 95 or later, comctl32.dll

CamStudio is a free screen and audio recording tool and comes with a swf flash converter and a lossless codec.

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Some brief info just to start recording screen activity and audio:

• select the region of the screen to record or full screen (Region menu)
• set the video compression (Options | Video Options) - I used DivX ;-) MPEG-4 Fast-Motion with quality at 70, crispness at 100, one keyframe every 10 seconds and a datarate of 910 kilobits per second
  
  
  
  
• set if the cursor must be captured or hidden (Options | Cursor Options)
• set if audio must be captured and from where (Options | Don't record audio or record from microphone or record from speakers), then its compression (Options | Audio Options | Audio Options for microphone or speakers) - I used MPEG Layer-3 22050 Hz Stereo 16-bit compression recording; beneath I needed to record a streaming video displayed in my browser with audio going to the speakers, I had to select "Record audio from microphone" and "Default input device" as my audio capture device
  
  
  
  
• by default CamStudio stores temporary files in its directory; if you want to make it use another one, go to Options | Program Options | Temporary directory for recording
• press Record and CamStudio window should minimize; to stop recording right click the systray icon and press Stop, then wait for audio compression to do its job

I used CamStudio to capture a series of streaming lessons running in my browser, and it did its job perfectly. The size of a 1h38' captured lesson with DivX and mp3 compression was 160 MB avi.

Posted by: Z24 | Fri, Mar 16 2007 | Category: /software/windows | Permanent link | home
Tagged as: freeware, screen recording, software, tools, windows

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