Software or settings suggestions for screen recording

[Cassel]

I have been asked to convert some video tutorials done for Photoshop, into PaintshopPro. That is easy. However, i am not sure what (reasonable) program is really available for me to record those. The videos would need to be placed on private forums so that only some "allowed" people can access it (it is with paid membership).

I downloaded Camtasia, and it seems ok but it is $300. The free trial will expired before i get used to the program and finish the videos.

I found Adobe Captivate. It looks great but that is $800 (ouch!)

I know of CamStudio. That is free so i started using it. The problem i am facing is that it saves in avi format, then requires conversion to swf. But then, for a 3 minutes video, i am getting a file that is between 75 and 100MB. I cannot imagine the size of a 15-20 minutes tutorial. With the Adobe Cativate (hubby downloaded the trial version), he got a 2 minute video online (at least it had an html extension) that was less than 20Kb. I am not sure what the difference is.

So, all in all, i would like to find a program (as inexpensive as can be) that can generate a small enough swf file to upload. Maybe CamStudio is the one to use, but i have the wrong settings? I am very good with graphic program (like PSP), but i am totally lost with video stuff.

Any help or suggestion?

Cassel

[aedipuss]

first what is the source format? if you download and use mediainfo(free) on one - open mediainfo put it in view text mode and open a source file, you can copy and paste the info here.

once we know what we're dealing with suggestions will be easier.

most open source/free video software is listed in the tools section in the left column.

oh, and welcome to the forum!

[Cassel]

Yikes. You lost me on the first sentence. What is the "source format"? (told you i am a newbie!) From the little tiny bit i can understand, my answer would simply be that recording with the CamStudio is a capture of my screen "process" coupled with voice recording of the explanations.

Am i answering the first question? After recording the "process", i got a .avi file that was 72mb (for about 3 minutes), then hubby converted it into a swf, that ended up still at 39Mb. Does that make sense?

[guns1inger]

You can record directly to .swf with Camstudio. Click on the SWF button on the Recorder page to change the output type between AVI and SWF. It still records to AVI, but then converts automatically to SWF after saving. Or you can use the built in SWF producer module to do the same thing manually.

You might also play around with the settings for capture speed and playback speed to see if capturing less frames gives you smaller files while still giving you a smooth output.

It would also be helpful to know what software was used to create the SWF file, as that will have some influence on the file size as well.

[aedipuss]

Yikes. You lost me on the first sentence. What is the "source format"? (told you i am a newbie!) From the little tiny bit i can understand, my answer would simply be that recording with the CamStudio is a capture of my screen "process" coupled with voice recording of the explanations.

Am i answering the first question? After recording the "process", i got a .avi file that was 72mb (for about 3 minutes), then hubby converted it into a swf, that ended up still at 39Mb. Does that make sense?

i thought that "convert some video tutorials" meant they were already video files and you were just re-encoding them to a different format.

sorry if i was incorrect.

[Cassel]

You can record directly to .swf with Camstudio. Click on the SWF button on the Recorder page to change the output type between AVI and SWF. It still records to AVI, but then converts automatically to SWF after saving. Or you can use the built in SWF producer module to do the same thing manually.

You might also play around with the settings for capture speed and playback speed to see if capturing less frames gives you smaller files while still giving you a smooth output.

It would also be helpful to know what software was used to create the SWF file, as that will have some influence on the file size as well.

That is the procedure we followed using CamStudio to get to a swf format. Now the question is: Is it normal to still get such a huge file? Playing with the settings is what i thought i needed to do. Once, hubby did change them, but the sound was totally messed up and you could not even understand what was said. Then, he changed something else, and the video was so bad. Problem is that i dont understand all those settings. Tried to search for Help, but the forum is not very useful and there is no help IN the program.

So, all in all,
- what would be suggested settings to get a reasonable size video?
- what is a normal size for a video like that (screen activity and voice recording)?

Once i can get this figured out, then, i'll worry about HOW to place that in a forum (but i definitely need to get the first issues addressed).

Also on a side note, someone has mentioned ScreenToaster. Anyone has comments on that (as opposed to CamStudio)?

[Bjs]

File size for camstudio depends mostly on resolution + fps ... full screen capture (large file) vs selected screen area only (smaller file)... and the lower the fps, the smaller the output file also becomes... add voice notation will increase file size once more... its all about "trade off's" to achieve a suitable outcome which is acceptable for the requirements for the site.

Under video options adjust fps to minimum acceptable level + codec compression to level 9 for default camstudio codec... under audio select compressor and choose mpeg layer 3, 11025hz stereo (possibly you have been recording your avi's using pcm audio format).

There is also wink to consider which is popular for such exercise's on many websites.

[Cassel]

Thanks. I found Wink and will play with it. I also found Jing that seems promising (despite the 5 minutes limit). Thanks for your suggestions. I wil be looking into that.

[Cassel]

Following your suggestions i tried a few softwares. I am not yet done trying them because i still want to try Jing but for some reason, i cannot install the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 that is required. I tried half a dozen times to install it and i always get a message window saying that an error has occured. I get the suggestion to install it manually (downloading it first), but it does not do anything better. Still get the same error message. Any help?

In the mean time, i retried with Wink. Seems ok but i will probably need to play with the settings because some "frames" are skipped and that is affecting the video.

I tried CamStudio with different settings, and this time, the video is choppy, and showing all kinds of "traces" from the movement of the images or the mouse. So that will need further investigating.

What is a usual (i mean ballpark figure) size of a video with voice recording for a software tutorial (meaning not many moving graphics like in a game)?

[poisondeathray]

"Usual" these days is 960x540 for 16:9 aspect ratio, using h.264 for video, aac for audio, and mp4 container. You will find many professional tutorials sites use this format because it offers the best compression/quality ratio.

If there is not much quick movement (i.e. you are talking more than showing the mouse moves & clicking) you can use a lower frame rate, maybe 15-20 fps. If it is a fast paced tutorial with flurry of clicking , you may need 30fps. Higher fps requires higher bitrate to encode for the same level of quality

To ensure "best" quality, when you capture, you should use lossless compression or uncompressed, and then encode to your final distribution format at a later stage. Capturing using your end format compression is often too cpu intensive and can lead to dropped frames - a likely explanation for the choppiness that you observed. Also capturing using a lossy format, then re-encoding again with a lossy format compounds the quality loss. In camstudio try using huffyuv to capture, but be prepared to have a lot of temporary hard drive space available

[Cassel]

I seem to be getting pretty good results so far with Wink but i have one little issue and although i looked through the user manual, i cannot find the answer.

In my tutorials i would be using the mouse as a pointer, like showing the menu bar, or the tool bar, or other elements i am refering to. In Wink, it does not seem to want to capture those "frames", likely because there is no click to it, so it is perceived as frames with no information. I tried increasing the frame rate, but it will still stay, for example, 20 seconds on the same frame, with the same mouse position, while in fact, i am explaining some elements that are in the workspace.

So the question is: if i want the mouse movements to be captured as a pointer movement, how do i do that?

[Cassel]

Jing seems to have potential to do just what i want (thanks for suggesting it), but i am running in another problem: when i run Jing to record, whatever program i am using becomes sluggish, and the cursor just blinks too slowly which makes it nearly impossible to use. Someone suggested i get more RAMs as i have "only" 1.5Gb but that is likely not the problem since the program works fine on my work computer, which has only 512Mb RAM. So, what else should i look at? What else could be the culprit?

PS. using the trial version of Camtasia gives me the exact same problem.