Record-Screen?

[templar165]

Hello all,
We all know about the print-screen feature that helps us get a screenshot, but is there anyway that we can record our activitis on the screen, n then save it as a .wmv or whatever video file?
Do let me know.

-Regards

 

[Sam25]

Welcome to the Forums!

I think your searching for a screen recording software. I've used Camtasia Studio which does exactly that. It's not free though but you could use the free trial version first.

If your looking for a free open source screen recording software you can look into CamStudio. I haven't used it but it seems to be good.

 

[stlcardinals]

You can use Windows Media Encoder.

It's free and gives you the capability to record to wmv.

 

[GreenLantern]

Snagit is outstanding but not free

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: GreenLantern
Snagit is outstanding but not free

I thought Snagit is only for capturing screenshots?

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: Sam25

Originally posted by: GreenLantern
Snagit is outstanding but not free

I thought Snagit is only for capturing screenshots?

Snagit can capture video too, I've used it with a mic to make a training video then used windows media encoder to re-encode it to a much smaller file. I think they recently made version 7 available for free, but I'm not sure if it has the video capture ability.

 

[templar165]

thanks, I'll try CamStudio. Actually, the purpose I needed this tool for is that I made an animated movie(5mins) using Power Point 2007, and each time I want to transfer, I'd have to change the path to different files that I've linked or embedded. So I thought, making it into a single video file. Oh yeah, does this software also record the sounds in the background, or is it just a capture of movements?

 

[lxskllr]

Would Fraps work for desktop recording? It's primarily meant to be used with games, but glancing over the site, it looks like it might work for other desktop applications.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Would Fraps work for desktop recording? It's primarily meant to be used with games, but glancing over the site, it looks like it might work for other desktop applications.

I read your comment and actually tried recording my desktop with FRAPS. This is what happened:

The 'Screen capture hot key' did nothing. No screenshots were generated at all. The 'Video capture hot key' on the other hand game me an interesting result. I pressed it and then after a minute or so pressed it back again to stop recording. There was an .avi file generated. The problem is I tried playing that file with some of the players installed on my system but NOT a single player was able to play the .avi file! Can't imagine why?

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know... Does the avi file have a significant size? Even with just a minute of recording, it should be several mb in size. I don't have much experience with Fraps, even in gaming... It very well may not work for recording desktop activity.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I don't know... Does the avi file have a significant size? Even with just a minute of recording, it should be several mb in size. I don't have much experience with Fraps, even in gaming... It very well may not work for recording desktop activity.

These are the details of the .avi file generated by FRAPS:

File size: 2.87 GB (after 1 minute of recording approx.)

Type of File: Video file - AVI (cannot be opened with VLC Player)

I've recorded gameplay with FRAPS before and it works great. Maybe it doesn't do screen recording of desktop activity then? Btw, opening the above .avi file with Virtualdub gives me a 'Cannot detect file type' error!

 

[lxskllr]

2.87gb I would have expected something in the 30-100mb range. I wouldn't want to copy a movie that way :^D

If VLC can't play it, there's a good chance it can't be played. I'm a little curious myself now. I don't have time atm, but later I'll download Fraps, and give it a try.

 

[C1]

Your best bet is to use Snagit or the Camtasia. These record both screen & audio. The older trial versions would have worked, but I think that the manufacturer has restricted the useability thru adding a screen banner.

Windows Media Encoder (WME) is actually able to do what you want, but I could never get the quality to be satisfactory for the video. WME does work well for audio only and as a file format converter.

 

[templar165]

FRAPS is scary...an average movie size is around 1 GB...this astounding !!

 

[templar165]

What about a pirated version of Snagit or Camtasia? Worth a try? I've got a download limit, so I'd better make sure.

 

[lxskllr]

I couldn't get Fraps to do anything in Vista64. No screenshot, no movie. I'll fool with it a bit more, but so far it looks like a dead end.

 

[zenguy]

I've used the Free CamStudio and it works quite well.

I've made training sessions with it before.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: templar165
What about a pirated version of Snagit or Camtasia? Worth a try? I've got a download limit, so I'd better make sure.

If you desire to participate here in the future; please do not discuss using pirated software or how to obtain it.


Senior Anandtech Moderator
Common Courtesy

 

[zenguy]

Thanks for Trying to Enforce that.

I left another to be nameless Tech Site after years and started posting here because they actually started publishing guides on how to hack software.

Since I'm a software developer, I could not tolerate that.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I couldn't get Fraps to do anything in Vista64. No screenshot, no movie. I'll fool with it a bit more, but so far it looks like a dead end.

I tried it one more time with Fraps and got the same results. However, the .avi file generated was smaller this time even after recording for 2 minutes (approx.) The file size was around 512MB. VLC was unable to play the file as before. As you said, seems to be a dead end. Maybe Fraps is only for recording gameplay footage.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: templar165
What about a pirated version of Snagit or Camtasia? Worth a try? I've got a download limit, so I'd better make sure.

Dang! :Q

 

[templar165]

I'm sorry to talk about Pirated products here.

I've got Vista64 too, so by looks of it, I doubt Fraps will work there.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: templar165
I'm sorry to talk about Pirated products here.

I've got Vista64 too, so by looks of it, I doubt Fraps will work there.

I think Fraps 2.9.8 will work with Vista 64-bit.

 

[templar165]

I'll try...

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: templar165
I'll try...

You want to try it for desktop screen recording? If so, I don't think you can't record desktop activity afaik now that I've tried it. If you want it for gameplay recording it should work fine. I also like Game Cam for gameplay recording.