Capture Screen Activity to AVI

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ajaxford66

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Topic # 89706 7-Sep-2011 21:09

Hi, I hope someone can help with a suitable utility.

I'd like to capture Windows (XP) screen activity to an AVI file or similar, and have the ability to play back the AVI at a faster rate.

Hopefully the utility is freeware but I'd be willing to look at paid software if not too expensive.

Thanks in advance.

stuartcharters

11 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

Reply # 518286 7-Sep-2011 21:16

Camtasia from TechSmith is quite powerful http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/.

Not free but a trial version is available (30 days I think)

wellygary

3562 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1032

Reply # 518287 7-Sep-2011 21:19

VLC should be able to that for you

Videolan.org

kiwigeek1

622 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 12

Reply # 518292 7-Sep-2011 21:40

tried a few

settled for the best one called

ScreenVirtuoso 3.12

although v4 for win7 is needed v3 seems to work best with xp

writes to xvid and captures sound to mp3 also using the right codecs
and settings

captures layers or mouse does pretty much everything

trail puts watermark but its not too pricey

ajaxford66

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 519618 11-Sep-2011 17:39

I tried Camtasia but baulked at the price!

I settled for ScreenVirtuoso in the end; it's relatively simple but has a surprising amount of flexibility.

Thanks for all the help.

dontpanic42

1574 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 11

Reply # 519625 11-Sep-2011 17:56

CamStudio is actually pretty powerful, and free.
http://camstudio.org/

listudio

196 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 520027 12-Sep-2011 15:33

FastStone Capture is my favorite...

kautious

25 posts

Geek

Reply # 521708 15-Sep-2011 22:01

Perhaps you could try Wink , it's "open source" - as in FREE and seems to do the trick without much fuss.

I made a small tutorial up today using it actually here

Just a couple of tips to reduce file size drastically.

Set screen resolution down to max 1024 x 768px (not everyone has the latest and greatest 3000" plasma screen
Do your recording..
Goto project > set palette > create new (defaults) and save.
once recording is complete you can skip through the frames and add in balloon-text boxes (here and there)
If you add a [Next Frame>] button , the movie will automatically pause *wait* for user interaction before proceeding to the next frame.. yada yada.
^ may not work in preview mode (actually it doesn't - in my case) .until you render the movie, so test with a small capture first b4 making a Trilogy.

over all though she's pretty good imo.

hope this helps.

Cheers.

stevenz

2785 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 122

Reply # 521910 16-Sep-2011 12:43

Just had a very quick play with Microsoft Expression. It's free and looks like it'll do the job.

@KnightNZ