TechPogo

What is Screencast?
In simple terms- “Video Recording of the computer screen”
Screencast video show you precisely HOW a particular task is done on a PC. You see the “actual recorded video” of the process along with the voice so it is very easy to follow it.

Here is an example of a Screen Cast video from YouTube

What are common types of screencasts!-
Video Tutorials
of softwares and programming languages / presentations etc (VTC Online University and Lynda.com are two largest Video tutorial websites)

Almost all versions and type of elearning is available on these sites, By watching the video it bcomes very easy to learn the software as it is easier to follow the steps watching them in front.

-Software Presentations
Software Companies like Adobe, Norton etc create demo videos for their software users. It becomes very easy for the user to learn the software watching the video.

Help your friend/relative by making a screencast~!
You can create your own screencasting video showing your friend or relative on how to download anything OR how to send email or register to a particular website. It would be rather easier than to explain over the phone OR writing an email.

How can you make your screencast video
You can use any of the following softwares-

Wikipedia has a big list of Screencasting softwares but we will only talk about the best ones here:


1.Camtasia ( Shareware>Windows >Free Trial 30 days)
The best commercial screencasting software out there.
It can Record (Full or part of screen) Edit and Export the videos in various formats (Swf,mov,avi,mpeg),

Other info
– Panning in and zooming out
– Create menu of video tutorial
– Widely used in the industry

2. Captivate ( Shareware>Windows > Free Trial available)
More widely used for creating software demonstrations as it has got extra functionality for creating stunning effects and presentations.

3 Camstudio (Free Open source> Linux>Windows)
The best free and open source screen recording software. Has te ability to save the video in SWF or WMV format, Note:- Camstudio only records the video and does not edit them. To edit you would need Virtual Dub

4. Virtual dub (Free Open source> Linux>Windows)
The best video recording software in free category. The strongest part of Virtual Dub is to edit videos of almost all types

5. Qarbon (Commercial >Windows > Free Trial Available)
With qarbon you can create video tutorials in flash and in very smal sizes, it has a great ability to produce the videos in compressed format and still maintaining the quality.

This is the best that i have found till now, if you have any experiences please share with us.

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