the Best Screen Capture Program (record ANY video from your screen)

Usually there are two different types of screen recording software. One is based on the time line, one is based on the slides(similar to PowerPoint). Most screen recorders are based on the time line, like Camtasia. *** and Captive are based on the slides. Some applications even allow users to export the selected frame as a picture. It is difficult to say which one is the best, what I am certain is the one fits your needs is the best for you.

Jing is a freeware screen capture software for Windows and Mac.

The program is too obsessive about offering online services when you just want to record videos from screen to your hard disk.

Jing is free, but Techsmith offers a premium version as well. The free version limits you to 5 minutes of recording and you can save your recordings as SWF files only.

If your sound card doesn't allow you to record sound, you may try to use Replay Video Capture or WM Capture to record video with audio. The Universal Audio Driver allows you to record audio on virtually ANY system. You should select this if the Audio Test fails to locate any available recording input.

Troubleshooting: I'm having trouble recording audio.
On some PC's, only the Universal Audio Driver will work. Go to Settings, Audio Setup/Test, and select the Universal Audio Driver. Use the Universal Audio Driver only if the Test option fails to locate a working audio recording line.

Troubleshooting: The Universal Audio Driver Option isn't working for me
To use the Universal Audio Driver, in some cases you may need to open Replay Video Capture or WM Capture before opening your browser or video playback application.

Hello,

After clicking on "suggest a link" on the main site, I was led to this forum. I would like to suggest Snapper Screen Recorder 2.0, which is available for Macintosh and Windows. Feel free to ask any questions. I'll come back here and answer questions if you have any.

May I also suggest the creation of a freeware/shareware section in this forum? I'm having some trouble determining where to post this message.

Best regards,

Mark

[alexferri]

I recommend 1AVCapture. With 1AVCapture you select the region of the screen where the video is playing and record it to AVI or WMV. It works with any codec installed on the PC. It can also record streaming audio to WAV, WMA, or MP3. 1AVCapture also records from webcams, DV cameras, IP cameras, and TV tuners.

Best,
Alex

[mikegreen]

I've now successfully installed Total Screen Recorder and used it on the 113 minute video that I was having so much difficulty with before. The quality as a 320x240 .wmv is almost as good as that of the downloaded file after stripping DRM, and the total file size of 373Mb is very manageable. So thanks to everyone for your help.al

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

Screen video capture software need some tricks if you want to record in high quality:

• You need a 2-PASS encoding to get smaller files. But you can't capture from your screen using a 2-pass encoding!
• For the best quality it is recommended to record using HUFFYUV lossless codec first. Huffyuv provides very good quality, but generates a data stream of 10-15 MB/sec.
  
  If your hard drive is not fast enough then you may use a MOTION JPEG codec: Morgan MJPEG, PICVideo MJPEG, MainConcept MJPEG. Motion JPEG codecs generate data stream of 3-8 MB/sec while providing good quality.
• After that you may compress your Huffyuv or Motion JPEG recordings using MPEG-4 AVC codec (like x264) or MPEG-4 ASP codec (like Xvid) and a 2-pass encoding method.
• It is usually a good idea to convert WMV to WMV, RM to RM, .MOV to .MOV, .FLV to .FLV (Windows Media to Windows Media, Real Media to Real Media, Flash video to Flash video) to have less quality loss.
  
  But you can test other codecs as well. For example: free x264 or free xvid.

If super high-quality is not very important, you can try Replay Video Capture. It records from screen using MPEG-2 or Windows Media codec and I'm very satisfied by its quality.

I do not suggest to use 2-pass ABR encoding anymore. This practice was widely used in the past, but no longer recommended

Best practices for recording video from screen:

• For the best quality it is record video from screen using HUFFYUV lossless codec. Huffyuv provides very good quality, but generates a data stream of 10-15 MB/sec.
  
  If your hard drive is not fast enough then you may use a MOTION JPEG codec: Morgan MJPEG, PICVideo MJPEG, MainConcept MJPEG. Motion JPEG codecs generate data stream of 3-8 MB/sec while providing good quality.
• If you need MPEG-4 or MPEG-4 AVC video, recompress your recording using CRF (quality based) 1-pass encoding. You can use free x264 for creating MPEG-4 AVC videos and free XVid for MPEG-4 videos. I recommend you to use MKV or MP4 container for your files depending on hardware that you have.
• When you record anything from screen, close all unnecessary applications including instant messengers, e-mail clients, Web-browsers. It is also a good idea to stop your antivirus, anti-malware, anti-spyware software, disconnect from the Internet (if your game doesn't require it) and stop your firewall.
  Don't forget to turn on your system protection after recording.
  
• Consider lowering the desktop screen resolution
  
• You may need to turn off hardware acceleration when recording from screen. Otherwise you may get black screen instead of the video.

Any other ideas?

If you prefer speed over excellent quality, you can try to record using MPEG-2 video codec. MPEG-2 is not resource intensive. And it gives good quality.

MPEG-2 it is a video codec used on DVD-Video discs. If you plan to create DVD-Video discs from your screen recordings, it is recommended to record using MPEG-2 video codec. Then you can use DVD authoring software that allows to create DVD-Video from MPEG-2 .mpg files without any quality loss.

Note that MPEG-2 video files need to be DVD compliant to avoid recompression. Recommended settings DVD compliant settings:

1. Video:
   720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC), up to 9800 kbit/s
2. Audio:
   - AC3, 48 kHz sampling rate, 1 to 5.1 (6) channels, up to 448 kbit/s
   or
   - MP2 48kHz, 1 to 7.1 channels, up to 912 kbit/s

Also note that it might be easier to use screen video capture software software like WM Capture / Replay Video Capture that allows to record into DVD-Video format.

Please learn more about DVD Authoring Tool software that you plan to use, what input files are recommended and how to set up the software to avoid recompression.

Personally when I record streaming videos with screen recorders or when I record with TV Tuner, I use MPEG-2 codec. It is not resource intensive, so this allows me to record and work on my computer at the same time. My TV Tuner is just recorded in the background. And Replay Video Capture or WM Capture allow me place the window I record from on top of other windows. Both programs are good for recording for hours while keeping audio and video in sync.

Another interesting feature of Replay Video Capture or WM Capture is that they allow you to record video with sound even if you don't have stereo mix or wave-out mix. This is the only way to record video with sound on computers where you can't enable "Stereo Mix" / "Record What you hear" / "Waveout mix" (unless you want to buy another sound card).

[rox108]

I think the best software for that is Camtasia.

Actually I have a problem with Camtasia. When I click Record button the program is shutting down with an error (something with codecs). Don't know what to do