EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: vinicius.jlantunes on September 09, 2015, 09:53:27 pm
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I hope this isn't too off-topic - I would like to know what screen capture software Dave uses in his videos - does anyone happen to know?
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I don't know specifically what Dave uses but Snag-it is a pretty popular one which also does video capture.
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Simple on a PC with Win OS:
Print Screen keyboard button and then Paste to your image viewer software.
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I use Irfanview ( http://www.irfanview.com/ (http://www.irfanview.com/) ) to get screenshots of desktop, multiple monitors, only the window that's active, portions of the screen ... can also be configured to stay in background and capture screenshot when you press a combination of keys, or every few seconds etc it's very versatile, very easy to use, lots of options...
To capture video, I used to use Camtasia, but I got tired of its proprietary codecs. These days, I use Open Broadcast Software ( https://obsproject.com/ (https://obsproject.com/) ) which is a free software used mostly by gamers to broadcast their gaming on Twitch but it can be easily reconfigured to capture the desktop or a portion of the desktop and save what's captured to disk (instead of sending to internet) in an easy to edit format. I usually select to compress the captured video with h264 codec, configured to compress without (or with extremely small) quality loss in the detriment of file size. It works for me because I usually edit the captured video later on and render a final video with much better compression then.
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Sorry, I should clarify that I mean video capture. Thanks halcyon, I had completely forgot about snag it! I do have it installed!
Thank you all for the quick answers
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FYI Summary so far:
Snagit = $50 one time fee (reasonable in my opinion) 15 day free trial
https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-pricing.html (https://www.techsmith.com/snagit-pricing.html)
Camtasia (my bet on what Dave uses) = $300
http://shop.techsmith.com/store/techsm/en_US/buy/productID.289432000 (http://shop.techsmith.com/store/techsm/en_US/buy/productID.289432000)
Open Broadcast Software = Free (donations welcomed) but looks like configuration is needed
https://obsproject.com/ (https://obsproject.com/)
My vote is for Snagit but I would check out OBS first on YT
Wished OP would have asked about editors also.
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Yeah for me it is a no brainer as I have a snag it license I got for free from work (older version but does the job)
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I use screenpresso for screenshots and short clips and Camtasia for longer videos, editing and publishing.
Screenpresso allows editing the screenshots with several nice tools to highlight sections and insert text. For videos, though, Camtasia is more flexible.
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Hum, the screenpresso one sounds interesting. Might have a look at it, snag it is rather limited, does the job but not much in terms of captions, text, etc (for videos I mean. For images it is great, lots of tools). Thanks for the tips!
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Hum, the screenpresso one sounds interesting. Might have a look at it, snag it is rather limited, does the job but not much in terms of captions, text, etc (for videos I mean. For images it is great, lots of tools). Thanks for the tips!
Keep in mind that Screenpresso does not have any advanced video editing features. However, one thing it does well for video is the ability to save it in multiple formats (including H.264 and even animated GIF) - check the first screen.
Its massive power resides on still images of the desktop (check second screenshot).
Also, one thing I love about it is the snap-on feature that ties to opened applications, windows, subwindows, etc. Also, the ability to capture a fixed size on screen, which is useful to insert images into videos, as you don't stretch or lose any resolution.
I also use this together with another small utility called Sizer (http://www.brianapps.net/sizer/), which resizes windows to preset values (useful to capture screenshots as well).
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On linux i use shutter
Excellent program for screenshots
http://shutter-project.org/ (http://shutter-project.org/)
/Bingo
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ctrl-alt-prt screen will capture only the window that is in focus rather than the entire display.
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+1 for Snagit.
Paid once, back in 2011 and never had a issue. I tried Camtasia Studio, but found it too heavy and I don't need to record videos professionally. As Vinicius said, when comparing the Image Capture options to Video Capture, video options appears to be limited, but only because you have just too many features to capture and edit images. Worth the 50 dollar license and have a full-featured 15-day trial.
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I haven't found anything free that seems to be able to capture video or animation without it getting choppy.
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I haven't found anything free that seems to be able to capture video or animation without it getting choppy.
That depends mostly on the CPU you have and the screen resolution of course. What do you use? I can't capture a HD screen on my Core2Duo e8400 at 25fps. I'm guessing an i3 might be around the minimum. But probably an i5.
You either have to reduce the screen resolution, lower the frame rate, record less than full screen or buy a faster CPU.
I'm fairly certain my hardware is adequate, but for the record:
Toshiba S55 series laptop (1 year old)
i7 4710HQ 4 x 2.5GHz cores with hyperthreading enabled (8 logical cores in total)
Intel HD 4600 graphics
8GB DDR3
1TB hard drive
1366x768 LCD
I've tried recording at 30 and 25fps, different codecs, lowering the bit rate.
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I've been using Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder for screen captures on my channel. I did a review of a car dashcam recently with video footage in the program captured using Apowersoft - it looks to get around 15fps, but I've not digged into the settings to look to see if this can be improved. For normal stuff it's free and easy to use so it won for me.