Question About Video Screen Capture Tools...

[tom95521]

The slideshow was not smooth on the PC either. I think the mutiple large images in the carousel cased the playback problem.

I have been testing capturing at 40 Mbps for Lin's snow style. Snow animation is hard to capture at low bitrate because there is movement everywhere. t looks really good but the file sizes are large.

Tom

[Lin Evans]

Hi Tom - Eric,

Here's the FastoneCapture version - this link to a PTE preview at 1280x800 screen resolution. I used a 9 element caurosel with a 3d transition to a single image then a single rain animation followed by a snow animation.... VLC media player handles it very well...

http://www.lin-evans.org/snow/fastonecapturetest.zip (about 96 meg zipped video)

Best regards,

Lin

[tom95521]

Hi Lin,

That screen recording looks really good and smooth as butter. It must be recording close to 30 fps. Also the software is less expensive than a hdmi to usb converter device. I think I payed about $150 US for the avermedia device. Rain and snow are hard to record at the particle level. I recorded about 2 minutes at 720p 60fps 40 Mbits and I think it was about 300 Mbytes. Maybe I will upload to YouTube and see how it looks.

Thanks,

Tom

[Ken Cox]

LIN

perfect with the cooler win7/wmp 12-- smooth as silk -- great audio for a change ))

in your description include the fastone addie more frequently -- we don't want newbies to think it is part of pte and is a free plugin

thks ken

[Ken Cox]

Lin

loaded it to the Toshiba LT--a350--4 gb ram, win7/64 bit/wmp 12

same performance as the coole ))

great

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the testing - I'm pretty certain this is the best video screen capture tool out there for PTE and those making tutorials. It has lots of features I haven't explored and an entire host of still image capture and editing capabilities. It will even convert your video to an animated gif - something I'm experimenting with right now for a number of reasons....

Best regards,

Lin

[tom95521]

No doubt that FastStone Capture is a good screen recorder. It does variable bit rate better than SnagIt and better than the Avermedia Live Gamer Pro.

Using Bitrate Viewer you can tell that the bitrate drops down to near zero until there is movement on the screen. Towards the end with the rain and snow it was really active.

Thanks,

Tom

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Tom - Eric,

Here's the FastoneCapture version - this link to a PTE preview at 1280x800 screen resolution. I used a 9 element caurosel with a 3d transition to a single image then a single rain animation followed by a snow animation.... VLC media player handles it very well...

http://www.lin-evans.org/snow/fastonecapturetest.zip (about 96 meg zipped video)

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin

I downloaded your Fastone capture & viewed it on my PC, my comments are in comparison to what I get from Camtasia.- 1. It's a relatively large file for a 2+ minute capture. 2. According to my properties it is only recorded at 28FPS not the 60FPS you said you were trying to achieve. 3. The animation tests a) I don't think rotating mini images are a good test would prefer to see something in full screen, likewise the snow & rain are not stressing the programme, would prefer to see how it handles PTE's standard transitions, fade being a particular one that Youtube decimates, & maybe some scrolling text, then a 3d slow spin (Full screen).

From your test, I'm not convinced Fastone captures clearer than Camtasia.

Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Since my last post I have constructed a couple of test shows using the basic PTE transitions. I then captured them with Camtasia at the highest preset of 30fps & my own setting of 60fps. They were like the curates egg so to speak, good in parts. The basic transitions up to the "push" were acceptable at both rates, from then both fell apart with the push effect being the worst of the basic transitions. The curling page & 3D, were borderline acceptable. So then I uploaded them both to YouTube & things got worse, both versions were flagged with shaky video & were allowed to let YT try to improve, they weren't. So to sum up, IMO Camtasia hasn't improved its ability to capture PTE's transitions since the last time I used it. Unfortunately I didn't start the test shows from scratch so don't have project folders. However if someone is willing to download the project folder & try it with Fastone, I will create & upload to either Dropbox or Mediafire. The two versions on Youtube are below.

Yachtsman1. BTW the only sound is on a short video clip I included..

[Lin Evans]

Hi Eric,

Had you actually read my posts you would not be beating a straw man right now. I have said repeatedly that what I am trying to achieve is the capture of PTE's 60fps animations smoothly with a screen capture tool. I have said repeatedly that FastoneCapture's maximum frame rate is 25 fps.

Camtasia can't handle the animations smoothly. FastoneCapture can handle the animations smoothly - end of story. Rather than criticize the methodology and theorize about what is and what is not difficult to capture, perhaps you should do your own extensive testing if you are really interested. Nothing is preventing you from installing FastoneCapture and testing it for up to 30 days free.

You are bringing yet more variables (YouTube) into an already complex arena. I could care less about what YouTube does or doesn't do. I don't use YouTube as a vehicle for the distribution of my tutorials, I make them available for download and I recommend VLC Media Player as the best solution for the user to play them.

It seems you are trying to make this into a Camtasia vs FastoneCapture contest. It's not about Camtasia vs the world, it's about finding a product which does what I need and eliminating those which don't. Camtasia has been eliminated.

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Eric,

Had you actually read my posts you would not be beating a straw man right now. I have said repeatedly that what I am trying to achieve is the capture of PTE's 60fps animations smoothly with a screen capture tool. I have said repeatedly that FastoneCapture's maximum frame rate is 25 fps.

"Which 60FPS animations are you referring to, are they already in the programme or custom made?"

Camtasia can't handle the animations smoothly. FastoneCapture can handle the animations smoothly - end of story. Rather than criticize the methodology and theorize about what is and what is not difficult to capture, perhaps you should do your own extensive testing if you are really interested. Nothing is preventing you from installing FastoneCapture and testing it for up to 30 days free.

"I know I can download a trial copy of Fastone, what I haven't got is something to test it with, unless you are referring to PTE's stock transitions?

You are bringing yet more variables (YouTube) into an already complex arena. I could care less about what YouTube does or doesn't do. I don't use YouTube as a vehicle for the distribution of my tutorials, I make them available for download and I recommend VLC Media Player as the best solution for the user to play them.

"I am only using YouTube as an uploading format that can be live streamed, I don't have the advantage of my own website & wouldn't expect anyone to download from Dropbox or Mediafire"

It seems you are trying to make this into a Camtasia vs FastoneCapture contest. It's not about Camtasia vs the world, it's about finding a product which does what I need and eliminating those which don't. Camtasia has been eliminated.

"I told you that at the outset of your post, it's been on record on the forum for almost 1 1/2 years that Camtasia couldn't handle PTE's transitions. What I haven't seen is Fastone proved with PTE's stock transitions. However I'm not trying to disprove what you say, so I suppose I will have to download a copy of Fastone & run the same show through it & see how it fares."

Eric

Yachtsman1.

[tom95521]

I have a Techsmith Camtasia 8 and SnagIt 11. Techsmith is popular in higher ed but I think it's WAY overpriced. I don't use all of the bells and whistles in the editors.

For $50 US I purchased a FastStone Capture family lifetime license that covers 5 computers. That is the same price as Techsmith SnagIt for one computer and it's not lifetime either.

It saves to .wmv format but I just figured out that you can rename it to .mp4 and it works!

Thanks Lin,

Tom

[Lin Evans]

Hi Tom,

It's definitely a great bargain for what it does. I have HyperSnap ver 7.27 and Snagit 10.0.1 and I've been upgrading on a regular basis for both for a number of years. I found features in each that I liked but Snagit was having problems with capturing long screen scrolls and I found HyperSnap better for that. Then HyperSnap began having issues with it as well as websites began changing their programming. I'm hoping that FastoneCapture will replace the other two in functionality...

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Well, I downloaded the Fastone trial, ran the same PTE show through it & noted the following results. 1 the file size at 25FPS was almost 3x the Camtasia 30FPS version. The first transitions were almost identical apart from the video clip which was below Camtasia. Then we come to slide 9 the "Push" transition, which IMO was worse than the 30 & 60FPS versions of Camtasia. The remainder of the transitions were about the same. So you "pays your money & makes your choice", I've already invested mine in Camtasia & get free up-grades for the forsee-able future, maybe it will eventually be able to copy PTE's transitions at an acceptable level. You can see the results here, remember YT degrades the streamed versions, you need to download a copy for the true results.

Yachtsman1.

[Lin Evans]

It sound like Camtasia Studio is the "cat's meow" for you then Eric - unfortunately it won't work for my purposes...

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

It sound like Camtasia Studio is the "cat's meow" for you then Eric - unfortunately it won't work for my purposes...

Best regards,

Lin

Meow!!!

Yachtsman1.

[Tonton Bruno]

Hello.

I tried Camstudio,but the sound recorded from the microphone is not perfect.

Now I use Fraps.

http://www.fraps.com/

Here you find a Youtube video from Fraps captured at 60 fps.

And the same thing captured at 30 fps.

These two Full HD videos have been edited with PTE VideoConverter for size optimisation (weight divided by 2).

To create PTE Tutorials, I will usee Fraps at 30 fps.