Wikipedia:WikiProject Screencast/Software

One of the principal purposes of WikiProject Screencast is to provide an overview of available software and best practices for producing screencasts.

We should evaluate software on several criteria:

We should also clearly indicate:

CamStudio

CamStudio v.2.5 beta 1 screenshot

This screencasting program for Microsoft Windows renders videos in an Audio Video Interleave (AVI) format. It can also convert these AVIs into Flash Video format, embedded in SWF files. CamStudio is written in Microsoft Visual C++.

Pros
Cons

FFmpeg

Diagram showing different applications (VDR, MPlayer, Xine and VideoLAN) using FFmpeg

Free, open source software that can run on any platform. It works from the command-line.

Pros
Cons
See also

HyperCam

Pros
Cons

Jing

Launched in 2007 as Jing Project by the TechSmith Corporation, this software was released in January 2009 and is free to download and use. The software takes a picture or video of the user's computer screen and uploads it to the Web, FTP, computer or clipboard. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is automatically created and can be shared with others to view or access the uploaded file. Users are required to sign up for an account before using the software.

Pros
Cons

Microsoft Expression Encoder

Pros
Cons

Pixetell

Pros
Cons

Quicktime

Apple's Quicktime player permits recording screencasts.

Pros
Cons
Questions
No, as it is only included in QuickTime X, which is only included in Mac OSX Snow Leopard. THENEWMONO 04:05, 5 October 2010 (UTC)
QT Pro is expensive. QT in OSX 10.6.8 (bundled in Snow Leopard) works perfectly and is adequate for most purposes.. It may be possible to edit it in iMovie (also bundled free with Mac). --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 06:38, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

RecordMyDesktop

Screenshot of RecordMyDesktop

Free, open source software that runs on Linux. It has command line tools, along with a GUI (gtk-recordMyDesktop).

Pros
Cons
Questions

Shooter

This add-on for Mozilla Firefox could be useful for getting screenshots to incorporate into screencasts.

Shooter

Snapz Pro X

Pros
Cons

XVidCap

XVidCap in action
Pros
Cons

Works on Linux

Audio software

Audacity

Screenshot of Audacity

Audacity is a free software, cross-platform digital audio editor and recording application.

Pros
Notes

Storyboard software

Celtx

Free, open source (though there are paid add-ons)

Pros


Video editing software

Conversion and uploading software, web sites

Additional software functions

The software listed above, including Jing and Snapz are great for capture, but not for editing.

It is not clear whether the community will favor the "writing ahead of time" model, in which the "how-to" is scripted then screencast, or the "editing afterward" model, in which the capture is completed and then edited. If the editing model is favored, or even popular, an additional software program will be needed. iMovie HD is an example of a great and easy-to-use program but there are a lot of programs out there to edit mov, mpeg-4, avi and other movie file types.

This brings up the file type issue. For the purposes of this first round we shouldn't get bogged down with this requirement, but editing software is significant in the long term, for several reasons.

  1. The need to edit videos while making them prior to posting on Wikipedia.
  2. The need to edit videos after they are made and published. (help/correction).
  3. The need to edit videos after they are made and published and out-of-date (in the case where the Chinese Gooseberry video needs to be updated to the Kiwifruit video).

Video editing software iMovie HD, iMovie 8 (Apple) Microsoft Movie Maker (Windows) Adobe Premiere (Pro CS 5 is current) (Mac, Windows) Final Cut Studio (Apple) Pinnacle (Formerly Avid) Studio (Windows)

See also