Category Archives for "Screen Capture Software"

Turn Slideshows & Onscreen Demos into Products

A live presentation with a PowerPoint or Keynote slide show, or any kind of on-screen demonstration, can easily be turned into audio and video products by capturing the presentation ‘live’ on your laptop with screen capture software such as Camtasia (PC) or Screenflow (Mac) – free trial available for both.

Both of these simple to use recording programs allow you to capture onscreen demonstrations at the same time as recording your voice, which means that literally any kind of presentation could be turned into a product.

The basic idea is to do your presentation just as you normally would and at the same time simply clip a lapel microphone to your clothing, plug it into your laptop and use Camtasia (PC) or Screenflow (Mac) to record everything you say and do.

The recorded audio and video content can be edited and saved as mp3 (audio) and mp4 (video) files which can then be sold in various product formats:

–        downloadable files

–        streaming audio and video (e.g. in a membership site)

–        CDs and DVDs

–        podcasts

Here are some essential guidelines which are often overlooked, to keep this process simple and get the most out of your presentation.

Rule Number One:

Save often. This is for a number of reasons, and not just to save your work. Saving often in multiple files over different sessions allows you to break your content down into workable chunks for editing later.

It also puts less stress on your computer and reduces the likelihood of a crash.

Rule Number Two:

Label every file clearly. In fact the best way to organise recording your presentation is to do all the preparation well in advance. This means creating folders and ‘blank’ files (just as you would with templates for e-mails or other documents) so that on the day of your presentation you simply have to open up the blank document and record over it knowing that the file structure is already tested and In place.

Rule Number Three:

Make sure you have lots of disc space. Audio and especially video files recorded in a high quality produce a very large files. You may be recording several hours worth of material and the last thing you want to do is to run out of space!

Rule Number Four:

Close all unnecessary programmes, especially if you are demonstrating anything live on the Internet.

First of all, you want all your computer power focused on giving a smooth and trouble-free recording.

And secondly, you don’t want to be interrupted by random Skype calls or instant message bleeps in the middle of your recorded presentation.

Rule Number Five:

Only record as much screen space as you need. It is better to capture as little screen space as possible (which means smaller file sizes) if you don’t need to record the entire screen.

Rule Number Six

Make sure you do a few test captures on the day before you start to test that everything is working fine.

Do the following checks:

–        Listen back to your audio to make sure you are capturing what you need, which could be just your voice from the lapel microphone you are wearing or it could also be any audio on any website you might visit during a demonstration

–        Playback the video recording and see how smooth the recording is.

–        Save the file with the correct file name and version in the appropriately named folder for easy reference later on.

Rule Number Seven

Get the maximum leverage from your presentation.

You will have several different elements from your presentation all of which can be turned into separate products or packaged together as a multimedia product. For example:

Audio products

–        CDs

–        streaming audio

–        downloadable audio

Video products

–        DVDs

–        streaming video

–        downloadable video

Text based products

–        complete slideshow

–        individual slides

–        audio transcription

–        e-book’s

–        printed books

Think about all the different possible outcomes from just one presentation and how easy it is to get maximum return on time and energy simply by recording what you do.

Video Capture Software

Video capture software is a term that can be applied to three main types of video applications:

Analogue to Digital Conversion

This is where you may have an analogue video recording from a video camera on ‘old’ style analogue tap, or an old video tape from a VHS or Betamax (!) consumer video recorder.

‘Analogue’ video from a video camera running on old style celluloid tape is where you can see the individual ‘frames’ (still pictures) of the movie on the tape, frame by frame, and the movie is played at somewhere between 24 and 30 fps (frames per second) to give the impression of movement.

You won’t see any individual pictures on your ‘Analogue’ video tape from a VHS or Betamax machine because it is magnetic tape not celluloid.

Both of these analogue formats can be converted to digital format

  • for easier, more stable storage i.e. on a hard drive instead of on tape
  • for easier editing (digital editing is WAY faster and easier than analogue editing)
  • for easier duplication

Once the movie is in digital format it makes any processing much faster and easier, and perhaps more importantly, makes a massive range of digital editing software available for you to do some serious magic with very little knowledge or previous experience of making simple movies.

In fact, it really can be ‘SuperEasy!’

Before we go onto video editing, production and special effects, let’s look at another type of video capture software.

Screen Capture Software

This is software you can use to capture what you seen on your computer screen while also recording your voice. For example, you may wish to demonstrate how some software works and show certain functions while describing what you are doing.

This is how I make my video tutorials, where I talk about how to create a video clip, or add music or a special effect at the same time as showing you what to do on screen.

All of this – my voice and the on screen demonstration – are recorded by screen capture software such as the programmes listed below, most of which also have great video editing functions.

For PC

Camtasia (my favourite and recommended screen capture software)

  • free trial available
  • powerful editing
  • add callouts (text boxes and speech bubbles on screen)
  • Picture-in-Picture
  • PowerPoint capture with voiceover for slideshow videos
  • export video in many common formats
  • upload direct to YouTube
  • $300 to buy (well worth the investment if you are serious about creating great videos)

Camstudio

  • Free
  • Screen capture with audio recording
  • Records in .avi format
  • no editing facility
  • recommended video editing software

For Mac

ScreenFlow

  • easy to use video capture
  • DVD capture
  • Keynote capture (slideshow presentations)
  • video editing
  • audio ‘ducking’: background music is turned down when your voice plays back – just like in the radio
  • add callouts (text boxes and speech bubbles on screen)
  • Picture-in-Picture
  • adjust video playback speed
  • upload direct to YouTube
  • Free Trial

There is also another type of video capture software

Streaming Video Capture

If you want to capture video from YouTube, Facebook or any other sites that play videos then you need streaming video capture software.

The easiest software I have found so far is a Firefox Plugin called ‘downloadhelper’ which allows tyou to easily capture video from most websites.

For hard to capture sites, you can always use one of the scren capture programmes above to record the video as it plays back, but his is not ideal.

Here is a programme you can try for free designed specifically to capture streaming video from a window on your desktop.