Cam Studio Review
You must have seen lot of videos on net giving information about their
software or products specially for students who are doing some online course, where
they explain each and everything what’s going on their screen to you. You must be wondering
how they must have done that or how that video must have been created. Well ,
now you can also do it sitting at home by downloading CamStudio software. It is easily available
on net free of cost.
Background:
The original CamStudio was released as an open source product by RenderSoft software in
October 2001. The
source code license was converted to the GNU General Public License in December 2002 with release 1.8.The Source code of versions 1.0, 1.4
and 2.0 are still available at SourceForge.
In 2003, the company was acquired by eHelp Corporation who owned a competing product called RoboDemo (now called Adobe Captivate). eHelp
Corporation released an updated version as CamStudio 2.1 under a proprietary software license only and removed the ability to create
SWFs. A
succession of acquisitions led to the company being owned by Adobe.
Development of CamStudio 2.0 (the last open-source
version) was resumed and released as free software again in September 2007 with
the CamStudio 2.5 Beta 1 release. Accordingly, it was re-branded as CamStudio Open Source.
CamStudio 3 is a complete rewrite of
the project in the pre-alpha stages of development as of April 19, 2010 and
is seeking developers.
CamStudio is a screencasting program for Microsoft Windows released as free software. The software renders videos in an AVI format.
It can also convert these AVIs into Flash Video format, embedded in SWF files. CamStudio is written in C++, but CamStudio 3 will be developed in C#.
It is a great
tool to create quick demos and screencasts on your computer in AVI and, if you
wish, you can convert them into Flash format. CamStudio's features include
options to highlight the cursor path during a recording session, automatic
panning, and the ability to record with sound. An effects menu lets you
annotate and append videos with comments, plus add a time stamp or watermark.
CamStudio also captures screenshots if you set the frame rate, drag the mouse
over the area for capture, and tap on the coordinates. While CamStudio doesn’t contain
any fancy compressors, file types, or even a video editor, we found it easy to
convert AVI files into MP4s, for example, using other free software. Overall,
CamStudio is a great way to take advantage of open source software to produce
both instructional videos and screen captures and share them with the world!
CamStudio at a Glance
CamStudio is a compact little program with some nice
features tucked away to maximize its allure. Installation is a breeze. However,
when you launch CamStudio, a private product upgrade is offered that has not
been verified by SourceForge. You’ll have to decide if you want to take a
chance on CamStudio’s private upgrade or not. Yet, once you launch CamStudio,
you’ll find several helpful features to make your screen recording journey
quite enjoyable. For example, controls to record an entire screen or a portion
of it, sound options, and the ability to add comments to videos and screen
captures. CamStudio
and its codec are released under GPL license.
Sometimes you need more than a still image
from a screen. For cases where you need to show on-screen actions—for example,
showing a tech-support specialist a sequence of actions that results in an
error—you can turn to one of these inexpensive screen recorders.
CamStudio 2.0 (free) uses AVI format, but you
can also convert movies to Flash (SWF) files without spending a penny! Like
some of the other best things in life, CamStudio gives you flexibility. It lets
you choose from a number of codecs and offers an auto-adjust setting for the
frame rate; you can also set it to capture frames every 5 milliseconds up to
once per minute. By either entering coordinates or dragging the mouse, you can
select a region of the screen to be captured or just choose to capture the
whole screen. CamStudio also offers sound recording with interleave capability,
and an auto-pan feature makes video recording follow the mouse cursor. Abundant
text annotation options round out this full-featured package.
There are many features of CamStudio. Some of them are listed as below:
·
Records your screen and audio to AVI files
It lets you capture your PC
desktop activities into standard AVI video files. This advanced screen
capturing software can capture anything you see on the computer screen,
including the entire desktop, windows, menus, cursors, and even video with
sound. Screen Movie Studio is able to record all these movements allowing you
to save them and play them back.
·
Converts AVI into Flash
The flash video format is a video format
defined by Adobe systems. Flash Video has been accepted as the default online
video format by many sites. Notable users of it include Youtube,
Hulu, VEVO,Yahoo! Video, metacafe, Reuters.com, and many other news providers. Flash
video is viewable on most operating systems except iOS,via the Adome Flash
Player and web browser plugin or one of several third-party programs.
Some files need to be conerted from AVI to
flash which is accepted by all the above metioned sites and CamStudio is the
best for it.
·
Highlights your cursor path for clarity
·
Automatically pans
Autopan will allow you to
select a small region of your screen as the recording area, then the record
region will scroll following your mouse to keep what's under your mouse
visible.
We can do the second thing using time-lapse, but not normal recording because of the 2-gigabyte file size limit imposed by the AVI-1 specification that CamStudio presently still uses.
We can do the second thing using time-lapse, but not normal recording because of the 2-gigabyte file size limit imposed by the AVI-1 specification that CamStudio presently still uses.
·
Records with sound
From the main menu, choose Options->Record audio from microphone.
When enabled, CamStudio will
record your voice input from the microphone while it is capturing video. You
need a sound card with an attached microphone to use this option.
·
Lets you add text comments to videos
Here are a few advantage
and disadvantages of using Camstudio;
A few advantages include:
- Its
free of charge and easy to use. Just download from internet.
- You
can add high quality screen captions with no jagged edges to your
recording in seconds.
- You
can record for a longer time than some other devices.
- It
also has a built in help file.
- You
can choose whether to record audio or not
A few of the disadvantages include:
- It
is only available to windows users.
- Annotation
tools are said to be awkward.
- There
is no movie editing capabilities.
- It
can only capture audio from microphone or speakers, not both at the same
time.
- It
lacks some features that are available within other screen capture
programs.
- If
you are into games then you will notice that it lacks certain game-related
features such as monitoring frames-per-second within the game which other
capture tools contain
Over all if all you want to do is create 'How
to ' videos, CamStudio is a handy little tool to help you do that.
How to generate income from
CamStudio?
- If you are selling some software, you can make your own
videos demonstrating that software .
- Suppose you have built a
website selling things, you can make a video answering frequently asked
questions.
- Video tutorials for schools , colleges , companies can be made.
- You can use it to record a
recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support
people
- You can use it to create video-based information
products you can sell
- You can become attractive marketer online with more and
more traffic.
The website link above includes answers to
many commonly asked questions about CamStudio.
You will find information about video, audio, and performance using this application.
You will find information about video, audio, and performance using this application.
The website link above will take you to the CamStudio Support Forum
which is an active community of fellow users.
You can download different versions by clicking Version 2.7 Download
Version 2.7 issues will direct you to user forum
How to Speed Up Videos in CamStudio
You can record nearly anything that is
displayed on your computer screen with the open source software from CamStudio.
This includes movie streaming for playback later or recording keystrokes for
use in creating training videos. Unfortunately, sometimes, recording or
playback issues may occur. It is possible to adjust your software and hardware
settings so that you can record and playback seamlessly.
Instructions
o
Launch "CamStudio." Click
"Options" from the CamStudio main menu, and then click "Program
Options."
o
Click the box next to "Save Settings on
Exit" to disable it.
o
Close CamStudio and then reopen the software.
o
Click "Options" from the CamStudio
main menu, and then click "Program Options."
o
Click the box next to "Save Settings on
Exit" to re-enable it. Although no changes were made, you are resetting
the "Save Settings on Exit" option. You are verifying that there was
not a glitch in the system. If CamStudio does not work as expected, go to the
next step.
o
Click "Options" from the CamStudio
main menu, and then click "Video Options."
o
Check the "Auto Adjust" box. Move
the slider all the way to "Max Framerate" on the far left. Click "OK." If CamStudio does not work as
expected, go to the next step to lower the hardware acceleration.
o
Click the "Start" button on your
computer and click "Control Panel."
Click "Appearance and Personalization," then "Adjust
screen resolution," and then click "Advanced Settings."
o
Click the "Troubleshoot" tab, then
"Change settings," and then click "Continue."
o
Drag the "Hardware Acceleration"
slider to "None." Click "OK."
Tips & Warnings
Verify if other
program options are enabled or disabled if you continue to have problems. Start
CamStudio, click "Options," and then click "Program
Options." Check the boxes next to the features you want to enable. Remove
the checks in boxes next to the features you want to disable. Note that
"Capture translucent/layered windows" and "Record Thread
Priority" are just a few of the features that may be enabled or disabled.
For more information, watch the above video.
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