Making screencasts

by Mads Kristensen 2. October 2007 04:12

In the last couple of days I’ve done some screencasts on how to use BlogEngine.NET. I know there are many applications available that can record my screen and audio, but I didn’t really want to go look for any of them. Many of them come with a price tag and then I’d have to learn how to use them afterwards.

I remembered the time when Windows Server 2003 was in beta and I was running it as my main operating system. It came with a wonderful application called Windows Media Encoder. So instead of looking for newer and maybe cooler screencast recorders I just downloaded the old Windows Media Encoder which is free. It is outdated by now, but it’s easy to start using it and it produces fairly good quality videos.

Windows Media Encoder

The only problem is that it cannot edit a video after it finished recording it. So I gave Windows Movie Maker a go. The result was not good, not good at all. When I imported the video, did nothing and saved it again, the quality dropped immensely and the size of the file tripled. I still find it odd.

From this experience I’ve learned that Windows Media Encoder is good and Windows Movie Maker is not. I’m planning to do a lot more videos so it might be about time I started looking for alternate recording tools and editors.

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Comments

10/2/2007 4:44:43 AM #

Josh Stodola

Did windows media encoder create a WMV file?

Josh Stodola United States |

10/2/2007 4:46:01 AM #

Mads Kristensen

Yes it does

Mads Kristensen Denmark |

10/2/2007 4:51:34 AM #

Josh Stodola

That's unfortunate.  I could surely help you out with AVIs, but the WMV format totally sucks, IMO.

Josh Stodola United States |

10/2/2007 4:53:35 AM #

Mads Kristensen

WMV is not the most universal format, but I kinda like it. I'd prefer MPEG files that can be progressively downloaded.

Mads Kristensen Denmark |

10/2/2007 4:57:34 AM #

Josh Stodola

Go with this... http://camstudio.org/  it creates AVI files which are much more portable and easier to modify.

And if you are so inclined, I would highly recommend re-encoding the video stream using the open-source XviD codec for serious compression.  I have taken a 2 hour film from DVD and compressed it to 700MB while hardly losing quality.  Just does not get any better than that.

Josh Stodola United States |

10/2/2007 5:02:40 AM #

Mads Kristensen

The thing is that I want it to start playing before it has been completely downloaded. Xvid, divX or AVI cannot do that. As far as I know, only MPEG and WMV (or asx) can in Windows Media Player.

Mads Kristensen Denmark |

10/2/2007 5:11:38 AM #

Josh Stodola

I see.  Sounds to me like you are need streaming video.

Perhaps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTSP on a VLC server?

Josh Stodola United States |

10/2/2007 8:39:25 AM #

Jason Monroe

BB Flashback.. From Blueberry Consultants..

http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack.aspx

Jason Monroe United States |

10/2/2007 1:23:12 PM #

Ronny Engelmann

Take a look at SnagIt <http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp>
You can use the Video Screen Capture to create tutorial videos.

Ronny Engelmann Germany |

10/2/2007 1:29:30 PM #

Picacodigos

And for the post-editing of the video, I really like VirtualDubMod (http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdubmod). It has a bit of a steep learning curve, but for everyday operations is not that hard...

Picacodigos Spain |

10/3/2007 1:05:58 AM #

Josh Stodola

Picacodigos - I'm with you on that one.  I've been using VirtualDub (the old school one, not Mod) for years.  Tough to learn, but once you do learn it, possibilities are limitless.  I use it exclusively for all my encoding/editing/ripping jobs.

Just don't forget to Direct Stream Copy the video if you are not re-encoding!!

Josh Stodola United States |

10/3/2007 2:17:34 AM #

Luciano Evaristo Guerche

Have you ever tried Wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) ? It's quite similar to Adobe Captivate, but freeware. Saves to flash, avi, pdf, doc and jpeg as far as I remember.

--
Luciano Evaristo Guerche
Taboão da Serra, SP, Brazil

Luciano Evaristo Guerche Brazil |

10/4/2007 5:37:15 AM #

Henrik Stenbæk

Hi Mads

I did the same search a couple of months ago. Read my experiens here:
onesoft.dk/.../...order-for-making-screencast.aspx

Henrik Stenbæk |

10/16/2007 4:12:43 PM #

Jimmy

you can use http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ which is an online tool.
regards,

jimmy

Jimmy Belgium |

10/20/2007 8:13:44 PM #

Emad Ibrahim

Jing is by far my favorite screencast making tool and it is FREE, there is a review www.thetechbrief.com/.../

But it won't let you edit after you are done too.  You should try it just for the sheer simplicity of it.

Emad Ibrahim United States |

10/22/2007 1:37:30 PM #

Investment king

That was a great post on the screen casts  with the windows media encoder and about its quality. I have seen your clips on the other site and realized that what you said was correct that it is poor in windows movie maker and better in the windows media encoder. Thank you very much for this great post.

Investment king India |

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Mads Kristensen Mads Kristensen
Web developer at ZYB and founder of BlogEngine.NET. More...

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