Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that are a
fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?
I would like to record my actions as I navigate around the screen, seeing
the mouse cursor movements, pulling down menus and showing the results of
various editing procedures like adding transitions or filters, then be able
to add some narration and text titles before exporting the tutorial to tape
or CD/DVD.
Thanks for any advice.

"Luis Ortega" wrote...
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that are
a fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?

Only you can decide whether any of the free/shareware options
are good enough for your requirements. Remember to look at
(free) Microsoft Windows Media Converter which is reputed to
include this functionality.But I haven't tried it myself.
It costs only a bit of time for you to try it for yourself.
Only you can decide whether the cost of Camtasia
(or whatever) is worth it for your particular situation.

camtasia is the reckognized benchmark for this on the pc side..

"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that are
a fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?

Windows Media Encoder might fit the bill for your purposes - apparently it's
as good as Camtasia, and it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.mspx

(I've not tried it - I use FRAPs, but that's geared mostly towards gaming)

"G Hardy" wrote in message
...
"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that
are
a fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?

Windows Media Encoder might fit the bill for your purposes - apparently
it's
as good as Camtasia, and it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.mspx

(I've not tried it - I use FRAPs, but that's geared mostly towards gaming)


You are joking! Windows Media Encoder does NOTHING like Camtasia! What are
you talking about?

Camtasia is good but far from perfect or great. I find the videos of simple
screen shots and movements quite good. However, if you play a video window
or animation during your capture, it will be a nightmare to get it converted
well. I own Camtasia and have also tried every shareware and freeware. All
of these programs use a brute force method of capturing screen video changes
and really cannot keep up with video or animation at ca. 30 fps at all. If
that is your goal in your captures under Premiere, prepare to be very
frustrated.

"Quanta" wrote in message
...

"G Hardy" wrote in message
...
"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that
are
a fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?

Windows Media Encoder might fit the bill for your purposes - apparently
it's
as good as Camtasia, and it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.mspx

(I've not tried it - I use FRAPs, but that's geared mostly towards
gaming)


You are joking! Windows Media Encoder does NOTHING like Camtasia! What
are you talking about?

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-03-07.htm

Quote:
"After researching various programs, I found Camtasia seemed to fill the
bill best- but...at $300 it's a bit too rich for my pockets. In the midst of
more searching I stumbled across an article talking about Windows Media
Encoder-- OMG! It does all that Camtasia does & much more- & I had to laugh
that I actually had it in my program list but never noticed it?"

I actually got to that page after googling for "free camtasia" because I do
recall someone hosting the last free version that was available, but I've
changed PCs since then, and didn't bother to keep the bookmark.

As I said, I've not tried it, but it sounds like it fits the bill... or
should that be "fits the Bill"?

"G Hardy" wrote in message
...
"Quanta" wrote in message
...

"G Hardy" wrote in message
...
"Luis Ortega" wrote in message
...
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to
create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that
are
a fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the
free
programs do a good enough job?

Windows Media Encoder might fit the bill for your purposes - apparently
it's
as good as Camtasia, and it's free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...r/default.mspx

(I've not tried it - I use FRAPs, but that's geared mostly towards
gaming)


You are joking! Windows Media Encoder does NOTHING like Camtasia! What
are you talking about?

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-03-07.htm

Quote:
"After researching various programs, I found Camtasia seemed to fill the
bill best- but...at $300 it's a bit too rich for my pockets. In the midst
of more searching I stumbled across an article talking about Windows Media
Encoder-- OMG! It does all that Camtasia does & much more- & I had to
laugh that I actually had it in my program list but never noticed it?"

I actually got to that page after googling for "free camtasia" because I
do recall someone hosting the last free version that was available, but
I've changed PCs since then, and didn't bother to keep the bookmark.

As I said, I've not tried it, but it sounds like it fits the bill... or
should that be "fits the Bill"?


I am at a loss here. Windows Media Encoder is not a real time 'animation
video program screen capture to motion video' program. Camtasia is.

In message , Luis Ortega
writes
Is anyone familiar with the Camtasia screen recording software to create
tutorials for using various editing software (such as Premiere)?
It costs a bit of money, and there are several shareware programs that are a
fraction of the cost, so is Camtasia worth the money, or will the free
programs do a good enough job?
I would like to record my actions as I navigate around the screen, seeing
the mouse cursor movements, pulling down menus and showing the results of
various editing procedures like adding transitions or filters, then be able
to add some narration and text titles before exporting the tutorial to tape
or CD/DVD.
Thanks for any advice.

I've used Camtasia over a couple of years in producing training videos.
I wasn't able to find anything else that does what Camtasia does - I'd
be interested in anything that does match up to it.

You can download the manual from:
http://www.techsmith.com/learn/camta...umentation.asp and there are
tutorials at:
http://www.techsmith.com/learn/camtasia/default.asp

It's worth while running through them all before you start.

There are many different ways to use it - but I use the output into
Vegas (though you should be able to use most video editors).
Alternatively, you can use Camtasia Producer.

Once you've set up your preferences, you can put it into the System
Tray, then Start using the F9 key, Pause using the F9 key, and stop/save
using the F10 key. You can set up the save filenames to consecutively
auto-number - which helps in editing.

--
Tony Morgan

"Quanta" wrote

I am at a loss here. Windows Media Encoder is not a real time 'animation
video program screen capture to motion video' program.

Oh yes it is !
I just tried it-
"New SessionCapture ScreenSpecific WindowChoose WindowChoose
Filename/quality
Produces a .wmv of your chosen window! Thanks G.Hardy and Richard Crowley,
I'd never tried this!
Neil

"Gripper" wrote in message
...

"Quanta" wrote

I am at a loss here. Windows Media Encoder is not a real time 'animation
video program screen capture to motion video' program.

Oh yes it is !
I just tried it-
"New SessionCapture ScreenSpecific WindowChoose WindowChoose
Filename/quality
Produces a .wmv of your chosen window! Thanks G.Hardy and Richard Crowley,
I'd never tried this!
Neil




I did try the latest version, and it does, sort of, capture. The audio is
non existant and the video is absolutely horrible for a window displaying
mpeg video...or anything with motion.