A screencast is a digital video recording that captures actions taking place on a computer desktop. A screencast captures what happens on a monitor over a period of time. This is used for illustrating software features . Screencasting is a technique of creating video tutorials and software imitation by capturing a sequence of screenshots of any running software application. Screencasting tools work like a video camera which can records of the actions on a user’s computer. The recorded video can be exported in a range of popular video formats like EXE, SWF, Flash, WMV, AVI, Quick Time, MPEG-4. These formats are widely used in any video sharing site and may easily import into any video editing tools.
There are two types of screencasting applications:
- Desktop application: It is essential to download and run the screencasting software in your local computer.
- Web-based application: You do not need to download the software in your computer you can run the application directly from the web.
Many screencasting tools are completely free to use and don’t have any registration procedure. Some tools can be used for a trail period and some tools must need to purchase to get started. After creating a video you will have option to download video in your desktop and to upload the video in video-sharing site like YouTube, Revver, Vimeo etc. A few of them let you to embed your recorded screencast on your blog without uploading to YouTube first.
Using screencasting tools is very straight forward. You can record the entire screen or only a selected area. You cBold textan use the shortcut key in order to start, stop and push your recoding. Below, You will find a set of features which will help you identifying free screencasting tool that better suit your needs.
Features of Screencasting tool
In order to select the screencasting tool that meets your needs and expectations, there are a series of features that should be considered:
- Operating System: Required Operating Systems to run the selected tool.
- Region capture: Recording option of full screen or selected area screen.
- Audio: Adding system voice or microphone recording and voice annotation support during your recording.
- Shortcut key: Key to start, push and stop your recording.
- Output format: The format of the video after screencasting.
- Length: Duration of recording.
- Editing: Recreating, combining video,adding voice or text annotation on your recorded video.
- Video uploading and sharing: Easiest way to upload and share the recorded video.
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