A Windows XP help forum. PCbanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » PCbanter forum » Microsoft Windows 7 » Windows 7 Forum
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

What's a good free desktop screen recorder?



 
 
Thread Tools Rate Thread Display Modes
  #46  
Old November 14th 18, 02:19 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
Arlen_Holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 96
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 12:22:19 GMT, mick wrote:

Have you tried Handbrake for conversion?
https://handbrake.fr/


I don't recommend handbrake, although I used it and loved it for years,
especially since Super went to the dark side.

I currently recommend ShotCut, although it's completely different than
Handbrake.

HandBrake is a cross platform converter.
ShotCut is mostly for video editing, so it's a complex GUI (like Pinnacle
Studio is); but ShotCut converts just about any audio format you can give
it.

Both are great though - but I put my vote on ShotCut having used both.
================================================== ==========================
o *ShotCut* freeware pretty much handles everything fantastically
https://www.shotcutapp.com/download/
o *Handbrake* freeware is cross platform compatible
https://handbrake.fr/
o *Super* freeware used to be the best (but get the older versions!)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER/old-versions (no longer there)
o Others are *VirtualDub, AviDemux, AviSynth, oxelon, totallyfreeconverter*, etc.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/files/virtualdub-win/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/avidemux/files/latest/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/avisynth2/files/latest/download
http://www.oxelon.com/media_converter.html
https://sourceforge.net/projects/oxelonmediaconv/files/oxelonmediaconv/oxelonplugins/oxelonplugins.exe/download
http://www.sabsoft.com/TotallyFreeConverter.htm
================================================== ==========================
Ads
  #47  
Old November 14th 18, 02:19 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
Arlen_Holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 96
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 04:38:41 -0500, Paul wrote:

CamStudio is a dumpster fire.


Hi Paul,

I am trying to keep up on which work and which sucks of the ones I
originally listed (where nothing new has come up since).

Where would you put camstudio on this list of freeware, best to worst
for the purpose of freeware to video capture sound/screen on Windows?
o camstudio
o vlc
o apowerrec
o debut
o dvdvideosoft
o ezvid
o flashback
o goplay
o obs
o gamedvr
o sharex
o smartpixel
o tinytake
o icecream
o screenomatic
  #48  
Old November 14th 18, 02:29 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
Arlen_Holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 96
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

On Wed, 14 Nov 2018 01:19:36 -0000 (UTC), Arlen_Holder wrote:

I am trying to keep up on which work and which sucks of the ones I
originally listed (where nothing new has come up since).


Hi Paul,
This is the latest list after reading all the posts on this thread.
Do you concur with the rough order below? (It's preliminary.)

Screen recorders
o camstudio
o vlc
o ezvid (mayayana tested)
o apowerrec
o debut video capture
o dvdvideosoft
o goplay
o obs studio
o gamedvr
o xsplit broadcaster
o iSpring free cam (wmv only)
o sharex (needs addon)
o smartpixel (watermark)
o tinytake (5 min)
o icecream (watermark, 5min, only webm)
o flashback express (mayayana tested, spyware)
o screencastomatic (mayayana tested, 15-min, watermark, stay away from it)
o gilisoft free screen recorder (mayayana tested, trialware, watermark)

Downloader:
o youtube-dl

Converters:
o ShotCut
o Handbrake
o Super (use the older version)
  #49  
Old November 14th 18, 05:01 AM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Arlen_Holder wrote:
On Wed, 14 Nov 2018 01:19:36 -0000 (UTC), Arlen_Holder wrote:

I am trying to keep up on which work and which sucks of the ones I
originally listed (where nothing new has come up since).


Hi Paul,
This is the latest list after reading all the posts on this thread.
Do you concur with the rough order below? (It's preliminary.)

Screen recorders
o camstudio
o vlc
o ezvid (mayayana tested)
o apowerrec
o debut video capture
o dvdvideosoft
o goplay
o obs studio
o gamedvr
o xsplit broadcaster
o iSpring free cam (wmv only)
o sharex (needs addon)
o smartpixel (watermark)
o tinytake (5 min)
o icecream (watermark, 5min, only webm)
o flashback express (mayayana tested, spyware)
o screencastomatic (mayayana tested, 15-min, watermark, stay away from it)
o gilisoft free screen recorder (mayayana tested, trialware, watermark)

Downloader:
o youtube-dl

Converters:
o ShotCut
o Handbrake
o Super (use the older version)


CamStudio had the ability to draw a rectangle around the
capture region. At the time, other applications weren't
as easy to use.

CamStudio used AVI for the output container. And as
far as I know, doesn't have AVI2 OpenDML output capability,
which limits non-corrupted output to 4GB. Even when two
Google Summer Of Code people were available to work
on CamStudio, they didn't fix the AVI part. I could
have fixed that in five minutes, by gluing FFMPEG
to the butt end :-/ The SOC people were supposed to
have added multi-monitor support (think how quickly
that would deplete your 4GB max file size).

I think the "CamStudio CODEC" may have disappeared. They
had their own CODEC at one time, and it may have been
added to some other programs so you could actually use
the output. The program would pretend to copy at 200FPS,
when the engine was actually capturing at 7FPS and
repeating each frame close to 30 times.

But the rest of the feature set, is bonkers.
If you wrote a program in 1980, slid it into a
box, closed the lid, then opened it in 2018, what
do you think the program would look like ? Like
it was from 1980 or something. The controls make
no sense. The CODEC choices offered are... prehistoric.
Imagine using Cinepak when grabbing 1920x1080 screen ?
Think how slow that's going to be. (Some Cinepak
render runs operate at sub-1FPS rates. Such a choice
cannot end well. Cinepak was wonderful back when it
was used for 160x120 videos. Cinepak is not based
on frequency domain analysis of the picture.)

In my opinion, when there are many many competitors,
and a lot of them are re-using an existing engine,
we should use "Chrome" analysis. On browsers, anything
based on Chromium gets the "Hey, it's Chrome" description.
We're less likely to test such things, because a typical
developer doesn't really change much. It doesn't matter
if the developer dolled it up a bit (put his name on it),
it's still Chrome.

That might reduce the playing field to the level
that you could spot innovation.

Back in the day, there were people bootstrapping off
the AMCAP code (to do webcam capture). There were
people bootstrapping off the Microsoft RAMDisk
demo code (which set back the development of good
RAMDisks by about 15 years - tremendous damage...).
When code gets reused, the results aren't always
exemplary. Lazy guys like me paste an extra three
lines of code into it, put our name on it, and
suddenly you have another item on your list
to test.

As for the IceCream, I seem to have lost my copy :-)
I can't be sure what the download filename was.
I tried looking for IceCream but didn't find it.
It was a pretty large download for such a "simple"
operation. Look at the size of AMCAP for inspiration.
IceCream bolted together a whole pile of Open Source
stuff.

Paul
  #50  
Old November 14th 18, 08:27 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,927
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Mayayana wrote:
"Charlie+" wrote

Try BB Flashback Express - free version for personal use, register to
get key. C+


I just tried it. Mixed results. First, it's too big.
A 21 MB installer. 109 MB installed (!) Then it
worked but couldn't save to mp4 without getting
QuickTime. (I'm definitely not installing Apple
software. They're among the worst for spyware,
while Timmy Cook squeals that he's the only moral,
privacy-respecting CEO in tech. Spyware is bad
enough. Baldfaced lying about it is worse.)

So I resaved the proprietary file format as AVI.
That played OK, but it put a sizable black rectangle
in the middle of the screen saying it was an
evaluation. Though I was able to minimize the
black box the next time I recorded.

After recording I had to open the player to
re-open the proprietary file and resave as AVI.
(Later to use Avidemux, I suppose, if I wanted
an mp4. So two complex operations just to get
a compact file format.)

Spyware functionality called 3 different IPs:

Recorder:
130.159.196.117
University of Strathclyde, UK

LogSysServer.exe:
104.27.150.13
CloudFlare

Player:
176.34.137.58
Cloudfront on Amazon web services, Ireland

This one tried to send every few seconds
while playing back. The destination is an
Amazon storage service, especially for caching
videos. It appears the program was trying to
upload the video.

So.... It works. But it takes up a very bloated 109 MB
and that's without even being able to save to mp4.
And it's rather extreme spyware.

This kind of software is handy to have for giving
help to others, but it seems like it should be so hard
to find a simple, non-spyware, compact program that
just stitches together screenshots and makes an mp4.


I suspect many of us have Quicktime installed so that the mp4 option would
be readily available. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has
come across these issues, as it seemed it had some pretty good reviews.

Another relatively basic one that got good marks for simplicity was
ispring_free_cam, as already noted, but it only saves in WMV format. Other
than that it looks pretty good for an easy to use recorder, and even has a
built in video editor.


  #51  
Old November 14th 18, 09:11 AM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Bill in Co wrote:
Mayayana wrote:
"Charlie+" wrote

Try BB Flashback Express - free version for personal use, register to
get key. C+

I just tried it. Mixed results. First, it's too big.
A 21 MB installer. 109 MB installed (!) Then it
worked but couldn't save to mp4 without getting
QuickTime. (I'm definitely not installing Apple
software. They're among the worst for spyware,
while Timmy Cook squeals that he's the only moral,
privacy-respecting CEO in tech. Spyware is bad
enough. Baldfaced lying about it is worse.)

So I resaved the proprietary file format as AVI.
That played OK, but it put a sizable black rectangle
in the middle of the screen saying it was an
evaluation. Though I was able to minimize the
black box the next time I recorded.

After recording I had to open the player to
re-open the proprietary file and resave as AVI.
(Later to use Avidemux, I suppose, if I wanted
an mp4. So two complex operations just to get
a compact file format.)

Spyware functionality called 3 different IPs:

Recorder:
130.159.196.117
University of Strathclyde, UK

LogSysServer.exe:
104.27.150.13
CloudFlare

Player:
176.34.137.58
Cloudfront on Amazon web services, Ireland

This one tried to send every few seconds
while playing back. The destination is an
Amazon storage service, especially for caching
videos. It appears the program was trying to
upload the video.

So.... It works. But it takes up a very bloated 109 MB
and that's without even being able to save to mp4.
And it's rather extreme spyware.

This kind of software is handy to have for giving
help to others, but it seems like it should be so hard
to find a simple, non-spyware, compact program that
just stitches together screenshots and makes an mp4.


I suspect many of us have Quicktime installed so that the mp4 option would
be readily available. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has
come across these issues, as it seemed it had some pretty good reviews.

Another relatively basic one that got good marks for simplicity was
ispring_free_cam, as already noted, but it only saves in WMV format. Other
than that it looks pretty good for an easy to use recorder, and even has a
built in video editor.


One thing you want during capture, is a compressor
that's easy on the processor, and doesn't drop frames.
And judging by the rather random selection of options
that these programs offer, I don't see a consensus
developing about what to use.

You might be able to use a "more expensive" CODEC for
compression, if you had Intel QuickSync. I doubt the
various hardware options are uniform enough to make
writing programs to use it, all that easy (DXVA library?).

You can create your desired output format later,
in post-production.

When I need something, I use MJPEG, because it
scales with the number of CPU cores I've got. It's not
the best choice, because of numeric ringing on
sharp edges in the images. Each core can work on
one frame. By specifying the max_threads in the tool
you use, you can set the percent_CPU that gets used
(in the more demanding situations).

I tried to do more "raw" captures, so no compression
was used, but the standards for that aren't all that good.
That was a flop in a test. I couldn't post-process to
another format. With modern hardware, like say a 2TB SSD
as a target, you can capture quite a large screen in
raw format... at 500MB/sec. If you push the I/O rate
high enough, there's a tendency for "the computer to
lose its mind". The balancing of OS tasks isn't all that
good, if you push too hard (doing high I/O and
filling the system write buffer, may be detrimental
to lipsync). And there's no need to do that
to capture a Youtube video anyway. Maybe if I had more
expensive hardware, it would be different (4K screen,
newer video card).

*******

If you had an older version of QuickTime, maybe you
can divorce the installer from its "Updater" module.
Using 7ZIP, have a look inside, and there should be
separate MSI files or the like. Later Apple packages,
they like to inter-twine the software in such a way,
that stuff breaks if a module is missing. But you can
experiment with just installing "the bit worth having".

QuickTime is no longer supported on Windows. It was
removed from iTunes in fact. Apple didn't want to
continue doing security patches on it, so it was
****-canned. That wouldn't stop me from using it,
if there was sufficient incentive. When you use it,
just remember to disable all the file associations
it wants to inject. Don't be in a rush installing it.
The last thing you want is for their Player to start
popping up. But having the library present should be
OK. If you can't push any malformed input into it
by accident, that might make it slightly safer.

I've not heard of anyone being tipped over by a
QuickTime exploit, but then, not everyone would
have a copy.

Paul
  #52  
Old November 14th 18, 03:38 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

"Bill in Co" wrote

| I suspect many of us have Quicktime installed so that the mp4 option would
| be readily available. It would be interesting to know if anyone else has
| come across these issues, as it seemed it had some pretty good reviews.
|

You mean bloat and spyware? It's obviously the
same program, whoever installs it, so it's not a matter
of whether people might "run across those issues".
You can check for yourself. Install it with a firewall
that blocks outgoing. As for the bloat, we're talking
about a program that takes screenshots. 109 MB
and it can't save as mp4? I'd call that extreme.
It should be able to also do my taxes and vacuum
the living room at that size. ByteScout Screen
Capture is 1.5 MB.

My dislike of bloat is partly just the bloat itself:
I don't want programs taking up a lot of space
unnecessarily. But it's also a quality issue. Bloat
usually implies two things:

1) Sloppiness and carelessness. The programmer
is not articulate about details.

2) Lack of expertise. A programmer who actually
writes the code to make the program work will
usually turn out a small program. Big, bloated
programs are usually "wrappers" made by people
who don't know what they're doing. In other words,
the programmer who produced it doesn't actually
know how to do the job. They've just pulled
together outside DLLs and such to do it for them.
In many cases those outside sources will,
themselves, be wrappers. It's the difference between
a restaurant that cooks a spaghetti dinner from
scratch and one that heats a frozen dinner and
puts it on a warm plate with a sprig of parsley.

But many people won't care or notice bloat or
spyware. If you don't care, and you don't care that
Quicktime is also spyware that runs no less than 3
programs at startup, then Flashback may be fine.
I wasn't assessing the basic functionality of it.

I happen to be an oddball who doesn't accept
spyware. So when a program tries to call home to
"everyone and his brother", or requires me to
install bloated spyware crap from Apple, then I
get rid of it.

| Another relatively basic one that got good marks for simplicity was
| ispring_free_cam, as already noted, but it only saves in WMV format.
Other
| than that it looks pretty good for an easy to use recorder, and even has a
| built in video editor.
|

That one, also, seems to depend on how you feel
about spyware. You need to enter an email address
just to maybe get the program. The privacy policy is
a long, tedious read about how they're a "data
controller", whatever that is, and collect all sorts
of info.
I can't tell from the webpage, but the way they
word things makes it sound like it's actually a "web
service", AKA spyware that runs on your machine
but pretends to run from a website.

This blurring of your computer and theirs, as
more software uses a spyware/datamining business
model, seems to be getting very common. I had
never seen it before this discussion of screenshot
software. Of course I know that most phone
software is like that, but I'd never seen this
blatantly dishonest approach of pretending to
offer downloadable/installable software when the
product is actually adware/spyware that may
not work at all without being connected remotely.
iSpring adverises itself as "100% free!".




  #53  
Old November 14th 18, 03:45 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,226
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Paul wrote:
Bill in Co wrote:

[...]

Another relatively basic one that got good marks for simplicity was
ispring_free_cam, as already noted, but it only saves in WMV format.
Other than that it looks pretty good for an easy to use recorder,
and even has a built in video editor.


One thing you want during capture, is a compressor
that's easy on the processor, and doesn't drop frames.
And judging by the rather random selection of options
that these programs offer, I don't see a consensus
developing about what to use.


I don't know if this is relevant (my knowledge/experience in this
subject matter is quite limited), but iSpring Free Cam *records* in WAV
(.wav) plus AVI (.avi) format and only when you do a 'Save as Video',
the recorded .wav/.avi is *converted* to WMV (.wmv) format. In my short
and simple test, the size of the .wmv file was about a third of the size
of the .wav/.avi files.

[...]
  #54  
Old November 14th 18, 03:45 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Frank Slootweg
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,226
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Bill in Co wrote:
[...]

Another relatively basic one that got good marks for simplicity was
ispring_free_cam, as already noted, but it only saves in WMV format. Other
than that it looks pretty good for an easy to use recorder, and even has a
built in video editor.


I used iSpring Free Cam as well (for only a short time) and it was the
best of the few I looked at / tried.

However in my notes it says that the video it made was only 15 frames
per second, which - dependent on usage - may or may not be a problem.
  #55  
Old November 14th 18, 04:21 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

"Ant" wrote

| With no limitations and can handle live videos on screens to record in
| web browsers. Also, it has to work well on a decade old updated 64-bit
| W7 HPE SP1 PC with 6 GB of RAM and ATI Radeon 4870 video card (512 MB of
| RAM).

Here's another one:

http://www.videotool.net/screen-reco...ee-version.htm

Cute Screen Recorder. Saves to mp4. Simple. No
nonsense. No calling home. 7 MB download. 20 MB
installed. Works on XP

I don't know whether this is the same "Cute"
company that used to make a lot of other products.
I used to use CuteFTP, I think. And I now have CutePDF
Writer. It doesn't seem to be the same people. I can't
find out much about them. It doesn't seem to be
an American operation.

It's interesting how hard it is to find these things
online. I once spent an entire afternoon finding
Avidemux for video. It wasn't coming up in searches.
And Cute wasn't coming up in any Best Of list. I just
happened to come across it through a Softpedia
link.


  #56  
Old November 14th 18, 04:39 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Paul[_32_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 11,873
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Mayayana wrote:
"Ant" wrote

| With no limitations and can handle live videos on screens to record in
| web browsers. Also, it has to work well on a decade old updated 64-bit
| W7 HPE SP1 PC with 6 GB of RAM and ATI Radeon 4870 video card (512 MB of
| RAM).

Here's another one:

http://www.videotool.net/screen-reco...ee-version.htm

Cute Screen Recorder. Saves to mp4. Simple. No
nonsense. No calling home. 7 MB download. 20 MB
installed. Works on XP

I don't know whether this is the same "Cute"
company that used to make a lot of other products.
I used to use CuteFTP, I think. And I now have CutePDF
Writer. It doesn't seem to be the same people. I can't
find out much about them. It doesn't seem to be
an American operation.

It's interesting how hard it is to find these things
online. I once spent an entire afternoon finding
Avidemux for video. It wasn't coming up in searches.
And Cute wasn't coming up in any Best Of list. I just
happened to come across it through a Softpedia
link.


It's not in the list here either.

https://www.videohelp.com/software/s...screen-capture

It's also weird that I'm getting so many
foreign language hits for it, and then
nothing much in English. Maybe I'll have to wait
later in the day for Google search to "fully wake up".

Paul

  #57  
Old November 14th 18, 05:08 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Mayayana
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,438
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

"Paul" wrote

| It's not in the list here either.
|
| https://www.videohelp.com/software/s...screen-capture
|

Wow. That's quite a listing site.

It doesn't surprise me that things are missing. There's
an odd herd mentality about these things. As I mentioned,
it took me a long time to find Avidemux. Why? Nothing
else free comes close to it. But it just wasn't mainstream.
Similarly, HxD hex editor, IcoFX icon editor, Audacity for
audio, PeaZip for ZIP.

PeaZip is one of the few good, free programs that fully
handles compressed files. Yet it's not well known. Similarly,
Power Archiver was never well known despite being a
free clone of WinZip. WinZip was corporate and the
developers were sharp about getting it into the media.

I got in an argument about this once with a writer
at PC World. He had written a feature piece on browsers.
IE and Netscape, at the time. I pointed out that Firefox
was up and coming but he never even mentioned it.
Nor Opera. Firefox was invisible until they started
buying fullpage ads in the NYT. Why didn't the PC World
author mention FF? Because PC World is mainstream
media. The job of mainstream media is not to inform
or print news but to maintain consensus reality. If
the PC World writer had really thought for himself and
reported the facts it would have threatened PC
world's status as mainstream. And it might have
annoyed Microsoft enough to risk ad dollars.

I find it fascinating how powerful the influence
of groupthink is.
Reality becomes tightly circumscribed because people
don't dare trust their own judgement or risk criticism.
Things can only be thought when they're disseminated
to the crowd.
MeToo is a current example. People
don't dare watch a Kevin Spacey movie question any
claim of abuse by any woman. In ten years it will
seem like an extreme mental derangement, but right
now it's pure truth that can't be questioned in the
mainstream.
Another good example is the people who are hired
to be trendsetters. People who exude fashionable
confidence and often end up creating trends. If
4 pop music stars take up yoyos or chess then yoyos
or chess will become the topic on everyone's lips.




  #58  
Old November 14th 18, 06:03 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
arlen michael holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 48
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 23:01:26 -0500, Paul wrote:

As for the IceCream, I seem to have lost my copy :-)
I can't be sure what the download filename was.
I tried looking for IceCream but didn't find it.


Hi Paul,

As you know, the huge expense of freeware is finding the best ones.
For that, we rely on others we trust, and our own test instincts.

To that end, both you and Mayayana (both of whom we trust) have
reported on most of the following screen recording free software
(e.g., I will demote camstudio based on your response above).

And yet...

Both you and Mayayana can't find downloads that I'm sure I listed
the URLs for (multiple times) in this thread (almost all of which,
if not all of which, I recently tested before posting them);so, as
to help everyone at the same time I help you, I created this list
just now that contains _all_ the suggested programs (with a short
description of test results), and where I ordered the programs as
best I could based on the reviewer's tone in this thread.

As always, this is for everyone to benefit so please improve as needed!
Freeware Screenrecorders (best to worst):
See also: https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/desktop-screen-capture

o cutescreenrecorder (mayayana tested, mp4, worked best so far)
http://www.videotool.net/screen-recorder-free-version.htm
http://www.videotool.net/download/screenrecorderfree.exe
o vlc
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.php
o iSpring free cam (records in wav/avi & saves as wmv only, 15fps)
https://www.ispringsolutions.com/ispring-free-cam
o ezvid (mayayana tested)
https://www.ezvid.com
o camstudio
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/camstudio.html (full installer)
https://camstudio.org/ (web stub)
o apowerrec
https://www.apowersoft.com/record-all-screen
o debut video capture
https://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html
o dvdvideosoft
https://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-Screen-Video-Recorder.htm
o goplay
o obs studio
https://obsproject.com/download
o gamedvr
https://github.com/FunkyFr3sh/GameDVR_Config
o xsplit broadcaster
https://www.xsplit.com/broadcaster
o sharex (needs addon)
https://getsharex.com/
o smartpixel (watermark)
http://www.smartpixel.com/
o tinytake (5 min)
https://tinytake.com/tinytake-download
o icecream (watermark, 5min, only webm)
https://icecreamapps.com/Screen-Recorder/
o flashback express (mayayana tested, spyware)
https://www.flashbackrecorder.com/express/
o screencastomatic (mayayana tested, 15-min, watermark, stay away from it)
https://screencast-o-matic.com/
o gilisoft free screen recorder (mayayana tested, trialware, watermark)
http://www.gilisoft.com/free-screen-recorder.htm

Freeware Downloaders (best to worst):
o youtube-dl
https://youtube-dl.org/
o ?

Freeware Converters (best to worst):
o *ShotCut* freeware pretty much handles everything fantastically
https://www.shotcutapp.com/download/
o *Handbrake* freeware is cross platform compatible
https://handbrake.fr/
o *Super* freeware used to be the best (but get the older versions!)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/SUPER/old-versions (no longer there)
o Others *VirtualDub, AviDemux, AviSynth, oxelon, totallyfreeconverter*, etc.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualdub/files/virtualdub-win/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/avidemux/files/latest/download
https://sourceforge.net/projects/avisynth2/files/latest/download
http://www.oxelon.com/media_converter.html
https://sourceforge.net/projects/oxelonmediaconv/files/oxelonmediaconv/oxelonplugins/oxelonplugins.exe/download
http://www.sabsoft.com/TotallyFreeConverter.htm
o ?

As always, this is a work in progress compiled and posted for the
benefit of all - hence - please improve where you see improvement needs.
  #59  
Old November 14th 18, 07:50 PM posted to alt.windows7.general,alt.comp.freeware
arlen michael holder
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 48
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

On Wed, 14 Nov 2018 10:39:53 -0500, Paul wrote:

It's not in the list here either.

https://www.videohelp.com/software/s...screen-capture

It's also weird that I'm getting so many
foreign language hits for it, and then
nothing much in English. Maybe I'll have to wait
later in the day for Google search to "fully wake up".


Hi Paul,

So that others benefit, here's my install log for the program Mayayana
suggested, which includes information about codec analysis at the bottom
where I think others may benefit from both the codecs and the analysis
tools, so I post the ad-hoc log below with those additions at the end.
================================================== ==========================
"Cute Screen Recorder free version 3.903" log
================================================== ==========================
Download from
http://www.videotool.net/screen-recorder-free-version.htm
Actual file
http://www.videotool.net/download/screenrecorderfree.exe
Help at:
http://www.videotool.net/screen-recorder-free-version-help.htm?sr
Related products:
http://www.videotool.net/download.htm?sr
Download to
c:\software\editor\screenrec\cutescreenrec\
================================================== ==========================
---------------------------
Checksum information
---------------------------
Name: screenrecorderfree.exe
Size: 6871846 bytes (6 MB)

SHA256: DC77C068A4ED42BC3A1D80CBEA1AD67DCD254DAD68EA72B62F 8D0480BD074F36

---------------------------
OK
---------------------------
================================================== ==========================
It wants to install into C:\Program Files (x86)\Cute Screen Recorder
I put it in C:\app\editor\screenrec\cutescreenrec
It created a desktop icon named Cute Screen Recorder Free Version
Target of C:\app\editor\screenrec\cutescreenrec\cutescreenre corder.exe
Start in of C:\app\editor\screenrec\cutescreenrec
================================================== ==========================
It brings up a GUI saying "Cute Screen Recorder free version 3.903"
The default settings seem erasable except for the "Output Directory"
Change from Output Directory = C:\ProgramData\screenrecorder
Change to Output Directory = C:\tmp\screenrec\
================================================== ==========================
For my first test...
o I hit the "full screen" button (as the manual GUI was a bit clumsy)
o I set it to mp4, 20 frames per second, sound, mouse, 10 seconds
o When the time was up, it popped open the save directory (which is nice)
CuteScreenRecorder-1920-1080_(new).mp4
o The file played fine in Media Player Classic (which is my default player)
================================================== ==========================
To determine what codecs were used...

I slid the file onto GSpot but it said "Codec Status Undetermined".
Admittedly GSpot is old so I searched for newer codec analysis tools.
================================================== ==========================
Codec Installer reported it was MPEG-4 (Video) mp4:
Of possible formats: .3G2 84.3% .MOV 8.6% .MP4 5.2% .ABR 1.7%
================================================== ==========================
MediaInfo reported:
General
Complete name :
C:\tmp\screenrec\CuteScreenRecorder-1920-1080_(new).mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/mp41)
File size : 1.51 MiB
Duration : 10 s 150 ms
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 999 kb/s
Writing application : Lavf54.63.104

Video
ID : 1
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L1
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : mp4v-20
Duration : 10 s 150 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 998 kb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 5:4
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 20.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.038
Stream size : 1.51 MiB (100%)
Writing library : Lavc54.92.100
================================================== ==========================
So that others can reproduce what I did above, as always, here are
sufficient details to download the codecs and the codec analysis tools.
================================================== ==========================
Free Codec Detectors
o avicodec
http://avicodec.free.fr/
o codecinstaller
http://www.jockersoft.com/downloads/CodecInstaller/setup_CodecInstaller_full.exe
o gspot
http://gspot.headbands.com/
o mediainfo
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mediainfo/files/latest/download
https://ayera.dl.sourceforge.net/project/mediainfo/binary/mediainfo-gui/18.08.1/MediaInfo_GUI_18.08.1_Windows.exe
o videoinspector
http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?vtb
https://kcsoftwares.com/files/videoinspector_lite.exe
o ? others ?
================================================== ==========================
Free codec packs http://www.codecguide.com/
o Klite
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
http://www.codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_full.htm
http://files2.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1455_Basic.exe
http://files2.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1455_Standard.exe
http://files2.codecguide.com/K-Lite_Codec_Pack_1455_Mega.exe
http://files2.codecguide.com/klcp_update_1455_20181106.exe
o Cole2K
http://www.cole2k.net/
http://node-20bde4a35e5c.cole2k.net/files/no-tb/cole2k.media.-.codec.pack.v8.0.6.-advanced-.setup.exe
o ? others ?
================================================== ==========================
  #60  
Old November 14th 18, 10:25 PM posted to alt.windows7.general
Bill in Co
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,927
Default What's a good free desktop screen recorder?

Mayayana wrote:
"Ant" wrote

With no limitations and can handle live videos on screens to record in
web browsers. Also, it has to work well on a decade old updated 64-bit
W7 HPE SP1 PC with 6 GB of RAM and ATI Radeon 4870 video card (512 MB of
RAM).


Here's another one:

http://www.videotool.net/screen-reco...ee-version.htm

Cute Screen Recorder. Saves to mp4. Simple. No
nonsense. No calling home. 7 MB download. 20 MB
installed. Works on XP

I don't know whether this is the same "Cute"
company that used to make a lot of other products.
I used to use CuteFTP, I think. And I now have CutePDF
Writer. It doesn't seem to be the same people. I can't
find out much about them. It doesn't seem to be
an American operation.

It's interesting how hard it is to find these things
online. I once spent an entire afternoon finding
Avidemux for video. It wasn't coming up in searches.
And Cute wasn't coming up in any Best Of list. I just
happened to come across it through a Softpedia
link.


There don't seem to be any listings or reviews of their programs that I've
found (but I only looked briefly), nor have I found out much of anything
about this "videotool.net" company, or even where it is based. If you want
to be suspicious of something, I think this is a case in point.

Also, from the posting Arlen gave, you'll notice it's using an old mp4
codec, and not the h.264 version. I'm not suggesting their programs don't
work, just that you (generally) get what you pay for. Maybe somebody can
investigate a few of their programs further. They also have a mp4 video
converter that says "you can cut any segements as you like". Really???
Does it actually cut anywhere, or only on I frames? (I'd bet the latter).

BTW, the VideoHelp is an excellent reference site for all things video.
Bookmark it:
https://www.videohelp.com/


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off






All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:00 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 PCbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.