I have just found this totally freeware software and tried it and it seems to work perfectly, very simple.
Do a walk through of your house and make a video of it in AVI format or even SWF.
Help the support lot here to find your problem by creating a video of it! ;)
Lots of other uses, perhaps?!
Download here: http://camstudio.org/ or at their sourceforge site: https://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/
It IS VERY small in size and doesn't install a load of rubbish, as programs SHOULD be!
Hope this is helpful and not been mentioned before!
Mick
Hi Mick,
Yes I agree with you this program does work quite well. There are a number of other free screen capture programs around too and all the ones I have tried are quite good and easy to operate. Unfortunately the AVI files created are large but that is always the case of course.
Have you tried the TFP animation yet to record a walkthrough? Quite fascinating to use, especially plotting the camera route. Fairly quick if you choose Basic render, small screen size and slow frame rate, but you really need a higher frame rate for a smoother longer playback of course. You can add sounds along the route too.
The original AVI 360 degree rotation movie I created in TurboFLOORPLAN for the Energy Efficient Home Renovator (http://www.synergy.net.au/renovator (http://www.synergy.net.au/renovator)) lasted only 6 seconds when played normally but was 158MB in size and took 6 hours to generate! That was of course a high resolution, high frame rate, full radiosity render with all the interior lights on too - somewhat different to a screen capture obviously. Needless to say the example posted in the forum Gallery ( http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1011.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1011.0.html) ) was a drastically cut down and compressed AVI version. The two largest of the SWF versions of the movies eventually used on the Synergy website were only 560KB - somewhat better than the original 158MB!!
Back to the screen recorder: I used the Camstudio recorder one time to do some computer software training sessions - they turned out well and also a video presentation for an unmanned computer display kiosk in a new homes display centre. The latter was demonstrating another website tool that also used some TFP imagery ( www.synergy.net.au/envirohome (http://www.synergy.net.au/envirohome) ).
Camstudio does work well - and you certainly can't complain about the price!!
Allan
No Allan, not tried the TFP walkthrough yet. I do seem to recall seeing it somewhere!
I have too tried other 'free' capture programs, but every time they seem to be a demo with limitations, like some on-screen message... nagging you to get the full version!
Maybe an AVI to DivX converter to make it smaller, or MP4 to view on an Iphone/ ipod... the choices (as always) are endless!!)
I am very new to this program and after my initial hiccups, it seems to behaving remarkably well! Not even a crash yet!"!
I have looked at some of your tips/ tricks and all look very interesting... if only I had the time.... (I am retired of course!! Well, mostly!) ;)
Hi Mick,
Yes I can't stand the ones always wanting you to buy! Suppose you can't blame them for wanting the money though!
I am pleased to hear that all is going well and no crashes so far - that's great!
I know what you mean about time too. I took and early retirement a few months ago and I seem to have less time then when I was at work!! I must have planned the day better before when I HAD to!!
Allan
Hi Mike
Thanks for the program tip I have downloaded it already and it works very well.
Robert
Just to add to the topic.....
I have recorded many screen captures of videos played....some from youTube and others straight playback from website; usually a tutorial.
3 things to know:
- if you actually play a video via your browser, the video file gets loaded onto your hard drive as a temp file....so if you want to keep it or use it later....go to your browser internet temp file....like:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5
or search your hard drive for "temporary internet files" and you will find lots of stuff....you can delete any file, especially large files to save disk space
- if you have an animation file that is very large....you may have or can get a free tool to convert it to a .flv set of files which playback readily to a web browser or strip off all the files and only save the .flv file and get a free .flv player such as:
"wimpy flv player" that is very small, free, and needs no install, just run the .exe directly
.flv files are very small compared to a .mov or .avi and yet retain good quality
- for youTube, often you cannot download and save the video via your web browser as they try to protect the source.....but search the web and find a free downloader in which you paste in the youTube URL and it will download the file for you....like:
http://www.downloader9.com/
Doug.S