new program - "ScreenCoder" (a free alternative to Camtasia)

[gonzotuna]

hi all,

I just released a program I've been working on and using at my job since last July, now at version 2.0. It's a video screen capture tool, similar to Camtasia, but with more features for dealing with repeated/multiple recording sessions and for managing on-screen windows from other programs while capturing.

The program, ScreenCoder, is based on the Windows Media Encoder SDK. I've put a lot of effort in on this, and we have reaped some major benefits from it at work, so I'm releasing it in the hope that it may aid others. I welcome comments, questions, suggestions, etc about the software.

Oh and this program is completely and utterly free :)

I haven't written extensive documentation yet, but for more information, visit:
http://www.merage.uci.edu/~dvdotnet/

You may download the program directly here:
http://webfiles.uci.edu/jklint/work/screencoder20.zip


Enjoy! :)



*this software requires:
- .NET 1.1 (get it on windows update or http://www.microsoft.com)
- Windows Media Encoder: http://www.merage.uci.edu/~dvdotnet/downloads/wmencoder.exe
- for best performance, I highly recommend using this free screen capture driver instead of the Windows Media one: http://www.hmelyoff.com/index.php?section=8

[siddharthagandhi]

How are the speeds? What is the general recording fps with about five applications open on the average system?

[setarip_old]

If you'd click on the first link provided, you'll see the following:As for hardware, I recommend at least a 2 GHz machine with 512 MB RAM or more. Honestly, you need a terribly powerful machine, especially if you plan to run multiple streams simultaneously (which ScreenCoder can do!). For some perspective, we run this program on a dual Xeon 3.4 GHz with 1 GB RAM with two simultaneous screen caps at 640x480, 30 FPS and we see about a 30 – 40% CPU usage per stream.

[gonzotuna]

Unfortunately high system requirements are an inherent part of doing real-time, large frame, high FPS video screen capture. The main ScreenCoder program itself has much more modest requirements (it's just a basic .NET prog), but once you start capturing video you need some muscle.

For older machines, try lowering the frame rate and reducing the capture resolution (next to the "Profile" dropdown, click the "edit" button).