A
screencast is a digital recording of
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
screen output, also known as a
video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term
screencast dates from 2004, products such as
LotusLotus Software is a software company with headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts...
ScreenCam were used as early as 1994. Early products produced large files and had limited editing features. More recent products support more compact file formats such as
Adobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages...
and have more sophisticated editing features allowing changes in sequence, mouse movement, and audio.
Just as a
screenshotA screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device...
is a picture of a user's screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on his monitor.
Screencasts are useful for demonstrating and teaching software features.
A
screencast is a digital recording of
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
screen output, also known as a
video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term
screencast dates from 2004, products such as
LotusLotus Software is a software company with headquarters in Westford, Massachusetts...
ScreenCam were used as early as 1994. Early products produced large files and had limited editing features. More recent products support more compact file formats such as
Adobe FlashAdobe Flash is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages...
and have more sophisticated editing features allowing changes in sequence, mouse movement, and audio.
Just as a
screenshotA screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device...
is a picture of a user's screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on his monitor.
Uses
Screencasts are useful for demonstrating and teaching software features. Creating a screencast helps software developers show off their work. Screencasts are a useful tool for ordinary software users as well, to help report bugs (the movie takes the place of potentially unclear written explanations) or to show others how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment. Screencasts are excellent tools for learning how to use computers, and several podcasts have started to teach computer users how to use software through screencasts.
Considering the high cost of instructor / faculty led training and the relative ineffectiveness of typical computer based training (CBT) systems, screencasting is likely to become a very popular technique for imparting high-quality knowledge at a low cost.
For example, organizers of computer related seminars may choose to routinely record complete seminars and make them available on
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
s to all attendees for future reference and/or sell these recordings to people who cannot afford the fee of the live seminar or don't have time to attend it. This will generate an additional revenue stream for organizers of seminars and make the knowledge available to a broader audience, so generating a win-win situation for everybody.
This strategy of recording seminars is already widely used in fields where using a simple video camera or audio recorder is sufficient to make a useful recording of a seminar. Computer-related seminars need high quality and easily readable recordings of screen contents which is usually not achievable by using a video camera to film the desktop which is usually projected onto the wall by a projector.
A drawback of most commercial screencasting programs for
Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces...
is their inability to make videos of
OpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
applications, though Demo Builder,
FrapsFraps is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. It is commonly used to determine a computer's performance with a game, as well as record gaming footage...
, and
Growler GuncamGrowler Guncam is a video game recording tool that allows a user to record video and sound from the computer without additional hardware. Guncam can create video from what the user sees on his screen, both in games or on the computer desktop...
can cope with this.
More recently, the popularity of inexpensive desktop screencasting software has created a cottage industry among internet marketers claiming that their screencasting techniques will increase sales for online businesses like eBay and monetized blogging.
Educators are now using screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum. Students can record video and audio as they demonstrate the proper procedure to solve a problem on an interactive whiteboard.
Origin of the term
In 2004, columnist
Jon UdellJon Udell is an "Evangelist" at Microsoft. Previously he was lead analyst for the Infoworld Test Center.Udell is author of Practical Internet Groupware, published in 1999 by O'Reilly Media, and is an advisor to O'Reilly's Safari Tech Books Online. He wrote the column "Tangled in the Threads" for...
invited readers of his blog to propose names for the emerging genre. Udell selected the term
screencast, which was proposed by both Joseph McDonald and Deeje Cooley. His
"Heavy metal umlaut" screencastis a well-known example - which explains how
WikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia...
works - illustrating the history of the
Heavy metal umlautA metal umlaut is an umlaut mark that is sometimes used gratuitously or decoratively over letters in the names of heavy metal bands, for example those of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead...
Wikipedia article.
Since 2004, the term
screencast has gained widespread use and has been adopted as part of Internet and Computing vernacular.
Hardware
An alternative solution for capturing a screencast is the use of a hardware
RGBThe RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light are added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors...
or
DVIThe Digital Visual Interface is a video interface standard designed to provide very high visual quality on digital display devices such as flat panel LCD computer displays and digital projectors. It was developed by an industry consortium, the Digital Display Working Group . It is designed for...
frame grabberA frame grabber is an electronic device that captures individual, digital still frames from an analog video signal or a digital video stream. It is usually employed as a component of a computer vision system, in which video frames are captured in digital form and then displayed, stored or...
card. This approach does not have the
OpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
limitations mentioned above, and places the burden of the recording and compression process on a machine separate from the one generating the visual material being
captured.
Software
Several screencasting software applications with varying capabilities are on the market.
For Windows Users
- BB FlashBack
BB FlashBack is a Windows-based screen recording program , distributed by Blueberry Software. The latest version is currently 2.5.0.683. The program allows the user to add text effects, cut and paste movie footage and edit mouse movements. Screen recordings can be exported to Flash, AVI, WMV,...
- Camtasia Studio
Camtasia Studio is a screen video capture program, published by TechSmith. The user defines the area of the screen or the window that is to be captured before recording begins; it is also possible to capture the entire screen area...
- Camstudio
CamStudio is a screencasting program for Microsoft Windows released as free software. The software renders videos in an AVI format. It can also convert these AVIs into Flash Video format, embedded in SWF files. CamStudio is coded in Microsoft Visual C++....
(Free)
- Captivate
- Fraps
Fraps is a benchmarking, screen capture, and real-time video capture utility for DirectX and OpenGL applications. It is commonly used to determine a computer's performance with a game, as well as record gaming footage...
- Microsoft Expression Encoder
Microsoft Expression Encoder is a Windows-based program for encoding digital video for Silverlight-based web video. Expression Encoder can be used to create video compressed VC-1 as well as H.264 for distribution via Microsoft Silverlight. Expression Encoder features a WPF-based modern graphical...
(free)
- ScreenCam
SmartGuyz ScreenCam is an Screencast tool for Microsoft Windows which can be used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and tutorials in .swf format. It can also convert what it captures to .avi which can be uploaded to video hosting websites...
- ScreenToaster
Notable screencasters
As the genre has become more popular, individuals have become specialist screencasters creating screencasts for specific areas of technology. These include:
- Don McAllister
Don McAllister is an English podcaster from Liverpool. He is the host of the popular video podcast , a weekly program composed of video screencasts tutorials that cover different computer-related topics mainly focussed on the Apple range of computers and consumer electronics devices...
- Mac Based ScreenCasts - (Screencastsonline)
- Molly McDonald - Screencasts about emerging Web 2.0 tools (DemoGirl)
See also
- Comparison of screencasting software
-Comparison by specification:-Comparison by features:...
- Flash Video - FLV
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–10. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There are two different video file formats defined by Adobe Systems and supported in Adobe Flash Player: FLV and F4V...
- List of screencasting software
- PowerPoint
- Rapid learning
Rapid learning is a methodology to build e-learning courses rapidly . The term "rapid" does not describe the speed of the learner but the speed of the author...
- Screenshot
A screenshot, screen capture, or screen dump is an image taken by the computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor or another visual output device...
- Flash - SWF
The file formatSWF a partially open repository for multimedia and especially for vector graphics, originated with FutureWave Software and...
- Video capture
Video capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital form. The resulting digital data are referred to as a digital video stream, or more often, simply video stream...
- Video podcast
Video podcast is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures...
External links