Camtasia alternative

Author
Post
Essentials Only Full Version
mixmkr
Max Output Level: -43.5 dBFS
  • Total Posts : 3169
  • Joined: 2007/03/05 22:23:43
  • Status: offline
2014/05/02 21:50:42 (permalink)

Camtasia alternative

I downloaded the trial for the screen capture program, Camtasia.  Great program it seems. Figured out the program and made a quickie vid, using Sonar as the screen, captured the audio AND a mic...320kbps Lame audio and a final Mp4 of two minutes was only 10mb.  Looked great on my 27" monitors. 300 smackers($) though...I later find out.  It has many, many options, probably more than most would need, but sometimes they're handy.
 
So... what's a good alternative?
I was looking at the free EZVid....but for the life of me, couldn't figure out how to download it.  Kept getting all this other junk instead, and like the *real* download was hidden to the naked eye.

some tunes: --->        www.masonharwoodproject.bandcamp.com 
StudioCat i7 4770k 3.5gHz, 16 RAM,  Sonar Platinum, CD Arch 5.2, Steinberg UR-44
videos--->https://www.youtube.com/user/mixmkr
 
#1

3 Replies Related Threads
    NE Koda
    Max Output Level: -90 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 36
    • Joined: 2012/07/14 11:32:37
    • Status: offline
    Re: Camtasia alternative 2014/05/02 22:26:56 (permalink)
    Bandicam is about $40 and they have a free version to try. I have used CamStudio several times and although it takes a bit to get the settings right, it turned out well. It's freeware but they are willing to take donations.

    Hope that's a start

    Matt

    Sonar Platinum - VS-100 - Windows 10 x64 - i7 2600
    #2
    mixmkr
    Max Output Level: -43.5 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 3169
    • Joined: 2007/03/05 22:23:43
    • Status: offline
    Re: Camtasia alternative 2014/05/03 02:25:00 (permalink)
    Bandicam seems pretty decent.  Not a lot features but gets the job done.  I noticed it changes the color quite a bit from what's on the screen, but that isn't really a huge problem for what I'd like to use it for.  It kind of darkens things up a bit, like ramping the brightness down a notch or two.  Compared to Camtasia, it almost seems like it doesn't have any features, but that in itself makes it very easy to use and figure out. $39 is much cheaper than $299 as well.  I tried CamStudio, but couldn't really get it to work well.  I think Bandicam seems like the choice, Camtasia when the mad money hits, unless I'm missing any others.
    Vegas Pro doesn't have any screen capture features, does it?  ...realizing more $$, but great editing and FX for the extra bucks.

    some tunes: --->        www.masonharwoodproject.bandcamp.com 
    StudioCat i7 4770k 3.5gHz, 16 RAM,  Sonar Platinum, CD Arch 5.2, Steinberg UR-44
    videos--->https://www.youtube.com/user/mixmkr
     
    #3
    Sycraft
    Max Output Level: -73 dBFS
    • Total Posts : 871
    • Joined: 2012/05/04 21:06:10
    • Status: offline
    Re: Camtasia alternative 2014/05/03 20:56:05 (permalink)
    No Vegas is just for editing, not for capturing. It's acquisition tools are for cameras, not the screen.
     
    Now one option is Shadowplay, if you have a new nVidia card. If you have an nVidia 600 or 700 series card (GTX 650 or better), any of them should work even the low end, then Shadowplay is a free feature with their Geforce Experience software. It is an amazingly good screen capture setup. All the more so because it is doing the encoding using hardware on your card meaning basically zero impact on your system. I'm real pleased with it. Only real limit I've encountered is a max of 1920x1200 encoding size. So if you have a 2.5k or 4k monitor, it'll downsample everything for encoding.
     
    It generates MP4 files with AVC/AAC inside of them and Vegas can open them up as is. It's what I like to do.
     
    Also if you want to use Vegas for editing, you can always pick up Vegas Movie Studio, instead of Pro. Have a look at the features list but for what you are taking about, I bet you don't miss much. Movie Studio is cheap too, like $60 or so on Amazon. I have pro and it is nice and all but I rarely, if ever, make use of its additional features.
     
    Bandicam is more flexible, and works with anything, straight CPU, CUDA, OpenCL, Intel QuickSync, etc. However in addition to the cost the output it generates doesn't seem to work with Vegas. You can download codecs to make ti work, but those codecs are all software based and somewhat slow, whereas Vegas' native AVC codecs can use CUDA or OpenCL to accelerate decoding and thus get you very smooth editing.
     
    You can also examine XSplit and FRAPS. Those are two tools game casters like to use and thus are fairly low impact. Capture/streaming only though, not editing, you'd need another tool for that.
     
    Really though, if I were spending money, I'd be getting an nVidia card and Vegas. $100ish gets you a GTX 750 which not only will do Shadowplay but has enough power to do some decent GPU acceleration for Vegas. Movie Studio supports GPU acceleration according to the patch notes, so it'll help with that and it should only run you $62 for the current version. Not too bad a total cost, particularly since it is an accelerated workflow which means faster editing, less chance of frame drops and fast encoding.
     
    If you want Vegas Pro, right now Sony themselves is the place to get it since they are doing their "We have a new version" sale. $325 gets you Vegas Pro 13 Edit which is all you need if you are doing online videos. The "full" Vegas 13 Pro just adds DVD Architect, which masters DVDs and Blu-rays, and a 5.1 channel Dolby encoder for the same purpose. The actual Vegas program is the same. The "suite" version then adds Sound Forge Pro 11 (audio editor), and Hit Film 2 Ultimate (FX/compositor).
    #4
    Jump to:
    © 2024 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1