Sometimes it is not just enough to explain things in plain text. It is always preferable to have video tutorial along with the text explanation. This not only makes people understand you quickly but also exactly. Suppose you are writing a blog about setting up a wordpress blog or even creating any computer related presentation only writing text makes things bit difficult for the readers or audience to cope up quickly. Even if you try to insert images for each explanation you may end up adding dozens of images making the whole thing messy. In situations like this a screen recording software comes into play. There are many screen recorders available in the market today but very few of them are free and provide the required quality. So here is a list of few free screen recorders.
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UltraVnc screen Recorder
UltraVnc screen Recorder can record windows screen at 1280×1240 pixels with a descent 15fps. It’s also capable of recording audio along with the screen giving you options to record full-screen, selected area or a fixed area. You can configure video and audio quality settings according to your needs. Files created are of avi format. It can come handy due to it’s extreme small size.
Jing
Jing is available for windows and Mac OS X with a very interactive interface. It is capable of recording audio along with screen recording. It can also take screen shots of selected area and records video’s in swf format. You can record them and save on computer or directly uploaded to screencast.com(2Gb free storage) and share links with others on twitter, facebook, flickr etc. screen recordings can be saved in mpeg4 only in professional version.
Cam Studio
CamStudio is an open source application for windows. It can record with audio and save them in avi format which can be converted to swf format or if you wish the recordings can be directly switched in swf format. It has a small size and easy to use interface. All the basic functionality are as same as UltraVnc, and you can also add annotations to the recordings.
TipCam
TipCam can record screen activities with audio and provides additional features like replacing the sound track from the videos, trimming the start and end of video and zoom to cursor while recording. You can also sign up an account on uTIPu.com to upload private files and send their link in email. If you have YouTube account you can also upload these recordings directly there. You can also customize settings such as zoom level, recording resolution, recording format in avi or flv.
BB FlashBack Express
BB FlashBack Express is an advance screen recorder for windows that provides lots of customization to capture screen with audio and share them. It records in small size fbr format that can be changed to avi or flv. Unlike TipCam which can upload recordings directly to YouTube, it can also upload recordings to other popular video upload sites like Blip.tv, Viddler and Revver. It needs a free registration until 30 days of usage.
Among these screen recorders UltraVnc and Cam Studio are the simplest and smallest. They can be used whenever you do not have other applications at hand. Else others can be used to get maximum quality and making fully interactive video from the recording. The sharing feature adds extra point to the applications. Choosing the best depends on the type of use that you are going to do. So what’s your favorite screencasting tool?