We recently received a project to capture past webinars and create FLVs so the company could play them on the web. Our first thought was to just bring the presentation into an NLE system for editing and encoding. However, in looking at the data delivered, we found these webinars had all sorts of programming that made it pretty impossible for NLE’s to capture straight out of the box

Ideas were shared on the best ways to gather the data into a format that was malleable for encoding.  One thought was to have one of the in-house programmers sort through the code and export the audio and images into a video codec we could use. However in looking through the code our programmer gave me the angry look that translated a “No Go”.

Our second thought was to do a screen capture of the material. Well, we’ve used a couple different screen recording software packages before. All of them have been ok in their own ways.  We decided to re-try an old go-to software everyone has used in one project or another, Camtasia Studio from TechSmith. This software has done some growing up in the past several years. Now you can screen record you presentation and export it to many more presets than I remember; blog, CD, DVD-ready, iPhone, iPod, Web and YouTube, or if you prefer formats: WMV, MOV, AVI, M4V, MP3, RM, GIF (animated file). So yeah … there is quite a lot of versatility with this program.

The recording of the screen is pretty straight forward with a simple interface. Hey, even an intern could do it, right Rob? Moving on … you set your window to record and hit the red button. Nothing’s going to blow up but for the most part that is all you need to do. Do check your audio levels however.

Once the recording is finished, you then get the option to edit the piece. Again with a simple, iMovie-ish user interface, cutting the piece is just a shortcut “S” away. Trim, save your project and “Produce video as” – ah … this part is up to you. Your end delivery is moments away.

The process is very time consuming and there needs to be a lot attention to the details. One miss steps could cause you time and the potential to recapture the entire project. Watch your settings and capture area very closely. Remember we’re all professionals.

Overall, I’ve come to appreciate Camtasia for what it is – a really inexpensive screen recording software that can get the job done. Now, there are many other functions I didn’t go into that this particular software can do (i.e. 3D tilt effect) so go and revisit this old friend and maybe it can help you out again someday.

What do you use to screen record?