Screen Capture Software

 

The Microsoft Word version of this comparison is available here.

 

Target audience: TeleCampus department wide

Uses: Interactive Training, ‘how-to’s”, “product” demos, record powerpoint & enhance
**possible quizzes and interactivity**

Publish: CD, Web, Network

 

Features and weighting

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet
Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snapz Pro X 2

Capture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

Full motion recording

- drops frames

Y

N

Y

N

Y

5

Screenshot recording

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

5

Mouse Tracking

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

 

5

Single Picture Recording

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

2

Automatic Recording 1

Y

N

N

N

N

N

4

Project resizing

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y
Pro only

Y

4

Audio recording

Y

Y

Y

Y

- after screenshots taken

Y

4

Audio Quality options

Y

Y

Y- limited

Y

Y- limited

Y

4

Video Codec choice/options

Frame Rate



Y limited

- limited swf

Y- avi



N


Y



N/A


Y

1 -Found only in Captivate - You can set an automatic recording option in Captivate. When this option is set, Captivate automatically captures screen shots during the recording process each time you take the following actions:

* Click or press a capture key, *Open a menu or submenu, or select a menu item, *Open a dialog box or a property page, *Click a toolbar button, *Begin dragging, during the drag process, and when you drop, *Click any mouse button while the cursor is in the capture area.

 

4

Color Quality 2

Y

Y

- limited

Y

- limited

Y

4

Movie Dimensions
(fixed or custom)

Y

Y

- limited

Y


N/A

Y

4

Inclusion of special effects 3

Y

- limited

Y

Y

Y

?

5

Interactivity /
Flash hot spot

Y

Y

Quiz
Keystroke

Y

N

?

Edit

 

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet
Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snapz Pro X 2

5

Undo & Redo

Y

- undo

Y

Y

Y

Y

4

Edit Effects 4

- a need flash for full range

-

- not edit, but for slides

Y

- edit slide by slide

?

4

Import other files
(rich media)

Y

N

N

Y

Y- swf

?

3

Splice & Combine

Y - slide
- swf in flash


Y


- move slides


Y


- move slides

?

4

Audio Editing 5

Y

N

Y

Y

N

?

5

Balloons/callouts, Notes, transparency text creation

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

3

Zoom & Pan effects

- move window or frame

-


N


Y


N

 

Y

4

Rollovers Creation

Y

- button

- button

- can make with flash hot spot

Y

?

3

Drawing of Customized Objects

N

-

Y

Y

Y

?

2 Color Quality refers to the choice of using billions of colors ranging down to a web standards palette of 216 colors or less. This affects how images look and their respective file size.

3 Special effects refers to transition effects, animated text, animations as well as annotating effects, such as balloons and call-outs.

4 Edit effects refers to special effectsapplied during the edit phase for full motion recordings.

5 Audio Editing refers to being able to actually edit the audio file by clipping or inserting new segments to achieve your final audio effect and file size.

 

4

Drawing of rectangles and Ellipses

- rectangles

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

4

Animated Pointers creation

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

2

Animated Elastic Bands 6

Y

Y

-

N/A

Y

?

3 or 4

E-learning:

SCORM FLASH Compatible


Y


N


Y


Y

- pro or enterprise version


?

4

Interactive Text Areas

Y

- button

Y

- flash hot spot

- pro or enterprise version

?

3 or 4

Interactive Key Strokes

Y

N

Y

N

Y

?

Edit

 

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet
Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snapz Pro X 2

5

Hyperlinks

Y

- button

Y

Y

Y

?

3 or 4

Import SWF files

Y

N

N

Y

Y

?

3 or 4

Import Movie or AVI files

Y

? – needs more testing

N

Y

N

?

4

Project Templates

Y

N

Y

Y

N

?

4

Text animations

Y

- manual

?

Y

N

?

4

Interactive Mouse Clicks

Y

- button

Y

- flash hot spot

Y

?

3 or 4

Apply Actions to Objects

Y

- button

Y

- flash hot spot

- pro or enterprise version

?

3 or 4

Apply actions to slides

Y

N

Y

N

- pro or enterprise version

?

3

Quizzing
(Questions and Answers)

Y

N

Y

- manual – flash hot spot

- pro or enterprise

?

6 Animated Elastic Bands refers to the trail or path the mouse/cursor moves in. After recording you can move or edit the “elastic band” to change the direction of movement for the mouse.

 

3

Statistics Graph Creation

?

N

?

Morae 7

- pro or enterprise version

?

Evaluate

 3

Evaluate Clicks & tests (text being typed in for match?)

Y

N

Y

N

- basic quiz

?

3

Evaluation of sequential clicks on screen

?

N

?

N

N

?

3

Conditional Branching (multiple hot spots & destinations)

- can make it seem so 8

Y in quiz wizard

N

Y

- can make it seem so*

N

?

 

Out Put
/Publish

 


Captivate


Viewlet Cam


Viewlet
Builder


Camtasia


Turbo Demo


Snapz Pro X 2

5

File size

Y - small

Y - small

Y - small

Y - small

Y - small

Y

5

Flash Animation (SWF, FLV or FLA )

Y - SWF

Y - SWF

Y - SWF

Y - SWF, FLV

Y

?

4

Flash Components (Movie loader, movie control, movie duration


N


N


N


Y


N


?

3 or 4

CD-ROM (menu/interface – come with menus?)

?

N

N

Y

?

?

4

Web Presentations (Makes HTML for you)

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

?

2

AVI movie

N

N

N

Y

Y

?

3 or 4

EXE File Creation

Y

Y

N

Y

Y

?

4

GIF File Creation

Via Word 9

Y

N

Y

Y

Y

4

PDF file Creation

Via Word **

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

2 or 3

Windows Media Player (WMV)

N

N

N

Y

- ASF

?

7 Morae is a sister software program also made by Techsmith, that is designed to capture user data.

8 * Can make it seem so – means that it is not native to the program, but there is a work around.

9 ** Via Word means it is not native to the program, but the work around can be done through a series of actions using Microsoft Word.

 

3 or 4

Apple Quicktime (MOV)

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

2 or 3

Real Media (RM)

N

N

N

Y

N

?

4

Export Screenshots (JPG, TIFF, BMP, PNG)

Via Word

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

3

Animated GIF

N

Y

N

Y

Y

?

5

Additional Navigating control panel 10

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

4 or 5

Streaming and enhanced compression

- analyze bandwidth 11

N

N

Y

N

?

4

Optimized Flash Animation

Y

-

N

Y

N

?

3 or 4

Pre-Loader

Y

?

Y

Y

N

?

4 or 5

Continuous capture/ slide

- drops frames 12

Y

N

Y

N

Y

3

Integrate with LMS

Y

?

Y

Y

Y

?

 

Additional Options

 


Captivate


Viewlet Cam


Viewlet
Builder


Camtasia


Turbo Demo


Snapz Pro X 2

 

Convert PowerPoint to Flash

Y

N

N

Y

N

?

3

Capture tool for MAC

N

N

N

N

N

- ONLY

3

Multi Language

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

?

3

Sub-menu system / templates (CD / WEB)

Y

N

N

Y

N

?

5

Native training on how to use

Y

- minimal

- minimal

Y - loads of online training & support

-

?

5

Accessibility Compatible?

Y

Y

Y

Y

?

?

10 Additional Navigating control panel means that there is a scroll bar with forward and backward motion to navigate to a different part with in the presentation.

11 Analyzebandwidth means that you can go to the analyze bandwidth

12 You must turn off your hardware acceleration to use properly, but even then it drops frames, so “video” appears to be somewhat choppy or missing steps. Audio also drops out of sync or goes off track as the presentation progresses.

 

System Requirements

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet
Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snapz Pro X 2

 

 

PC

*600 MHz IntelPentiumIII processor or equivalent
*Windows 2000 or Windows XP
*128 MB RAM (256 MB or more recommended)*100 MB available disk space
*Minimum resolution 800 x 600 (1024 x 768 or higher recommended)

PC


Windows 98/98SE/NT/2000/XP platforms  

Intel PIII/AMD K6 550 Mhz

256+ MB Ram

16bit+ Video card - 800x600 minimum resolution

 

PC


For Windows 98/98SE/NT/2000/XP platforms    

Intel PIII/AMD K6 550 Mhz

256+ MB Ram

16bit+ Video card - 800x600 minimum resolution

 

PC


Microsoft Windows 2000 Workstation, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

PC

MAC OS X

Cost

 

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet
Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snapz Pro X 2

5

Single

EDU - $ 200
REG - $ 500

$150

$300
Upgrade $100

$300
Upgrade $150

$ 299 pro

 

5

Multi-user

N/A

 

5-user

$ 995

 

Pro only

2-5 $ 439
6-10 $ 389

 

5

Bundle

N/A

$ 405 – both cam & pro (included 2 year download service)

** $250 from Camtasia or Captivate

$319 with Snag-it

5 user -$ 995

5 user with snagit -$ 1095

$ 790 w/maintenance

 

Maint/ multi

2-5 %545

6-10 $490

 

 

Ease of Use: This section is subjective. It was done from the point of view of a basic computer user who knows Microsoft products as opposed to graphic, design or programming software.

Captivate

Viewlet Cam

Viewlet Builder

Camtasia

Turbo Demo

Snaps Pro X 2

Interface design

Y

Y

- edit not

Y

Y

Y

Intuitive

-

Intuitive

-

Y

Y

Y

Have to read directions

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Capture

- mix of full capture & slide difficult

- not intuitive

- press key for every capture, or full motions

Y

-

Y

Edit

- mix of full & slide difficult

-

Y

Y

-

Y

 

Additional NOTES:

Captivate

 

 

Captures in slides & “jumpy”, full motion.

To get an “almost “true motion” requires user to turn off hardware acceleration. Works better with mix of slide & true motion (long true motion captures bleed off track with audio and go very slow).

 

Can’t edit full motion captures.

Viewlet Cam/
Builder

 

The cam version appears to be full motion. The builder is more interactive. Would need to purchase both.

 

Easy to edit, and interactive.

Camtasia

 

 

Full motion capture. Complete editing features, lots of output & CD menu templates.

 

No export to Flash MX, but can bring in as SWF and has Flash components available for editing in MX.

 

No true interactive elements.

Turbo Demo

 

 

Straight up screen shot (have to set time to snap screen shots).

 

Easy to edit for slide only program.

Snaps Pro X 2

 

 

MAC only – needs more testing.