Camtasia Studio is a complete application suite to record, edit and share your videos online, on CD or with a portable player. This highly-acclaimed program allows you to create screencasts or video tutorials, and can also be used to prepare presentations. Let’s get a run-down of all the things you can do with Camtasia Studio.

Thanks to the Camtasia Recorder, you can record and save screen captures or webcam broadcasts. We enjoyed playing around with it, adjusting the region size, highlighting cursor movement and setting elements such as time stamps and captions. Depending on what you need to record, you can also choose to hide or show the cursor and disable audio recording.

The production studio is the central piece of the application, from where you’ll be doing your editing. Drag and drop your recorded videos onto the timeline at the bottom of the interface. Camtasia embeds a player in the studio interface and you can constantly replay your production. From the menu on the left side you can choose from a selection of 18 different transitions, many call-outs (effectively bubbles to insert text into your video) or captions. The Zoom-n-Pan feature can be used to focus in on one part of the video in particular and teachers can use the Flash Quiz Survey feature to prepare multiple choice tests for their students. Camtasia Studio also includes an audio editor to simply record a voiceover directly to your video or tweak the audio in your production. Use Menu Maker and Theater to create full table of contents and credits pages.

Once you’re happy with your editing and have everything in place, you can go on to produce. Camtasia will guide you through what codecs to choose or what format to set according to your output, whether for the web, for CD, DVD or a portable player. The output format will also depend on whether your video only consists of slides and screen recordings or if you also have digital footage. Camtasia lets you choose among the industry standards like AVI, Quicktime, Real Media or Windows Media. You’ll be able to batch produce your videos and select smooth scaling to lessen quality loss while resizing videos. Production preview is a great feature to take a quick look at your video and correct mistakes before actually producing it. Finally, Camtasia integrates with Screencast.com, meaning you can post your best videos online and share them with others.

Apart from being a full video suite for your PC, it would be a mistake not to talk about the user-friendly aspect of Camtasia Studio. The program offers a number of tutorials, many of them in video format, to explain the different actions you can undertake. The process from recording to editing and producing is well structured and Camtasia Studio will guide you, even suggesting things such as the output format. Whether you’re out to make screencasts or need a friendly and complete tool to prepare presentations, Camtasia Studio is the application of choice.

Download Camtasia Studio 5.0.2 in Softonic

If you'ver got lots of memories or footage on VHS or Betamax and are still using Windows 98, usually there aren't many options to transfer footage. However, Bao TV allows you to do this even though it takes quite a bit of configuring and setting up before your captures are performed properly.

Firstly, you'll need an AverMedia Phone98 card and a video codec such as DivX or Microsoft's V8 codec. You may find that on installation, it warns you that certain drivers or files are missing namely Istrmdll.zip, drmclien.dll, mfc42.dll or Wmaudsdk.dll. You can find links to them on the developer website however. Once started, you don't need to open the AverMedia Phone98 program anymore as BaoTV initialises the hardware on its own. In Options/AVI Capture Options toy can choose the Frame Rate which should be set top a low number if you have a slow processor.

Once you've selected "Set Capture File" and select a directory for the capture files, you're ready to go. The sound takes a lot of configuration however and you'll have to experiment until you find the right bitrate to achieve decent quality captures.

For Windows 98 users, this is a rare and satisfactory capture program that allows you to rescue VHS and Beta tapes in digital format.

Download BAO TV 1.9 Beta in Softonic

HyperCam is powerful video capture software that records AVI movies (screencam) directly from your monitor, for software presentations, software training, demos, tutorials, and fun! HyperCam supports text annotations, sound, and screen notes (great for creating automated software demos!). You can also select Frame rate and compression quality prior to video capture.

Download HyperCam 2.14.01 in Softonic

ProgDVB is a piece of software which allows you to watch SAT-Television and listen to Radio channels directly from satellite by using DVB-PCI cards with hardware decoders on the board, SAT-dish, and personal x86-compatible computers. ProgDVB has options for working with network broadcasting and Audio/Video recording of the stream to different digital-media formats.

Download ProgDVB 5.16.1 in Softonic

Replay Media Catcher is smart - it figures out the name of the video or MP3 file you've recorded, and names the file automatically. This makes it easier than ever to organize your recorded media. For MP3 files, the artist, album, song title and other information are added to the ID3 tags - this makes your recorded songs appear as they should in iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any other program that plays MP3 files.

Features:

• Record all kinds of FLV format Flash Videos
• Capture streaming MP3 files
• Automatically names songs and video files
• One click recording
• MP3 tag editor
• Works great for hard-to-capture sites using RTMP protocol

Download Replay Media Catcher 2.30 in Softonic

There are a lot of programs around that let you create your own screencasts but few that allow you to record literally any video that is playing on your screen. liteCam does though, giving you the chance to grab streaming movies, news broadcasts, webcam footage, as well as capturing your screen actions and adding narrations to make video tutorials.

The program offers a significant number of tools to improve the quality of your screencasts once they've been created, and although the program only allows you to export to AVI, you can always run it through an external file converter to transform the video into any format you desire. I also liked the way you can program liteCam to record the screen at a given time, just like a VHS recorder. I'm no snoop, but I reckon this could be a great way of finding out if the kids have really been on the computer all night doing their homework.

Thanks to a dummy-proof interface, liteCam provides a very easy way in which to capture screen recordings and has enough options for you to be able to polish the resulting video to a decent quality.

Download liteCam 2.5 in Softonic

SlingPlayer installs on your PC or Mobile device, and lets you watch and control your Slingbox. The software incorporates the company's SlingStream technology to provide the best possible viewing experience over any network, and you don't have to touch a thing - it just streams as well as your network allows!

SlingPlayer is also very easy to use. A simple "TV Window" appears, and inside, voila, there's your TV. Want to change the channel? No problem, because right next to the TV Window is the SlingRemote window, which displays a graphical "virtual" remote. The SlingRemote has support for over 5000 different devices, including the latest cable boxes and DVRs, and often displays a realistic-looking remote that looks just like the one you left on your couch (it's under the pillows). The SlingPlayer encompasses several innovative features to bring your entire living room experience to your laptop, desktop, PDA, or smartphone (minus the couch potato).

Download SlingPlayer Desktop 1.5.0.325 in Softonic

Creating video tutorials is a great way of demonstrating how to use your piece of software or providing friends and colleagues with details of a particular function within an application. ALLCapture is designed to make the process of producing your own videocasts all the easier - and it doesn't do badly at all. You simply need to specify the part of the screen you wish to record before starting the recording process. After the desired actions on the screen are captured, ALLCapture opens the video in a standard digital editor. You can then quickly chop and change unwanted passages or alter the sequence of the transmission. Audio comments or mood music can be added using the software with just one click.

In addition you can buff up the video tutorial with ALLCapture. Through the use of speech bubbles or digital notes you can tie more succinct explanations to your clips. Special tools like the so-called Rubber Band or Spotlight effect can also be used to emphasize certain cutouts graphically. Exporting the file as a video is a simple process and although it doesn't support a huge range of movie formats, you can output the file as an executable.

ALLCapture proves to be a very useful assistant for the creation of video tutorials and clips of what's happening on the screen. The software is clear enough to be used for beginners, who can achieve great looking results with minimum brainwork.

Download ALLCapture 2.0 in Softonic

ZD Soft Screen Recorder is a high performance program which can record screen activities to a video file for presentation or demonstration purpose.

It is the best free choice if you want to:

• Answer questions with screen recording video explaining how to use software, websites and other applications.
• Ask for help with screen recording video showing how software bugs, errors and problems occur.
• Demonstrate features, new versions of software, websites and other applications.
• Record videos while playing your favorite computer games and share it with your friends.
• Create screen demo, tutorial and training videos, and distribute them to as many people as you want electronically over the internet.

Download ZD Soft Screen Recorder 2.6.4.0 in Softonic

This application enables you to record video from any image source on your PC, be it the screen itself or a USB video device connected to your computer, such as a digital video camera or a webcam.

Debut Video Capture is very easy to use: its interface offers a preview of what will be recorded, although in the case of screen recording, this is pretty confusing as the image repeats itself ad finitum. Besides that, everything is controlled with three simple buttons (record, pause and stop) so that gives you an idea about the simplicity of the program.

Recordings can be done in a variety of formats, and each one has its own configuration settings. An interesting option is the possibility to download related programs from the same developer. Debut Video Capture also enables you to email the videos or upload them to an FTP server right after recording them. However, we did miss an embedded player with which to revise our recordings.

Download Debut Video Capture 1.20 in Softonic

GB-PVR is a fully featured Personal Video Recorder (PVR), allowing you to schedule TV recordings and view and pause live TV. In additional to this PVR functionality, it also acts as a media center allowing you to watch movies, listen to music, view pictures and listen to FM radio.

GB-PVR also supports specialist hardware decoders including Sigma Designs XCard, Hauppauge PVR350 and Hauppauge MediaMVP. GB-PVR also supports multiple tuners, allowing you to record more multiple channels at one time.

Download GB-PVR 1.0.16 in Softonic

Adobe Captivate 2 software enables anyone to rapidly create powerful and engaging simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario-based training without programming knowledge or multimedia skills.

Use Adobe Captivate 2 to record any application quickly and easily. Capture onscreen activity and let Adobe Captivate 2 automatically generate interactive text entry areas.

Rapidly develop soft-skills training with even the most complex branching scenarios. Quickly create interactive, engaging training content without learning Flash or hiring a professional developer.

Its all there to make the most complete tutorial videos.

Download Adobe Captivate 2 in Softonic

Although now firmly entrenched in Adobe’s stable of applications, the Macromedia magic that was responsible for so much top quality software oozes through Captivate. Like its sister programs Flash and Dreamweaver, Captivate is designed to provide dazzling presentations for professionals out to impress.

The format of the presentation in question here is not web pages or interactive animated content, but video recordings of your computer being used, allowing you to produce captivating tutorials explaining how to perform technical tasks. More than just allowing you to capture and record screen activity, the application lets you add and edit narration, captions and animations to help you get your point across.

The sound and video editing tools are very comprehensive and if you’re well versed in Macromedia’s ‘Timeline’ interface you should be able to pick things up quite easily and will soon be adding effects, background music and slides to your creations. If not, then perfecting Captivate may take a little time, but the learning curve certainly isn’t as steep as Dreamweaver or Flash.

One of the few drawbacks of the software is that it only allows you to export your finished video as an .swf or an .exe file, although this is a small price to pay for such a fully featured product. Compared with other tools that profess to allow you to record and play back computer actions, Captivate offers a great deal more. Once you’ve mastered the basics, there’s all sorts of wizardry you can apply to make your presentations more immersive and interactive, such as Flash animation, interaction with branching and scoring, as well as highlights, hyperlinks and rollovers.

Download Macromedia Captivate 2.0.0.5166 in Softonic

My Screen Recorder captures your PC desktop activity into standard AVI video files. This screen capturing tool can record anything you see on the computer screen, including the entire desktop, windows, menus, cursors, and even video with sound. My Screen Recorder helps you make a video of the screen movements and save them for later playback.

Use My Screen Recorder to make people witness what you want convey through an audio-visual medium. Demonstrate a product, create a presentation with your own audio narration, make a voiceover tutorial, or walk through a Website review.

Record a part of the screen or the entire desktop with My Screen Recorder. You can make small size and high-quality screen recordings and save them as standard AVI files for later playback. My Screen Recorder organizes your recordings into Folder Shortcuts for easy management.

A powerful communication software tool that simplifies the way you share information through an audio-visual medium. Anyone interested in communicating by showing, telling, and sharing would find My Screen Recorder essential.

Download My Screen Recorder 2.62 in Softonic

By using uvScreenCamera, you can easily create animated demos or tutorials by recording your computer's desktop activity, including all mouse movements, window graphics, mouse clicks and everything else you see on the screen.

The recorded clips are stored into UVF, EXE, SWF or AVI movie files, streaming just 30 to 400 KB per minute. The player for UVF films itself is lightweight, compatible with all Windows systems, and requires no installation.

The recording module is extremely easy to use, and supports Windows 9.x, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Server, Windows XP, Windows 2003.

uvScreenCamera includes the powerfull notes editor. You can annotate recorded movies with text boxes and sticky notes. A movie can be split into separate named segments for quick tracking.

Download uvScreenCamera 2.5.0.46 in Softonic

TiVo Desktop is a useful application to transfer all your TiVo media onto your computer. It has the following features:

• Take your favorite shows with you on your laptop or burn them to DVD.
• Automatic transfers deliver last night's recordings to your PC by morning.
• Sync and watch shows on your Microsoft Windows Mobile or Portable Media Center device.
• Browse and listen to your PC's MP3 library from your TiVo box.
• Watch full-screen slide shows of your digital photos on your TV.

Download TiVo Desktop 2.3 a in Softonic

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create AVI video files from this. Using its built-in SWF Producer, the program can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased screen captions to your recordings, and thanks to its Video Annotation feature you can even personalize your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself "picture-in-picture" over your desktop.

Possible uses for the program:

• Create demonstration videos for any software program

• Produce a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions

• Make video tutorials for school or college class

• Use it to record a recurring problem with your computer so you can show technical support people

• Create video-based information products you can sell

• Record new tricks and techniques you discover on your favorite software program, before you forget them

Download CamStudio 2.0 in Softonic

YouTubeGet is an all-in-one package designed to make it quick and easy to both download and convert YouTube videos.

The program offers various options for downloading the videos you want as well as several conversion options from FLV into MP4, 3GP, AVI, WMV, MOV etc meaning you can also watch the clips on your phone, iPod and even PSP. Unusually for a YouTube downloader, this program also supports the resuming of broken downloads which is very useful if you suffer from interrupted WiFi/Internet connections.

The program is automatically configured to detect any kind of YouTube activity that you perform on your PC. This means that even if you copy a YouTube URL to your clipboard, the program will automatically issue a pop-up asking if you'd like to save the video using YouTubeGet. This is useful if you want to download absolutely every video you see but not so useful if you're just sending a link to a friend - in fact it can be annoying and there seems no way to switch it off.

YouTubeGet also comes with its own mini YouTube browser which allows you to perform searches on YouTube videos although it's very limited and you'll be better using YouTube's main interface for searching for videos.

YouTubeGet is a well designed and presented video downloader that supports broken downloads and ensures you'll never have to worry about your favourite clips going offline.

Download YouTubeGet 4 in Softonic

Webcams are useful to have video chats with friends across thousands of miles – or maybe just a couple of blocks away – but they can also be used for other purposes.

One of them is capturing video right to your computer, something you can easily do with AMCap. This simple tool grabs the video signal coming from your webcam and records it straight away to your hard drive, in MPEG2 or AVI format, provided you have the necessary codecs. It features some other interesting options, such as the possibility to take screenshots or adding special effects to the image (graphic overlay, alpha-blending, transparency, etc.).

That said, I must confess I found AMCap a bit deceiving. Maybe I expected something else: a webcam monitoring tool or something similar. But I honestly don't find this program that useful. It doesn't even let you take screenshots automatically according to a certain lapse of time. Also, video files take a lot of room, so you better have a large hard drive ready for them.

AMCap is a simple tool that lets you capture video from your webcam for whatever purpose you may have. If you're searching for a webcam monitoring app, you'll need to look somewhere else.

Download AMCap 9.20 in Softonic

ChrisTV TimeShift lets you freeze the live TV stream, giving you a break while it's still recording. TimeShifting gives you recordings with time delayed playback which offers various advantages over the linear recording style you were used till now. By TimeShift recording you can fast-forward through commercials and create your instant-replay on a live TV program. Never miss anything from your favourite show, by timeshift recording, a simple pause will let you resume later the interrupted TV program viewing.

Download ChrisTV Professional 5.20 in Softonic