If you’ve ever tried to capture your Windows activity or make a legible demonstration video of a specific program, Web site or even game, you know that it’s tricky and that the output quality often leaves something to be desired. Here at AskDaveTaylor we do a lot of video work for companies (we even have a Web site about our video production services: How-To Video Source.com] and there’s only one program we turn to when it’s time to capture Windows video, whether it’s Windows 7, Windows 8 or even the new Windows 8.1 Preview: Camtasia Studio 8.
That’s why I’m pleased to have the Camtasia team — TechSmith Corporation — sponsoring a really cool giveaway of a license for Camtasia Studio 8. That’s a $299.00 value, and it’s well worth it.
If you’ve never created a video screen capture, you might not realize all the options available, but you can record just video, video + audio, record full screen or a specific subset of the screen that matches a desired resolution (like the exact pixel dimensions of 720p HD video, a format we frequently use in our own videos). With audio you can capture just the computer-based audio or computer audio + microphone input, and on the latter, you can use a built-in microphone if your computer has one or plug in an external mic. Then there are output formats and compatibility with Mac and PC. And editing. And, and, and.
And suffice to say, it’s a very complicated task, making a legible and comprehensible screen capture video, which is why it’s such a pleasure to work with Camtasia Studio 8. By taking care of all the details and making it a breeze to setup and configure whatever format you seek, it lets you focus on what you’re recording, not how you’re recording it.
To demonstrate, I made a very quick demo capture video using a Toshiba Ultrabook and a new Blue Microphone “Nessie” mic. Why an external microphone? Because it gives you better quality audio, regardless of how fancy yuor computer is. Trust me on that, external mics are always better. But, hey, you’ll be able to hear for yourself.
Usually I set things up to record at my desk so I can stay focused on what I’m doing, but for this demo it worked fine to just use the coffee table, as you can see in this setup photo:
The mic looks like it’s bigger than the laptop, which is a bit of weird perspective, but you get the gist.
With this setup, what can I do? Well, in a matter of seconds I can record, save, export, and upload the following to YouTube:
Back to the giveaway. Like I said, I’m giving away a license for one copy of Camtasia Studio 8, a $299 value, and I invite you to enter. I was planning on having people share a funny gaffe or blooper you’ve seen in someone else’s video capture but, well, the comment system is still broken here as a lingering result of the ongoing DDOS hacker attack on the site, so instead I have some fun other ways you can enter. Next time we’ll have comments enabled too. 🙂
Courtesy of Rafflecopter, here’s the giveaway:
As you can see, there are a bunch of ways to earn points in this raffle. I encourage you to give ’em all a shot!
The raffle runs until July 20th, after which I’ll pick a winner. Please make sure you enter your correct email address on the Rafflecopter widget.
I wish you all the best of luck and encourage you to share this giveaway with your friends and colleagues!