# Recommend a good video screen capture utility

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 8, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108 "2012-09-08T18:16:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108/1 "2012-09-08T18:16:56Z")

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I have a need to be able to capture my screen to a video format (Flash, AVI, MP4, not picky but it needs to be shareable, not something proprietary).

I’ve looked at Camtasia but don’t care for the price tag, and at CamStudio but haven’t been impressed with its performance.

Any other suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108/2 "2012-09-08T18:30:28Z")

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I like [HyperCam](http://www.hyperionics.com/hc/index.asp) myself. And then you can use VirtualDub to encode it to any format your little heart desires.

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**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108/3 "2012-09-08T18:32:36Z")

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Oh, and if you’re doing this primarily in Windows office/internet programs, consider [Wink](http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) instead. Instead of recording a video, it takes screenshots whenever you click something, the screen changes, etc., and then makes an animated Flash out of it. It usually loads faster and has better image quality than videos.

And if you’re recording games or movies, you instead want [Fraps](http://www.fraps.com/).

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**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\
**Post date:** [September 8, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-video-screen-capture-utility/634108/4 "2012-09-08T20:56:41Z")

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[Applian Technologies](http://applian.com/index.php) sell a number of products to do this sort of thing, and they are not too pricey. [This](http://applian.com/replay-video-capture/) might be the one you want (or possibly something else they make).