# Tutorials on YouTube, What Do They Use? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400 "2009-07-27T05:16:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/1 "2009-07-27T05:16:39Z")
I go to YouTube and sometimes I will see a person give a tutorial on how to operate a certain program, say Excel. You will hear the guy talk but you will see his computer and just the Excel program opened and he’ll explain what he’s doing. Now what are they using to do this? A web cam? Any special kind of equipment? Here’s an [example](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L1OVkw2ZQ8) of what I mean ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/2 "2009-07-27T05:17:46Z")
> **[FRAPS show fps, record video game movies, screen capture software](https://fraps.com/)** > > Fraps can show your frame rate in games! Fraps performs video capture, screen capture and can benchmark your fps! Supports both DirectX capture and OpenGL capture! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/3 "2009-07-27T05:54:02Z")
> [@IAmNotSpartacus](#): > > [http://www.fraps.com/](http://www.fraps.com/) Is there a free alternative to Fraps? If you use their limited version it only lets you record for 30 seconds at a time and stamps a Fraps logo on the video. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/4 "2009-07-27T06:00:48Z")
Here is one option although it’s quite crippled compared to Fraps: [CamStudio - Screen Recorder download | SourceForge.net](http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/) ---
**Author:** ![adhay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@adhay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/5 "2009-07-27T14:45:08Z")
[Check this out.](http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ruminator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Ruminator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruminator)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/6 "2009-07-27T15:03:32Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Now what are they using to do this? A web cam? Any special kind of equipment? TechSmith Camtasia or Adobe Captivate is my guess. Fraps was mentioned but I don’t think that’s a typical choice for recording tutorials of business software. Fraps is more of recording DirectX graphics video games. On the other hand, products like Camtasia have editing wizards to “zoom in or magnify” a particular area of the screen, highlight mouse button clicks, positioning audio cues, and other useful features for authoring tutorials. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/7 "2009-07-27T15:18:19Z")
I think most movie editing software (windows movie maker doesn’t do it) will have a function to record your screen. I know Magix Movie Edit does, which is a cheap option for basic movie editing. But Debut Video Capture is free and it works fine for this kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![phaemon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/977dab/32.png) [@phaemon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phaemon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/8 "2009-07-27T23:32:55Z")
I found one called [Wink](http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) which seems quite fully featured and is free to download. [This page](http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/05/screencasting-to-help-your-mom.html) has a list of screen capture programs. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tutorials-on-youtube-what-do-they-use/504400/9 "2009-07-28T03:38:39Z")
Thanks I’ll look into it