What Toolsets do you recomend for AV recording and editing

Mar 08, 2012

First off I have to say that much as I like Articulate, I am not using it. I work for a company that sells ToolBook, a tool that can be used as an e-learning development tool (not Rapid eLearning but eLearning nonetheless) so I use that.

 

I need to create short 1-2 minute video demonstrations of the software.

These need to have an audio voice over.

 

At present what I've been doing is:

  • Using Snagit to record the screen capture video. (Sometimes also making use of Zoomit to zoom into a particular part of the screen). Snagit saves these videos as .AVI files
  • I use Audacity to record my narration (Thanks Tom Kuhlman for recommending this years ago!)
  • I then use a product called Avidemux to replace the sound track on the AVI with the MP3 narration.
  • I then use Format Factory to convert the AVI to MP4 (h.264) which is the recommended format for ToolBook 

Yes this is a long and convoluted approach.

And also sadly I've seen some issues with the MP4 file that gets created. Sometimes the video portion repeats.

 

So can anyone recommend a replacement for this set of tools that is.

1) Easy (or at least easier than this lot) to use

2) Reliable

3) Low cost (or ideally free)

 

Thanks so much

Alan

Alan Montague, CPLP

Read my blog Musings of a Learning Pro

14 Replies
David Steffek

Hi, Alan!

I, too, once had to use SnagIt for screen recording. I found that I could use Microsoft Movie Maker, which is included free with Windows, to edit the video and add audio.

Movie Maker is a basic/entry level video editor so it should be very easy to pickup even if you've never used a video editor before. I don't know if it supports MP4/h.264, but since it's free and possibly already installed on your PC it's definitely worth a look.

Alan Montague

David Steffek said:

Hi, Alan!

I, too, once had to use SnagIt for screen recording. I found that I could use Microsoft Movie Maker, which is included free with Windows, to edit the video and add audio.

Movie Maker is a basic/entry level video editor so it should be very easy to pickup even if you've never used a video editor before. I don't know if it supports MP4/h.264, but since it's free and possibly already installed on your PC it's definitely worth a look.


Sadly it does not support MP4s :(  but thanks for the response

Alan Montague

Rebecca Fleisch Cordeiro said:

Hi Alan,

Are you aware that the new Snagit 11 creates A/V files that output as mp4? I just downloaded it yesterday and have run a couple quick tests, and I'm really impressed. So much nicer and cleaner than recording the screen previously in Snagit.


Thanks Rebecca.

I'll certainly take a look at it.

Rich Johnstun

I think if you were to download and try the 30 day trial of Camtasia that you see the investment is worth it. It's capable of doing everything that you are talking about within a single tool. The feature set is very solid for a tool at that price point and it will pay for itself very quickly. Features like the zoom/pan, callouts, close captioning and picture in picture make it a really solid package. There are lots of ways that it could be done, but this would give you the cleanest end product and your workflow would be such that the time savings alone make it a worth while investment. 

As Doug said, the 30 day trail is completely unlocked...no watermarks, package expiration, feature limitations or anything of that nature. 

Kristin Savko

I love using Camtasia-- it's just so easy, and it really does a lot.

Because I like to now use it for video editing that it's not intended to do (even though I have access to Adobe products), I wish it was a bit more robust in the ability to add more callouts and add other elements, although I realize that's not the program's intent.

Output works great with Presenter.

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