Active Presenter 5.0 Released -> Best Free Video-Recording (Screencasting) Tool

[jackuars]

Easily the best free screencasting tool available out there, with extensive editing capabilities Active Presenter has been updated to version 5.0.

ActivePresenter 5.0 (2014.12.24)
New Features & Enhancements:

• The user interface is completely revamped.
• Edit Closed Caption track directly from Timeline.
• More powerful Properties pane.
• Allow changing the Style of multiple selected objects at once.

Bugs Fixed:

• Fix HTML5 audio loading issue in Firefox.

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Unlike most free screencasting tools, Active Presenter doesn't impose time limit or watermarks for recordings, and the only difference between the free version and the pro version is the types of export format available. But you get Images and Video (AVI, MPEG4, WMV, WebM, MKV) which is probably enough for most users.
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Free Edition
Record your computer screen along with audio narration

• Record full motion video with crystal clear quality
• Capture screenshots automatically with mouse clicks or key presses
• Automatically generate appropriate annotations for each action
• NO WATERMARK AND NO TIME LIMIT!

Polish your screencast by editing

• Editing audio and video with common operations: cut, crop, delete, join, change volume, split
• Adding comments with attractive shapes
• Adding Zoom-n-Pan effects
• Cursor Path and Closed Caption
• Sync audio, video and overlays

Export to various video formats (AVI, MP4, WMV, WebM, MKV)

• Easily share or upload to video sharing sites
• Pack as SCORM packages and publish to any SCORM-compliant LMS
• Lossless audio and video codecs in MKV container for further editing

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

Smart Capture

Capture computer screen when mouse clicked or key pressed. Each action is captured as a slide which explains in details what the viewer/leaner should follow to master the lesson.

Full Motion Recording

Record screen as a full motion video and embedded in a slide for further editing with annotations, voice-over, click sounds, closed captions and transition effects,.. and export to most popular video formats like AVI, WMV, MP4, WebM.

Interactive & Branching

Viewer can interact with the content and the simulation can make different responses based on the viewer’s actions. This feature is available in AJAX/Flash Simulations.

Audio & Video Editing

Edit audio and video instantly without quality loss. Supported operations are cut, delete, crop, join, split, change volume, insert freeze frame.
Event & Action

The flexible event-action mechanism with rich event and action types allows defining different learning scenarios based on viewers’ responses at each step.

Style (Color & Effect)

Create polished and high quality screencast videos and training simulations with various line, fill, text style and shadow effect. Boost your performance and effectiveness when authoring simulations and training contents with “object styling” concept.

Transition Effect

Attract viewers/learners by applying transition effects to slides, annotations and videos. There are several transition effects to choose from: Fade, Fly, Wipe, and Peak.

Smart Annotation

Automatically generate meaningful descriptions for the actions performed on target applications and use them as text annotations. This makes your screencasts or training simulations almost ready right after your finish the recording.

SCORM Compliance

Create the SCORM compliant package which can be uploaded and imported to any Learning Management System (LMS) which supports SCORM standard (Moodle, Dokeos,..).

Video Export

Export content to popular video formats including AVI, FLV, WMV, WebM, MP4. There are several parameters (frame rate, key frame, quality) to balance between output size and video quality.

HTML5 Export

Export content to HTML5 Simulation which can run on almost browsers and devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).


NOTE: This tool is not suitable for gamers. For them I'd recommend Loilo Game Recorder which is another freeware

 

[MalwareT]

Easily the best free screencasting tool available out there, with extensive editing capabilities Active Presenter has been updated to version 5.0.

ActivePresenter 5.0 (2014.12.24)
New Features & Enhancements:

• The user interface is completely revamped.
• Edit Closed Caption track directly from Timeline.
• More powerful Properties pane.
• Allow changing the Style of multiple selected objects at once.

Bugs Fixed:

• Fix HTML5 audio loading issue in Firefox.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unlike most free screencasting tools, Active Presenter doesn't impose time limit or watermarks for recordings, and the only difference between the free version and the pro version is the types of export format available. But you get Images and Video (AVI, MPEG4, WMV, WebM, MKV) which is probably enough for most users.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free Edition
Record your computer screen along with audio narration

• Record full motion video with crystal clear quality
• Capture screenshots automatically with mouse clicks or key presses
• Automatically generate appropriate annotations for each action
• NO WATERMARK AND NO TIME LIMIT!

Polish your screencast by editing

• Editing audio and video with common operations: cut, crop, delete, join, change volume, split
• Adding comments with attractive shapes
• Adding Zoom-n-Pan effects
• Cursor Path and Closed Caption
• Sync audio, video and overlays

Export to various video formats (AVI, MP4, WMV, WebM, MKV)

• Easily share or upload to video sharing sites
• Pack as SCORM packages and publish to any SCORM-compliant LMS
• Lossless audio and video codecs in MKV container for further editing

FEATURE HIGHLIGHTS

Smart Capture

Capture computer screen when mouse clicked or key pressed. Each action is captured as a slide which explains in details what the viewer/leaner should follow to master the lesson.

Full Motion Recording

Record screen as a full motion video and embedded in a slide for further editing with annotations, voice-over, click sounds, closed captions and transition effects,.. and export to most popular video formats like AVI, WMV, MP4, WebM.

Interactive & Branching

Viewer can interact with the content and the simulation can make different responses based on the viewer’s actions. This feature is available in AJAX/Flash Simulations.

Audio & Video Editing

Edit audio and video instantly without quality loss. Supported operations are cut, delete, crop, join, split, change volume, insert freeze frame.
Event & Action

The flexible event-action mechanism with rich event and action types allows defining different learning scenarios based on viewers’ responses at each step.

Style (Color & Effect)

Create polished and high quality screencast videos and training simulations with various line, fill, text style and shadow effect. Boost your performance and effectiveness when authoring simulations and training contents with “object styling” concept.

Transition Effect

Attract viewers/learners by applying transition effects to slides, annotations and videos. There are several transition effects to choose from: Fade, Fly, Wipe, and Peak.

Smart Annotation

Automatically generate meaningful descriptions for the actions performed on target applications and use them as text annotations. This makes your screencasts or training simulations almost ready right after your finish the recording.

SCORM Compliance

Create the SCORM compliant package which can be uploaded and imported to any Learning Management System (LMS) which supports SCORM standard (Moodle, Dokeos,..).

Video Export

Export content to popular video formats including AVI, FLV, WMV, WebM, MP4. There are several parameters (frame rate, key frame, quality) to balance between output size and video quality.

HTML5 Export

Export content to HTML5 Simulation which can run on almost browsers and devices (desktop, tablet, mobile).


NOTE: This tool is not suitable for gamers. For them I'd recommend Loilo Game Recorder which is another freeware

Maybe i will give a try Does it have same features as Camtasia ? (stretching blur etc.) ?

 

[MalwareT]

I tried it but it doesn't have countdown feature Anyway, i like it and maybe i will replace Camtasia

 

[jackuars]

Maybe i will give a try Does it have same features as Camtasia ? (stretching blur etc.) ?

Yes it does. Look in the description above There's loads of editing capabilities, probably better than Camtasia. Editing is it's strong point.

I tried it but it doesn't have countdown feature Anyway, i like it and maybe i will replace Camtasia

Yes, although it does show "Preparing"

 

[MalwareT]

Yes it does. Look in the description above There's loads of editing capabilities, probably better than Camtasia. Editing is it's strong point.



Yes, although it does show "Preparing"

Does it has same video quality or even better than Camtasia? Hotkeys doesn't work when Virtualbox is fullscreen .Camtasia starts recording when i press hotkey,AP doesn't.

 

[jackuars]

Does it has same video quality or even better than Camtasia? Hotkeys doesn't work when Virtualbox is fullscreen .Camtasia starts recording when i press hotkey,AP doesn't.

I don't use VirtualBox so can't comment about that. The video quality is excellent. The dev said that he will implement a countdown timer in the next update.

 

[MalwareT]

I don't use VirtualBox so can't comment about that. The video quality is excellent. The dev said that he will implement a countdown timer in the next update.

I tried it in Sandboxie but ui should look similar to Camtasia because i barely can work.