Screencast
Encyclopedia
A screencast is a digital recording of computer
screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot
; whereas screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, enhanced with audio narration.
invited readers of his blog to propose names for the emerging genre. Udell selected the term "screencast", which was proposed by both Joseph McDonald and Deeje Cooley.
The terms "screencast" and "Screencam
" are often used interchangeably, due to the market influence of ScreenCam as an screencasting product of early 1990s. ScreenCam, however, is a federal trademark in the United States
, whereas screencast is not trademarked and has established use in publications as part of Internet and Computing vernacular.
Screencasts are useful tools for ordinary software users as well: They help filing report bugs in which the screencasts take the place of potentially unclear written explanations; they help showing others how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment.
Organizers of seminars may choose to routinely record complete seminars and make them available to all attendees for future reference and/or sell these recordings to people who cannot afford the fee of the live seminar or do not have the time to attend it. This will generate an additional revenue stream for the organizers and makes the knowledge available to a broader audience.
This strategy of recording seminars is already widely used in fields where using a simple video camera or audio recorder is sufficient to make a useful recording of a seminar. Computer-related seminars need high quality and easily readable recordings of screen contents which is usually not achieved by a video camera that records the desktop.
or DVI
frame grabber
card. This approach does not have the OpenGL
limitations mentioned above, and places the burden of the recording and compression process on a machine separate from the one generating the visual material being
captured.
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. The term screencast compares with the related term screenshot
Screenshot
A screenshot , screen capture , screen dump, screengrab , or print screen is an image taken by a computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device...
; whereas screenshot is a picture of a computer screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on a computer screen, enhanced with audio narration.
Origin of the term
In 2004, columnist Jon UdellJon udell
Jon Udell is an "Evangelist" at Microsoft. Previously he was lead analyst for the Infoworld Test Center.Udell is author of Practical Internet Groupware, published in 1999 by O'Reilly Media, and is an advisor to O'Reilly's Safari Tech Books Online. He wrote the column "Tangled in the Threads" for...
invited readers of his blog to propose names for the emerging genre. Udell selected the term "screencast", which was proposed by both Joseph McDonald and Deeje Cooley.
The terms "screencast" and "Screencam
Screencam
ScreenCam is a Screencast tool for Microsoft Windows that is used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and tutorials in .swf format...
" are often used interchangeably, due to the market influence of ScreenCam as an screencasting product of early 1990s. ScreenCam, however, is a federal trademark in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, whereas screencast is not trademarked and has established use in publications as part of Internet and Computing vernacular.
Uses
Screencasts can help demonstrate and teach the use of software features. Creating a screencast helps software developers show off their work. Educators may also use screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum. Students can record video and audio as they demonstrate the proper procedure to solve a problem on an interactive whiteboard.Screencasts are useful tools for ordinary software users as well: They help filing report bugs in which the screencasts take the place of potentially unclear written explanations; they help showing others how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment.
Organizers of seminars may choose to routinely record complete seminars and make them available to all attendees for future reference and/or sell these recordings to people who cannot afford the fee of the live seminar or do not have the time to attend it. This will generate an additional revenue stream for the organizers and makes the knowledge available to a broader audience.
This strategy of recording seminars is already widely used in fields where using a simple video camera or audio recorder is sufficient to make a useful recording of a seminar. Computer-related seminars need high quality and easily readable recordings of screen contents which is usually not achieved by a video camera that records the desktop.
Hardware
An alternative solution for capturing a screencast is the use of a hardware RGBRGB color model
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors...
or DVI
Digital Visual Interface
The Digital Visual Interface is a video interface standard covering the transmission of video between a source device and a display device. The DVI standard has achieved widespread acceptance in the PC industry, both in desktop PCs and monitors...
frame grabber
Frame grabber
A frame grabber is an electronic device that captures individual, digital still frames from an analog video signal or a digital video stream. It is usually employed as a component of a computer vision system, in which video frames are captured in digital form and then displayed, stored or...
card. This approach does not have the OpenGL
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
limitations mentioned above, and places the burden of the recording and compression process on a machine separate from the one generating the visual material being
captured.
See also
- Comparison of screencasting softwareComparison of screencasting softwareA comparison of notable screencasting software programs, that are used to record activities on the computer screen, mouse movement, and often includes live audio for later playback. Screencasting is an asynchronous communication technology...
- Online lectureOnline lectureAn online lecture is an educational lecture designed to be posted online. Lectures are recorded to video, audio or both, then uploaded and made viewable on a designated site...
- Slidecast
- ScreenshotScreenshotA screenshot , screen capture , screen dump, screengrab , or print screen is an image taken by a computer to record the visible items displayed on the monitor, television, or another visual output device...
- Video captureVideo captureVideo capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera or DVD player—to digital video. The resulting digital data are computer files referred to as a digital video stream, or more often, simply video stream...
- Video podcastVideo podcastVideo podcast is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures...