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From the desk of Christian Linhart (Author of DemoRecorder):
First, you are probably interested in an answer to the following question:
When you are in your creative mindset, DemoRecorder makes it as easy as humanly possible to get your job done.
Therefore we have put a lot of emphasis into supporting you to get your job done well by making the recording step as convenient as possible.
All the technical complexity of most video formats is shielded from you during the recording phase by generating a high quality master copy of your video in DemoRecorder's own format (which has been specifically designed to need no technical parameters and to be convertible to any other format while retaining maximum quality.)
So, the only parameter you have to set before recording is the resolution of the virtual desktop. (more about virtual desktop and its resolution later)
Of course DemoRecorder can provide that.
From your master copy you can create videos in any of the supported formats ( more about that below ), in any resolution and in any framerate or compression-rate you wish. Also, you may choose a rectangular area or a specific timespan out of your master copy.
DemoRecorder's master format is designed in a way that it can be converted to any output format, any framerate, any resolution with maxium quality. (Later, I give you more info about DemoRecorder's unique recording technology which enables that, but let's now focus on how the exporting to the target formats is done.)
DemoRecorder comes with a rich toolbox of export filters.
Each export filter exports to a specific output format.
Each export filter supports a variety of options which are taylored to the technical possibilties of the specific output-format, so you get the necessary tools to be able to get the best result possible in that specific output format.
Each export filter is a commandline utility which provides its functionality through commandline options. When you call a filter with the option "--help", it displays all options it is capable of.
Actually this has two reasons:
Reason one is that we like to focus all of our energy into making the quality of the recorded videos as good as possible . So, instead of using a lot of manpower for creating an exporter-GUI, we focus on optimization of the recording engine and the export filters.
So, DemoRecorder is a tool for a results-oriented professional and for an ambitioned amateur user.
This fits well with the other reason of providing the export filters as commandline-utilities:
Commandline-utilities give you more flexibility for batch-like operations like exporting of videos because it allows you to write shell scripts which automate the task for you.
Suppose you want to export all videos in the following formats:
Streaming Flash Video for Web-publishing
in resolutions 320x200, 400x300, 640x480 and 800x600,
AVI-video with high qualtity ( 8000kbits/sec ) and medium quality ( 3600 kbits/sec ),
and VOB-file for putting it on a video DVD, both for European users
( PAL reslution and framerate ) and US-users ( NTSC resolution and framerate ).
This gives you 8 different output files for each video!
With a shell script like the following, you can do all the exporting needed
for one video in one step. Compare this to using a GUI where you
select the parameters for one export, wait for the export to be finished,
select the parameters for the next export and so on.
Now multiply that with the number of videos which you create for a specific project
(Look at the time saved with the shell-script compared to the GUI!
And since your time has a high value, look on the money saved!)
Now, here is the script (feel free to use and tweak it for your use)
#!/bin/sh
#script demoall
#first parameter of the script is the name of the recording
name=$1
#directory where you store your master copies (DemoRecorder's default)
masters=$HOME/demorec
#directory where you put the streaming Flash videos for Web publishing
web=/Projects/MyWebsite/videos
#directory where you put the AVI videos
avi=/Projects/Documentation/avi
#directories where you put the VOB videos
vob_pal=/Projects/DVDs/Europe
vob_ntsc=/Projects/DVDs/US
#export to streaming Flash videos for Web publishing
demorec-to-flv-with-player --resolution 320x200 $masters/$name $web/${name}-320x200.flv
demorec-to-flv-with-player --resolution 400x300 $masters/$name $web/${name}-400x300.flv
demorec-to-flv-with-player --resolution 640x480 $masters/$name $web/${name}-640x480.flv
demorec-to-flv-with-player --resolution 800x600 $masters/$name $web/${name}-800x600.flv
#export to AVI videos
demorec-to-avi --output-bitrate 8000 $masters/$name $avi/${name}-high-quality.avi
demorec-to-avi --output-bitrate 3600 $masters/$name $avi/${name}-medium-quality.avi
#export to VOBs for video DVDs
demorec-to-vob-pal $masters/$name $vob_pal/${name}-pal.vob
demorec-to-vob-ntsc $masters/$name $vob_pal/${name}-ntsc.vob
#Do something which notifies you about the exporting finished such as playing a specific sound or melody
play $HOME/sounds/finishedSound.wav
Now suppose the shell script is called "demoall" and your video is called "presentation", you simply call ...
demoall presentation
If you have created a lot of videos you may also write a script which calls demoall for all of your videos. For example:
#!/bin/sh
#script demoproject
#export all videos ( called "intro", "install", "config", ... )
for video in \
"intro" "install" "config" "run" "task1" "task2" "salesvideo"
do
demoall $video
done
You see that you can save a lot of effort by automating the exporting using shellscripts.
(Hint: Be sure to give your shell scrips execute-permissions by using "chmod" as follows:
chmod 755 demoall chmod 755 demoproject
First let me explain the virtual desktop: When you start demorecorder, it displays a desktop inside its GUI. When you record your video, this desktop is recorderd.
This way, you start your recording with a clean new desktop without having to tidy up your main desktop (which, if you work like me has a ton of windows open, all well-arranged to support all of my tasks.)
Plus, you may choose the resolution of the desktop to be recorded. Usually, you want a lower resolution (or size) of the desktop to be recorded because the playback usually occurs within a window and your target audience may have a lower screen resolution than you.
Now you can solve that also by scaling the video during the exporter-step. However, everything looks really small in a scaled video, so you probably get a much better quality if you are able to have the same resolution on recording and playback
That's why DemoRecorder by default works with a nested desktop and that's also the reason for the default resolution of 800x600 of the nested desktop
Of course this resolution may be changed. Just give the parameters "--width" and "--height" when starting the DemoRecorder-GUI, for example ...
demorec --width 1024 --height 768
Click here to download your 30 day free trial.
There are two ways for a trial
The plain downloaded version includes a trial license for DemoRecorder which works for 6 months after the release-date of the current version. "Trial license" means that exported videos contain watermarks.
That's why I give you your personal and free "Welcome License" which you can get at the download-page, too.
This free "Welcome License" gives you a all features of DemoRecorder-Pro for 30 days. That is you get our maximum feature edition free for 30 days, no strings attached, no watermarks, no restrictions whatsoever. You may use the "Welcome License" for completing real projects and publish the videos where you want etc.
The intention of the "Welcome License" is that you can testdrive DemoRecorder under real-world conditions. And what's better suited for evaluating it than to use it for a real project?
You can buy permanent licenses at our shop and immediately after purchase, you can get your license file at our automatic license management service. Your license file will activate your purchased features in the download version.
So you continue working right away after purchase. Our store as well as our automatic license management service are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Our store is operated by eSellerate.net, a well-known and trusted eCommerce-provider for software vendors.
| Feature | Without License download |
Welcome License (free for 30 days) download |
Standard Edition buy |
Web Edition buy |
Pro Edition buy |
Pro Multiscreen Edition (soon to come) |
VIP Edition (soon to come) |
VIP Multiscreen Edition (soon to come) |
VIP Exclusive Edition (soon to come) |
VIP Exclusive Multiscreen Edition (soon to come) |
| Recording from nested desktop | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Playback | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Sound Recording from microphone | no | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Export to FLV (Flash |
watermarks | full | no | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Export to MPEG2 | watermarks | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Export to AVI | watermarks | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| other export filters | watermarks | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Full-screen recording (single screen) | no | full | no | no | full | full | full | full | full | full |
| Full-screen recording (multiple screens) | no | full | no | no | no | full | full | full | full | full |
| Technology Guarantee, i.e., Updates released within two years after purchase | no | no | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Standard Support | no | during the 30 day period of this license | for 2 years | for 2 years | no | no | no | no | no | no |
| Premium Support | no | no | no | no | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years |
| Bugfixing Guarantee | no | no, but usually done | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years |
| Priorty treatment of Bugreports | no | no | no | no | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years | for 2 years |
| Influence development of DemoRecorder / custom features (available to all customers as soon as implemented) |
no | no | no | no | no | no | one engineering-unit per license | one engineering-unit per license | no | no |
| Influence development of DemoRecorder / custom features (available exclusively to you in your VIP-Exclusive licenses for the first 6 months after implementation, thereafter available to all customers) |
no | no | no | no | no | no | no | no | three engineering-units per license | three engineering-units per license |
| Price (individual licenses) | Free download |
Free for 30 days download |
$47 buy |
$77 buy |
$247 buy |
$247 per screen soon to come |
$997 soon to come |
$997 per screen soon to come |
$4997 soon to come |
$4997 per screen soon to come |
| Price (site licenses) | N/A download |
not available download |
please click here for info | please click here for info | please click here for info | please click here for info | not available | not available | not available | not available |
If you want to have a feature completed within a certain time frame, please
tell me your requirements and
ask me for the expected delivery time and for the number of engineering units
to be purchased for that this feature can be completely implemented.
(To contact me please send an email to Christian Linhart at the adress
chris{at}DemoRecorder.com.
Please replace {at} with @ in the email adress.)
I will then make you a quote containing the number of engieering units, and the expected delivery time.
It can also be used to
So I searched the web for an easy-to-handle programm (to run on Linux - certainly!) that offers the possibility to export my screen-recording as a Flash-video.
What I found was a bunch of tutorials describing the combination of a few cryptic commandline-tools to accomplish my plan - and DemoRecorder!
I decided to give it a whirl and it worked like a charm for me. It's easy to install, easy to use and delivers the screen-recording in a wide range of output-video-formats with an excelent quality.
My conclusion: Two thumbs up!"
Keep up the great piece of work Chris! And thank you for personally responding to emails!!"
DemoRecorder was the answer we were looking for.
It does everything we needed and
their support staff are top-notch and friendly.
Thanks DemoRecorder!
Keep up the excellent service"
I have prepared an all-video tutorial for you.This tutorial shows how to record a video, export to Flash-Video streaming for web-publishing and finally how to publish it.
Plus, the tutorial itself is a good example of videos generated with DemoRecorder.
You can view this tutorial by clicking here.
Good question.
I like to answer this question honestly by listing the limitations known to me:
DemoRecorder is not yet well suited for recording OpenGL applications. OpenGL is currently handeled through software emulation which uses a lot of CPU-power and that may slow down your application too much.
If your application uses OpenGL, I suggest you try it. Maybe it works sufficiently well.
Long term we will provide hardware accelerated OpenGL support. This will be announced in the newsletter, so I suggest you get your welcome license and subcribe to the newsletter in this process.
DemoRecorder does not yet support the use of additional input devices such as a tablet.
Although the commandline interface to the export filters provides a lot of flexibility and possibilities for automation, the commandline is not for everybody and for every situation.
A GUI interface to the export filters is planned long term, but currently we have other priorities (based on customer feedback: implement hardware-accelerated OpenGL-recording for example).
Other than these limitations listed above I am not aware of any others.
I believe that when you buy software, you not only buy a license to the bits of the program, but in first place, you buy a solution which works and does the job for you.
So, you deserve more than just the bits of the program.
That's why I created a set of services which ensures that you get a solution which works and does the job for you.
These services are of course included in every variant of DemoRecorder, even in the lowest priced one.
... each and every license of DemoRecorder comes with the following services:
You write an email with your questions and I will answer by email. (the maximum reaction time depends on the type of license you purchase.)
We will fix any bug which we can reproduce.
And we will work together with you until we get all necessary info for reproducing the bug.
For how long do you think these services are included?
The few companies which offer such complete a set of services at all usually do it for 6 months or for a year.
I think you deserve more than that.
No, it's not just a year and a day, or a year and a month, It's a whopping two full years of these services included for free with each and every license!
If you have any questions or need help, please tell me personally by sending me an email and I'll be glad to help you and answer all of your questions.
For immediate answers you may also want to consult the FAQ.
For a start, please download DemoRecorder and request your 30 day fully functional Welcome-License.
Then use it for production use if possible, so you can evaluate it in a maximum realistic scenario.
If you have questions or need help, please tell me by sending me an email and I'll be glad to help you or provide any info you need.
Then, if you like DemoRecorder, please buy a license at our online shop (or buy it using alternative ways of purchase.).
I hope you find DemoRecorder a useful tool for your projects.
Best regards,
Chris
All trademarks belong to their respective owners. We indicate some trademarks used in this text but lack of such an indication does not mean that a name is free to use.
Without guarantee, we list the owners of some trademarks as known to us:
DemoRecorder® is a registered (supplemental index) US trademark of Christian Linhart.
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Macromedia® and Macromedia Flash® are registered trademarks of Macromedia Inc.
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