We’re always ready to answer your questions. Please contact us if something needs clarification.

• Can I record 2 hours worth of video and audio? 
ScreenCam doesn’t have any programmed technical limits on capture duration. That said, ScreenCam was really designed for the use cases of creating interactive tutorial and demonstrations of screen activity, typically in th 5-10 minute range on average.  We have tested ScreenCam in our lab up to 1 hour (1024×768 screen dimension, 1 capture per second) and it operates properly. However, the only way to know for sure if ScreenCam can work for what you’re trying to do is to download the free trial by clicking here and trying it for yourself. If it works in the trial version, it will work in the licensed version. For recapturing of really long feature-length videos, you’ll be better off getting something else explicitly designed for that use scenario. That’s not what ScreenCam was designed for. 

• I have an older version of ScreenCam 1 or 2, and all my SWF and EXE files seem to freeze or hang after about 15 seconds of playback. What’s going on?
Adobe recently released a new version of their Flash Player, which is used by ScreenCam for playback. Unfortunately, Adobe Flash deprecated (obsoleted) certain functions that ScreenCam used for playback. The symptom is that the SWF or EXE file will stop playback after a few seconds. The solution is to upgrade to the latest version of ScreenCam, ScreenCam 4, which supports all the latest OSes and versions of Flash. We recommend that you download the latest trial version of ScreenCam by clicking here. Install the trial version, and use it to re-export your SWF and EXE files. When you are satisfied that this solves your problem, this means you need to upgrade to the lastest version of ScreenCam. We believe you’ll also love the speed, stability, and functionality improvements with ScreenCam, so everyone wins!

• I want to be able to distribute ScreenCam movies to viewers. Which export method should I use?
The new ScreenCam supports a variety of formats. Let’s briefly go over the formats and the best use cases for each one:
YouTube-compatible formats:  You can read about supported YouTube file formats by clicking here. Screencam supports a variety of YouTube formats, including .MOV, .AVI, and .WMV. Simply record your ScreenCam movie and then export it to one of the compatible formats noted, and then upload to YouTube. You can view a quick tutorial on how to do that by clicking here.
SWF, or Shockwave Flash format: A very widely used animation format that is already on 98% of all PCs in existence. When you ‘Export SWF’, this takes your ScreenCam movie and exports it to the Flash format. In general, this is the the most capable of the export methods, and most users use this export method, unless you have specific needs that are not met by this format. The advantages of this format is that is very common, reasonably comnpact, can produce lossless ScreenCam movie playback, and supports interactivity within the playback format. You can also use the “File -> Convert SWF to exe” command to make self-running playbacks of your ScreenCams. To learn how to create SWF files and then create self-running EXE files, please go to our tutorials page by clicking here.

Standalone playback: Once you have created the .exe file, it can be sent to anyone on any Windows PC. They do not need to have Flash installed, as the .exe file will have everything they need for standalone playback. You can place these .exe files on a CDROM, or a memory stick, or even email them if they are small enough. If you need to email the ScreenCam movie to someone, we suggest you use WinZip to archive the .exe file, since many email servers will not allow uncompressed .exe files through their gateways.

Website Playback: To do this, simply export to .swf, and then place the resulting .swf and .html files on a web server (you’ll find these in the ScreenCam project folder). Accessing the .html file from the web server will automatically play the .swf file from within a web browser when someone goes to your website.

Emailing a SWF file: Some users also just use email to send both the .html and the .swf files to others to avoid the .exe blocking problem (some email servers go to the extent of actually scanning zip files and blocking any that have .exe files inside). Clicking on the .html files will automatically open a web browser and play the accompanying .swf file at the correct resolution.

AVI Format: This is a legacy format that stands for “Audio Video Interleave”. It is very common for use in editing things like movies shot with a camcorder. The primary reason for choosing this export format within ScreenCam iis to allow editing of a ScreenCam movie to another editing environment, such as Adobe Premier or Avid VideoShop. The typical reason for doing this is to add additional special effects, transitions, or to join several disparate pieces together, such as a talking head video that then switches to a ScreenCam movie. In general, this option requires that the user understand AVI encoding, and knows how to use an appropriate video editor.

Animated GIF format: This is mostly a web-animation format, which is most frequently used these days to make animated banner ads. ScreenCam supports output to this as well. The typical usage is if someone wants to make a very simple and short ScreenCam movie that will play within a webpage without requiring any plugin at all. It is best suited to small, simple, short animations played on a webpage.

• I’m trying to export to YouTube, but notice that the sound isn’t right. What’s going on? 
YouTube doesn’t support multiple sound tracks. The most common error is that people add multiple sound tracks to the ScreenCam editor and then export them all into one movie and YouTube doesn’t accept it. You need to choose only ONE sound track in the ScreenCam editor and then export the movie with the one sound track. YouTube import will then operate properly with one soundtrack.

• What should I do if capture speeds are very slow?
(1) Recognize that very high capture speeds (e.g. over 10 fps) are not associated with smooth motion. In fact, ScreenCam® is engineered to give superb results with very low capture speeds. Most of our best ScreenCam® movies have a capture rate between 5-7 frames per second.
(2)Decrease color depth when 32bit color is used in your desktop. Try 16 or 8 bit color.
(3)Generally, ScreenCam® has different speeds under different system due to differences in OS efficiency.
(4)Decrease the captured area.
(5)Use a faster computer. In general, desktop computers are much faster than laptops, which are optimized for portability and low power consumption.