readhas.blogg.se - Hypercam vs bb flashback

#Hypercam vs bb flashback software#
#Hypercam vs bb flashback trial#
#Hypercam vs bb flashback series#

There is one obvious limitation to the software approach-it will only record what happens on the screen. Hardware requirements are no longer the hurdle they used to be. As I write this, 1 GHz machines are near the bottom end of the scale for desktop PCs. In my tests the performance problem vanished when testing on a 1 GHz machine and a good video card. When I tested these programs on older hardware they would sometimes bog down so much it took ten seconds for a pull-down menu to appear. The software has to capture and compress an immense amount of data in real time, without slowing down the machine. The software approach is the most appealing, but traditionally it’s had one huge drawback: performance.

#Hypercam vs bb flashback series#

Indeed, that’s one way to think of how the software works: taking series of screenshots and stringing them together into a techno-flipbook (of course the technical details are more involved). Each frame of the resulting video could serve as a screenshot. The result is a perfect recording with no loss of detail.

Software-In the software solution a program runs in the background, silently capturing everything that appears on the screen and saving it to a video file.

To get something readable you’ll need to limit your screen resolution to 800×600 at most, preferably 640×480. The result should be an improvement on the camcorder method, but because the resolution and sharpness of a television is lower than a computer screen the result will still be fuzzy and downgraded from the original image.

VCR-If your video card has a TV-out option (a feature that’s fairly common on modern video cards) you can probably connect it to a VCR and record directly to tape.It’s useful for getting an idea of what the user did, but it can be difficult (sometimes impossible) to read small text. Although simple, the resulting video will be a bit fuzzy and hard to read. Put your camcorder on a tripod, point it at the screen and record. Camcorder-This is the simplest method.All the tools described in this article use the software approach, but to understand the benefits and drawbacks it’s useful to compare all three methods. All three offer good performance, but unfortunately, I can only recommend two, since the third is no longer being actively developed by its maker.īefore we get to the review, let’s take a brief look at the three ways of recording screen activity: a camcorder, a VCR, or software.

#Hypercam vs bb flashback trial#

Three Windows-based software programs-Lotus ScreenCam, TechSmith Camtasia and Hyperponics HyperCam-range between $30 and $150 and all have free trial versions available for download so you can try before you buy. Recording screen activity doesn’t necessarily cost much. Having a visual record not only reminds you of what happened, it allows for more detailed analysis after the test and comparisons between individuals. While there is no substitute for good observational skills, it can be difficult to remember everything that happened during the test. Three Windows-based software programs-Lotus ScreenCam, TechSmith Camtasia and Hyperponics HyperCam-range between $30 and $150.A visual record of these mouse movements, keystrokes, and other activities is most useful for usability testing. One of the most useful recordings you can make is a video of screen activity, recording everything on the screen, much like a VCR: the mouse moving, pages scrolling, clicking links, typing in the search terms, and so on. Recording what users do is a crucial aspect of usability testing.