What screen recorder is the best?

Answer 1

I just answered this on Yahoo answers, so thought I would post the answer here as well:

Perfect timing. I downloaded a bunch of these products, from the website download, for evaluation. I finally settled on a product that I had never heard of before. The product is called SentryWorks Abra. Although I had not heard of it, It seems to have gotten a lot of good feeback on other websites so I was a bit curious to try it out for myself (I don't always trust these types of reviews).

I do think SentryWorks Abra is the best screen recorder for this purpose. The Professional edition costs $99 which is much cheaper than Camtasia and was well worth the purchase. They also have a free version that you can download from sentryworks. The free version is the same as the Pro version, but you are limited to 2 minute recordings, and if you use the Editor you can only save 20 seconds of an Edited video recording.

I like using it the best because you can create Flash FLV files very easily. When you export to Flash it creates an HTML file automatically with the same name. You simply click on the HTML file and it will launch the FLV player and play the file back in full screen instead of resampled down to some smaller resolution that most other programs do which make the recording useless.

Also, as others seem to point out in reviews, the performance is fantastic! It plays back exactly as it was recorded no matter how active the computer you are recording is. I was shocked to see a quicktime movie trailer play back exactly the same as the original with no impact at all on the computer while it was being recorded. You cannot tell anything is even happening when it is recording.

What is really nice is that the program comes with a Task Scheduling program that allows you to automatically scheduling recording for a certain time (daily, weekly or monthly, or you can just record now one time only). When the recording is done, it can be exported to Flash and then transferred to an FTP server so the files can be instantly accessible via the web. All you have to do is click the HTML file which is also transferred and your recording is played back.

What I like for YouTube is that the product also comes with a nice featured editing program (called screen recorder Editor). This looks a bit like Windows Movie Maker and allows you to add textboxes and callouts along with audio and picture in picture video. You can also crop a portion of the recording, or resize the resolution downward which is useful for youtube.

Another answer:

I am sure that SentryWorks Abra is a fine piece of software, in fact CNET shows good reviews for it, but I had bad experiences with it.

I just wanted something simple to record portions of the screen, and play it back. SentryWorks Abra was not for me. I had to record whole screen, managing it was a nightmare, then watching it gave consistant errors making it impossible.

It looks to me like SentryWorks Abra was designed for work managers who want to record their workers screens for review later.

Anyhow, I am sticking with my simple free but buggy Hypercam 2, until I hear of something better, which HAS to be out there somewhere.

Another answer:

It's worth to try FlashDemo Screen Recorder, supports record activities on desktop by specified area or an active window, even full screen, the narration and background music can be recorded as well.
I have tried SentryWorks Abra and another screen recorder DemoCreator at the same level of price. And I found there is more recording options and more powerful editing features in DemoCreator.
I don't think SentryWorks Abra is the best. I have try Total Screen Recorder, I could say it's the best for the beginner because it's simple easy.