Frequently Asked Questions

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

1. 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 3 or later, which supports all the latest OSes and version 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 update to ScreenCam. Click here to upgrade from a previous version! We believe you'll also love the speed, stability, and functionaltiy improvements with ScreenCam, so everyone wins!

2. 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:
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 format you should be using for export, 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, just watch these two short ScreenCams:

Learn how to export your project to .swf file
How to convert swf to exe

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.

3. 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 speed under different system due to differences in OS efficiency. Win98 > WinXp > Win2000.
(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.