ALLCapture ALLCapture 3.0

Name: ALLCapture ALLCapture 3.0
Rating: 3.50
Author: Matt Egan

Easy to use screen-recording software

Matt Egan

PC Advisor (UK)

13/08/08

Expert Rating

3.50 / 5

Pros

Idiot-proof, can record cursor movement

Cons

Hardware acceleration may interfere with video capture (but this isn't really ALLCapture's fault as such)

Bottom Line

There's little ALLCapture 3.0 can't do in terms of capturing your screen and creating slick movies. But the list price is a mighty $326. Although the program seems to be on a permanent 50 per cent discount at $299, this is the sort of money that will deter personal users and make ALLCapture a program suitable only for business use.

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Price
$ 299.53 (AUD)

ALLCapture 3.0 is screen-recording software that offers full-featured functionality and idiot-proof ease of use. But it comes at a hefty price.

With ALLCapture you can record your entire screen or select parts of it, with or without audio. You can set the size and resolution of the capture, and even customise the framerate of captured footage, between 1 and 30 frames per second. Also here is an option for inserting more keyframes, which improves smooth playback at the expense of file size.

ALLCapture also lets you record cursor movements — not all screen recording applications offer this, and it can be important.

ALLCapture isn't always happy recording onscreen video. To reduce the load on its processor your PC may decode video directly from its graphics card, bypassing Windows. This means captured video will display only as a black box. You can get around this by removing hardware acceleration from your PC's display settings, but this may result in jerky, poor quality video. This isn't ALLCapture's fault, per se, but is worth bearing in mind if you're pondering a purchase. PowerPoint presentations and animations pose no problems.

With simple one-click recording it's a cinch to use ALLCapture. In our tests recording with ALLCapture didn't affect system performance, but you can use external storage for video to reduce its footprint.

ALLCapture's editing options are more akin to a video-editing program than screen-capture utility. Its two-pane editing window resembles a movie editor, with intuitive timeline and preview window. The edit pane itself is customisable, should you require a bigger preview, for instance. Following the movie theme, you can add transitions and captions, as well as customising the video frame.

With ALLCapture 3.0 you can add sound effects and animations, make notes and highlight important areas. And you can insert pictures, including several useful template images provided with the program — having a generic play button to insert is a simple, but nice, touch.

You can move footage around using copy and paste, and even preview your project in real time.

In short, there's no excuse for even the dullest training procedure resulting in a boring or less than slick video. Once completed, movies can be exported to a plethora of multimedia formats including Flash, Windows Media and MPEG.