Scan & Fix 100 registry errors free
CNET Editors' review
What began as a freeware project to easily share basic screen captures and screen recordings has grown into a solid application and capture distribution system with a premium component. Jing's attractive application takes a sound, simple approach to capturing; begin by dragging the crosshairs to define your capture field and then take a still or start a recording. When you're done, save it to your computer or upload it to Screencast.com (operated by Jing's publisher), an FTP site, Flickr, or YouTube (for a premium). If you've got Snagit or Camtasia Studio, TechSmith's premium programs for capturing and editing stills and videos, respectively, you can click a button on the post-capture toolbar to send the capture along for deeper editing than Jing's basics can supply.
Apart from sharing ease, Jing has some other clever features that don't diminish its conscious simplicity. The yellow "sun" icon that can be moved around the edges of your screen is what you hover over to get started, though in the brief preferences menu you can hide the sun and call up the crosshairs with a hot key. Two other hot keys now help Jing's capture crosshairs snap to common aspect ratios. Press Ctrl to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio and Shift for 16:9 wide-screen proportions. While locked into a ratio, dragging out the crosshair shows you boundaries for common screen measurements within that ratio that you can easily snap to, like 320x240 or 640x480. This is a nice addition in keeping with Jing's visual, low-text-density design.
In the latest release, subscribers to the $15-a-year Jing Pro gain the ability to record from their Webcam. You can toggle between Webcam and screen recording during a screen capture.
Less convenient is the requirement of the Microsoft .NET Framework, which can take several minutes to install if it's absent. Once that's out of the way, though, you've got on your hands a well-featured screen capture app that's visual enough for nontechies to use and has enough features for sharehounds to easily distribute recordings and images that require limited post-capture modifications.
Watch the CNET video review of Jing:
Publisher's Description
From TechSmith:
Jing is the easiest way to add visuals to your online conversations. See something cool you want to save or share? Use Jing to snap a screenshot and add a caption, highlight, or arrow. Or make a quick movie by recording onscreen action and your voice. Jing uploads the image or video to your free Screencast.com account (or elsewhere), then gives you a URL you can share instantly.
What's new in this version: Version 2.4 adds Facebook output.
More Popular Video Capture Software downloads
- HyperCam
10,930 downloads
- Debut Video Recording Software Professional Version
7,092 downloads
- Camtasia Studio
6,310 downloads
- BSR Screen Recorder
6,047 downloads
- CamStudio
4,744 downloads
-
All versions:
2.9 starsout of 68 votes
-
Current version:
2.6 starsout of 22 votes
-
My rating:
Write review
-
"Choppy video, SWF only"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
Simple interface.
Cons
Choppy playback
loads at startup (I turned this off)Summary
If there is a lot of motion being recorded, the result is a choppy video with few frames per second. It does well recording sound. The shockwave files it produces are not editable. Recording time is limited. For recording a basic screen demo, it will work fine.
-
"jing is crap! Big bug they refuse to fix"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
easy to use
Cons
has a 5 min limit and freezes when you reach that limit so you can't save your work.
Summary
Stop your greed TechSmith and remove the 5 min limit that leads to this glitch. The 5 min limit is just to get consumers to buy their $300 camtasia program. GREEDY
-
"not working"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
it's free!
Cons
I'm running Windows xp and using Chrome I installed Jing and when I tried to open the program I got an error message: one of those you can choose to "send" or "don't send".
Summary
I need a capture device that works with any browser, and keeps its icon in the taskbar so I can capture a full screen frame from video. No luck so far. Aviary has one but you have to have Chrome's toolbar up and loaded to use the icon. That means no full screen pictures can be captured in the shortcut "push the button" method.
-
"Will not record WinAmp audio visualisations."
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
What it did record (only normal screen activity -- not videos playing in the desktop) was nice and clear.
Cons
Apparently not designed to record audio visualizations from either WinAmp or Windows Media Player. Also didn't record any of the audio. In 'specifications' it said that no mic was detected, so apparently that's the only audio source it can record. Orange buttons are cute, but I'm looking for something that actually does what I want it to do in a straightforward way.
Summary
I want to record audio visualisations (video and audio) from WinAmp and Windows Media Player. Jing apparently doesn't do that.
-
"Great screenshot maker"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
Just works as advertised. A must have.
Cons
I would appreciate extra caption stationary.
Summary
Get it. It's free and a must have.
-
"Only records for 5 minutes."
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
Recorded screen just fine. Adjustable window of recording so you don't have to record full screen.
The reason I looked for and found this was that I wanted to record the data screen for F1 qualifying and the race. The races are some place around 2 hours long.Cons
Only records for 5 minutes. Absolutely useless for my purpose. Play back window was limited, not full view of what I recorded. But maybe that was a problem for me, in that I didn't learn how to make the window larger.
Summary
Looked at the paid version, which I found to also be limited to 5 minutes. Did I know read something correctly?
-
"Fun to use - give it a try"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
Produced several video clips with sound in little time. Easy to learn.
Cons
Limited free bandwidth with the integration to screencast.com - but the free option will get you started. Audio quality mediocre even with external mic.
-
"Would be better if you can start it when you need it"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
The idea of capturing your video moves can be great when making your own how-to video's.
For screencapturing there are other products that do the sameCons
I don't like programs that automaticaly put themselves in your start-up folder and use up your processor time.
Summary
I would like this program if I could run it when I needed it. Now I deleted it because it takes up precious processor time.
-
"Not good unless you buy"
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
Great interface and capture quality
Cons
It only records in swf, which is very unusable except in web browsers. It also puts an ad at the end of your videos.
-
"a very good idea, but I never could get it to work."
Version: Jing 2.4
Pros
a good concept.
Cons
It never worked for me and I could never figure out why. It seemed to take up a lot of RAM in the background, and kept my system so busy it slowed down other programs.
Summary
Even though it's a very good idea, I cannot recommend it. It is not an easy program to use.
Add Your Review
Submit your reply
E-mail this review
Report offensive content
See more CNET content tagged:
Previous Versions:
