My Screen Recorder Pro

3.0 stars

"Okay, needs improvement"

July 10, 2012  |   By brainout

Version: My Screen Recorder Pro 3.33

Pros

1. Clearest Preview Window I've ever seen in a video recorder/editor/converter program. Allows fullscreen, zoom inside (with scrollbars), fit-to-window, etc.

2. VERY CLEAR HELP instructions. Best I've seen in any video software.

3. Hotkey recording. You first specify a 'hide' hotkey, then use it, then click OK that you chose to hide; only then can you record with your selected hotkey.

4. Joins, Splits, Converts existing files, can make the resulting video executable. Also Publish and AutoPublish and Schedule for recordings. (Standard version lacks these.)

5. Allows 'Screen Draw' while recording. Allows you (with some hassle) to freehand draw or highlight, while you record your screen. You customize colors using Windows Custom Colors window. (Standard version lacks these).

6. Allows customized display of desktop background, mouse effects and certain areas of your desktop like toolbars and notification area. Also fine tuning for audio (mic, webcam, mixer).

Cons

1. Your specs for video and audio recording compression are ignored, and instead the program uses Video 9 and PCM of varying quality, at least per the Windows Properties Summary.
2. No text overlay options except for timestamp or a caption which runs pan-recording.
3. Conversions are limited to PCM no matter what conversion format you specify. So, for example, if you spec'd Xvid with MP3 at 192, that audio spec is ignored. So you can't really use Recorder Pro for conversion. They defeat the utility of their conversion feature, by insistence on PCM.

Summary

I'm still trying to decide whether to buy this software. #1 of the pro's is steriling, but the cons are so significant, I might not buy it. It's kinda pointless to have a facility for joining, splitting, converting videos when you have no text overlay option, and when it will ignore whatever conversion specs you provide. Kinda thoughtless, to allege features then ignore them when those features are selected.

Recap: Its Preview Window is way too small, but an HD fullscreen-recorded video is still VERY readable in a small window, even if you didn't use Deskshare's product to create it. Impressive. If only they would share this programming with their Deskshare brothers who made the Video Edit Magic software..

Will report back later, if I do buy it.

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

Typo correction: Summary should read 'sterling' in second line.

Update: My AVS4YOU Video Converter 8 says that the recording was Video 9 (wmv), and audio was WMA, though before recording I specified an avi file on Xvid 720 with MP3 at 192 kbps. So my setting was ignored. It also didn't sequentlially number the video with the prefix, though I specified that, too.

Even with these hassles, it did produce a clear video with good sound. You can access this video at http://www.brainout.net/msrp01.wmv .

I want to help these guys realize what needs improvement. This software has great potential.

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

Oh, forgot to name another annoying 'con'. Their icons are way too big, and you can't configure or move the icons, nor remove the text labels from the icons. That wastes space.

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

Another update: I tried again to make it obey my specs for recording, by doing another recording. This time it again disobeyed my telling it to assign a prefix and a number, but instead did what I did not tell it to do, ASK ME whether I wanted to save the recording, after it was done. That radio button was NOT checked in the Settings. But, I told it yes save, and only THEN did it obey the Xvid specs I had set. This is clearly a bug in the program, but fortunately it wasn't a crash.

You can see the resulting video at http://www.brainout.net/msrp02.avi .

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

Third update, sorry. The 2nd video was supposed to show the mouse clicks with colors. Nothing showed but the mouse itself, so again it ignored my saved settings. That implies you must RESTART the program for the new changes you specified, to occur. Maybe that even doesn't work, will have to report back here a fourth time (sigh).

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

4th update, 3rd video sample. Yep, it did NOT save my mouse effects settings, so the second video sample did NOT show them. Sigh. Now made 3rd sample after again setting and saving mouse effects; video now shows them. But NO it did not obey my Xvid specs, and instead made video wmv: http://www.brainout.net/msrp03.wmv . Again, it ignored my spec to assign a name and # to the file; unlike the 2nd sample, it spent no time converting first. Yeah, as it IGNORED my unchanged Xvid settings it obeyed in sample #2; but chose its own internal default.

So this program is tempermental. It whimsically forgets what you tell it to do. So that's a bug pattern, that the settings you save are bypassed, who knows when or why. To pay $100 for tempermental software is not smart. Then again, I've not seen any other program with as clear a Preview Window as this one. So I won't buy it, pending fixes mentioned in this review. Hope they fix them, soon.

Updated on Jul 10, 2012

4th update, 3rd video sample. Yep, it did NOT save my mouse effects settings, so the second video sample did NOT show them. Sigh. Now made 3rd sample after again setting and saving mouse effects; video now shows them. But NO it did not obey my Xvid specs, and instead made video wmv: http://www.brainout.net/msrp03.wmv . Again, it ignored my spec to assign a name and # to the file; unlike the 2nd sample, it spent no time converting first. Yeah, as it IGNORED my unchanged Xvid settings it obeyed in sample #2; but chose its own internal default.

So this program is tempermental. It whimsically forgets what you tell it to do. So that's a bug pattern, that the settings you save are bypassed, who knows when or why. To pay $100 for tempermental software is not smart. Then again, I've not seen any other program with as clear a Preview Window as this one. So I won't buy it, pending fixes mentioned in this review. Hope they fix them, soon.

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