Did you ever want to record videos and publish them online right away, but then you realized you didn’t have the right tools to do it? Have you ever felt like recording a video wishing you didn’t have to plug in your sophisticated camcorder? Then you might want to read on…
Today, thanks to several sophisticated web applications, you can easily record a video straight from your $20 webcam and publish it on any web page without having to go through complicated procedures: you simply have to click the “record” button and in five seconds you are ready to start.
These web applications are known as online video recorders and I can summarize their characteristics with three adjectives:
- easy to use
- cross platform
- always available on the Internet
The advantages of recording videos through these tools are indeed impressive: users don’t need to have a particular camcorder, they don’t have to struggle with video encoders in order to publish their videos online and they can embed them anywhere they want. The only drawback is perhaps the impossibility to actually download these videos, but this inconvenience can be solved either by relying on a video downloading service or by using a simple screen capture tool that lets you record what happens on your monitor (audio included).
Please remember that this mini-guide does not pretend to be a fully comprehensive list of all the online video recording tools available online; you are welcome to suggest additional tools and services by using the comments section that you will find at the bottom of this article.
Here some of the best online video recording tools I have been able to find and review:
Twango
With Twango you can record videos straight from your webcam and publish them on any web page. Your videos can also be emailed or sent via instant messengers as a link. Moreover, people who watch your videos will be able to leave comments. You don’t need to register to the site in order to record a video, but if you sign up for free you will be also able to upload files up to 100 MB and remove unwanted comments (plus other features).
Link: http://www.twango.com/webcam
Vlip
Vlip offers a way to create, share, and interact with webcam captured personal video over the Internet. “Vlips” are the single videos and video replies and threads created by “Vlippers” (Vlip users). You can record, post, send via email, embed, watch and reply to other Vlips. No download or registration is needed (although registration gives you added power and features).
Link: http://www.vlip.com/
Bubble Guru
Bubble Guru is a web-based recording application that automatically connects to your computer’s webcam and captures the video coming from it. Once you have recorded the message, you can set playback options (such as placement, auto-start, loading, etc.) and then you are ready to embed your “video in a bubble” on any web page.
Link: http://www.bubbleguru.com/
Flixn
Flixn lets you record directly from your webcam and embed your videos into any web site (included MySpace, Friendster, eBay and many others). You can also send video messages via email. Flixn interface is very neat and makes it one of the easiest web applications that let you record from your webcam.
Link: http://www.flixn.com/
Openvlog
Openvlog is a free web-based service that allows anyone to record, upload, encode, publish and share their video in a simple and straightforward manner. The nice feature is the ability to record your own video directly while using your own computer webcam. Openvlog also allows the direct upload of existing video clips and it supports most existing video file formats.
Link: http://www.openvlog.com
Sightspeed
Easily create and send video messages to anyone - even people who are not SightSpeed members! With the free version of SightSpeed you can easily create video clips and embed them directly into your web page or blog. There is also a PRO version that adds much more features to this tool.
Link: http://www.sightspeed.com
Hellodeo
Hellodeo is a web application that allows you to record videos straight from your webcam and embed them anywhere. The recording process is very simple and the commands are very intuitive. The video player is very small if compared to the ones provided by similar services. Hellodeo is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.hellodeo.com/
A/V Publisher
SeeTheFace is a web service provider delivering easy-to-use web-based applications for audio/video content recording and publishing. One of the products of SeeTheFace is A/V Publisher: with the help of your web camera and microphone, A/V Publisher enables you to record audio/video messages and easily publish them on your website.
Link: http://www.seetheface.com/publisher
Hictu
Hictu is a microblogging service (such as Twitter and Jaiku) that additionally lets you record videos from your webcam and post them anywhere you want. Videoposts can be 60 seconds long and they can also be filtered and be viewed in a dedicated section. Hictu requires registration and is completely free to use.
Link: http://www.hictu.com/
YouTube QuickCapture
YouTube recently enabled its users to record videos straight from their webcam and directly publish them on the popular video sharing site. After recording and publication on YouTube, videos can be embedded and played in any website as any other YouTube video. Of course you will have to be registered to YouTube in order to use this tool.
Link: http://www.youtube.com
Online Video Recording Tools: Comparison Chart
Online Video Recording Tools News Radar
Read More On Online Video Recording Tools
Originally written by Livia Iacolare for Master New Media and published with the title: "Online Video Recording Tools: A Mini-Guide".
Livia Iacolare -
Click here to post a comment!