CaptureFox : Screencasts recording with Firefox

 Version française disponible

Awesome Screenshot & Screen Recorder is a Firefox plug-in allowing you to perform screencasts (videos of computer screen output) for free and easily from Firefox. Unfortunately, it is only supported on the Microsoft Windows platform.

After installing and activating the plugin, a new icon appears in the status bar of Firefox.

Click the icon to record your first screencast.

Before you click on the “Start Capturing!” button, I advice you to customize the default settings :

• The capture area can be the whole screen, the Firefox window or a specific portion of the Firefox window. If you select the whole screen, you can minimize Firefox and thus capture anything on your screen (like another software);
• Adjust the video quality;
• The number of frames per second;
• If you have a microphone, you can record your voice as well (useful in a tutorial for example);
• The folder where the screencast will be recorded.

Advanced settings are available on the second tab :

• The video and audio codecs to use. The final quality and size of the video will be different depending on the codecs selected;
• You can enter a delay time, so that CaptureFox doesn’t start as soon as you click on the button. It waits for you to be prepared;
• You can set CaptureFox to start when you minimize Firefox window, and stop it when Firefox window gets focus;
• The output filename.

Everything is configured ? Go ! Start recording.

To end the recording, you need to click the icon again in the Firefox status bar (or Ctrl+Shift+U shortcut).

A window shows up and asks you what to do, open the screencast, save it in a specific location or simply start again if you are not satisfied with the result.

I use it for quite some time now and I have noticed that on old computer, there may be some latency on the video produced. Also, CaptureFox tends to crash when you use the dual screen. I recommend you to disable it temporarily when recording your screencasts.

Except these two things, the plug-in works just perfect, especially easy to install & use.

You should test it with different settings and perhaps use a video editing software to put the finishing touches.