Looking for a screen recording tool to help you share mockups with clients, demonstrate troubleshooting steps, record team meetings for later reference, or upload gameplays on social media platforms? Here we will review Screencast-O-Matic, which comprises several great screen and audio recording features. We’ll find out if downloading Screencast-O-Matic is worth it or not.
Before we review Screencast-O-Matic, we must get to know the tool a little bit. It is a screen recording software that doubles up as a screen capture tool. With its help, you can quickly record video conversations, create demo videos, add effects to your screen recording, and much more.
Screencast-O-Matic gives you complete control over the screen area you want to capture as an image or video. Once you have recorded a video with desired settings, you then, moreover, have several options to publish and upload the screen recording. You can upload the recorded video on a location on your hard drive, choose to upload the recording on the Screencast-O-Matic account or select one of the many platforms it offers.
The interface is unique, interesting, and easy to use. Let’s focus on the interface of the screen recorder. When you launch the Screencast-O-Matic launcher, you will have a recording area or frame that you can drag from all corners to resize it. Depending on what area you want to capture, you drag and resize the frame accordingly. For dragging the complete frame, click on the + icon that you can see in the center or when you place the cursor at any corner of the frame.
In the middle, you can find settings for the screen area you want to record. Here you can choose the maximum time, the video size, audio devices/ computer audio, and preferences. At the very bottom of the frame, there are buttons to initiate the recording process, a settings button, a button to hide and unhide annotation, and a cancel button for Exit.
Even though the interface is decent, it sometimes comes across as a little intrusive as its components hide other things on the screen. In that instance, it is hard to minimize the screen recorder, especially when you are multitasking. You may have to close it completely to access the other areas of the screen
Let’s talk about this screen recorder’s features. Even with Screencast-O-Matic free version, you get many decent features, some of which are mentioned below –
With Screencast-O-Matic free recorder; you can quickly record any region of the screen with utmost ease. You can drag the capture area to any region on your desktop’s screen and resize it as per the area you want to capture. If you want to capture an active window or fullscreen, you can click on the arrow key next to the Size and select the predefined region you want to capture.
You can change the video size as per your liking. We have already talked about the predefined templates that you can choose from i.e. Fullscreen and Active Window. You can also click on the Video Size dropdown and change the width and height of the recording area.
To begin with, you can either choose to record just the Webcam or you can choose to record both your Webcam and the on-screen activities. For example, if you are recording a webinar or an office meeting, you can go for the Webcam option. However, if you are recording gameplay or demonstrating steps to troubleshoot a Windows error while wanting the users to see you as well, you can record both your on-screen activities as well as your Webcam. You can also change the background of your webcam and add a green screen as well.
In a screen recording, audio plays a very important role. With Screencast-O-Matic you can choose the audio you want to record. For narration, you can either choose your computer’s default microphone or any external microphone. You can even choose audio coming out from your computer as well.
Screencast-O-Matic screen recorder offers you many options to annotate on the screen. While you are recording your screen, you can add the following annotations and make your screen recording even more intuitive –
When you download Screencast-O-Matic, you don’t just get a screen recorder that can capture a video of your on-screen activities, but, you also get a screen capture tool as well. Broadly, you can either capture the full screen or drag the area that you want to capture, after which a snapshot of that area will be taken. What’s even better? After you have taken a screenshot you can apply some basic edits and add annotations using an integrated image editor.
In totality, the screen capture tool and the image editor are great per se, if you want to have a look at a standalone screen capture software that offers even more image editing tools, give TweakShot Screen Capture a try.
You needn’t save or publish the entire screen recording. Instead, before saving you can set a start and end point by moving the sliders and only that portion will be selected for publishing or saving. Once you have recorded your screen using the Screencast-O-Matic screen recorder, you have several options to save or share the screen recording as mentioned below –
Ever since its inception back in 2015, many updates have been released in Screencast-O-Matic to improve its features or resolve any bugs. For example, recently a bug occurred that stopped users from moving their webcam-only recordings, the developers fixed it with the latest update. Another feature that was introduced recently is that you can create a quiz right after uploading a video. Many such features and bug fixes have been rolled out.
As we said, you won’t face a dearth of features even with the Screencast-O-Matic free version. However, if you want to access features like full-fledged audio and video editor, download Screencast-O-Matic across a wide array of devices, upload screen recordings to Vimeo or more platforms, and do loads of other things, you can opt to upgrade to the premium version.
Let’s discuss the pricing of Screencast-O-Matic variants in greater detail. The screen recorder is available in two variants – Business and Education. In both versions, there further are four sub-variants – Solo Deluxe, Solo Premier, Solo Max, and Team.
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SOLO DELUXE
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SOLO PREMIER
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SOLO MAX
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TEAM BUSINESS
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Although Screencast-O-Matic is decent performer and you will be able to record your screen and take screenshots without many difficulties, there are times when you may face occasional lags when performing certain functions. For example, if you have connected an external microphone, Screencast-O-Matic will take a few seconds before making them available in the narration option i.e. when you click on the arrow key next to the Narration option.
What if you get stuck while using Screencast-O-Matic? There are several ways you can seek help. First, there are tons of tutorials that won’t just help you get started but even troubleshoot any issues that you may face as well. To watch tutorials, how-to’s and other training material. To get answer to some common issues faced by other users, you have an access to a large knowledgebase.
Even if the knowledgebade articles or tutorials are not able to solve your queries, you can submit a ticket where you can explain your issue in a greater detail, attach screenshots and other files and mention the platform.
1. Visit Screencast-O-Matic website, sign up with your credentials (if you haven’t yet already) and login to your Screencast-O-Matic account.
2. Click on the Make a recording button. As soon as you will do that Screencast-O-Matic will download a launcher on your PC.
3. Double-click on the launcher.
4. Once the launcher from Screencast-O-Matic is installed, launch the recorder.
5. You can choose the recorder option by clicking on the Screencast-O-Matic icon in your computer’s System Tray.
6. Click on the Launch Recorder icon.
7. You can record the Screen, Webcam, or Both.
8. Once you have chosen the area you want to record, click on the red-colored Rec button at the bottom or top of the interface.
9. After you have finished recording, click on the Done button. It is important to note that the free version of Screencast-O-Matic restricts you to 15 minutes per screen recording.
10. You can now save the screen recording on a location on your hard drive, upload the video to Google Drive or YouTube
How does Screencast-O-Matic fair up when put head to head with its competitors? And, what are some other alternatives you can consider? We compared Screencast-O-Matic with TweakShot Screen Recorder which is one of the best screen recorders for Windows. We found that there are some features like Auto-split, Auto-stop and Schedule recording that are there in TweakShot Screen Recorder that Screencast-O-Matic lacks. To dive into more interesting features of TweakShot Screen Recorder, check out this review. As for other alternatives – you may consider OBS Studio, Snagit, Bandicam, Wondershare DemoCreator and many others.
There you have it! Now that you have a fair overview of Screencast-O-Matic screen recorder, do give it a spin and let us know how your experience has been in the comments section below. For more information, you can connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Flipboard.
Q1. Can I use Screencast-O-Matic for free?
Yes, Screencast-O-Matic’s basic version is free to use. It covers various interesting screen recording features and allows you to record your screen for 15 minutes per screen recording. With the free version you screen record on-screen activities, take screenshots and use narration.
Q2. Is Screencast-O-Matic worth it?
If your aim is to record the screen, edit, and host it, then Screencast-O-Matic is a great option. It is easy to use and comes packed with features that account for a great screen recording experience.
Q3. Does Screencast-O-Matic have a watermark?
Yes, the free version of Screencast-O-Matic, apart from restricting you to a limit of 15 minutes also puts a watermark on every screen recording.
