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What About BSR Screen Recorder?

Jan 7, 12 6:31 PM

Are you looking for a great screen recorder for your Windows 7 system?  Well, I’ve found a great one for you.  BSR Screen Recorder is actually a very decent free screen recording software.  When comparing BSR Screen Recorder software against CamStudio, I actually like BSR Screen Recorder better!  For some strange reasons, CamStudio isn’t working correctly on my Windows 7 system, so you can see why I like BSR Screen Recorder better.

Apparently, BSR Screen Recorder has a commercial version also.  Nonetheless, the difference between the free version and the commercial version of BSR Screen Recorder is that the free version will post unobtrusive watermark logo on the bottom corners of your video.  The watermark logo is unobtrusive enough that I think the free version of BSR Screen Recorder is actually just as great as the commercial version of BSR Screen Recorder.  Here is why, the free version of BSR Screen Recorder has all the features that the commercial version of BSR Screen Recorder has.

I’ve found out BSR Screen Recorder is very intuitive to use that I don’t even have to use the wizard.  Nonetheless, BSR Screen Recorder does come with a wizard to guide you through the processes of recording a video, edit/produce video in movie lab, play a video file, work with movie studio tasks, and use a converter to convert videos into different video formats.  You can always close the wizard and just manually edit the settings for the video, audio, file, hotkeys, options, and screen by going to Options at the top menu.

When you first install BSR Screen Recorder, it will use Windows 7′s default video codec.  The Windows 7′s default video codec would be bad for recording videos, because the video quality would be bad.  I suggest you to go to xvid.org and download Xvid codec for Windows 7 (x86 and x64).  You need to install Xvid codec and then go back into BSR Screen Recorder’s Video setting under Options to change the video codec to Xvid MPEG-4 Codec.  Remember to save the codec so whenever you record a video in the future, it will automatically use the Xvid MPEG-4 Codec.  By the way, BSR Screen Recorder will encode and record the video for you at the same time.  This means you don’t have to re-encode the video afterward unless you want to rencode the video to another video format.  I’ve found Windows Media Player plays Xvid MPEG-4 Codec just fine.

You can download BSR Screen Recorder by going to Cnet, click on the Download link on Cnet website, and then type in BSR inside the Find Software search box to find BSR Screen Recorder software.  Click on the download button next to the BSR Screen Recorder link on Cnet’s specific download page to download BSR Screen Recorder software.  Don’t you worry about malware and virus, because I’d scanned BSR Screen Recorder with Norton 2012 Antivirus and found zero malware and zero virus.  Also, Cnet Download is a reputable software download online destination, therefore there is little chance for you to download something on Cnet Download that might be harmful to your computer system.

OK, let me recap the good things about BSR Screen Recorder, then I’ll go into the bad things of BSR Screen Recorder.  The good things are it’s easy to use, recording high quality videos if using the right video codecs, fast, allowing the encoding and recording of a video to carry out at the same time, and free to download and use the full version with one catch (i.e., unobtrusive watermark logo appears on the bottom corners of the videos).

The first bad thing about BSR Screen Recorder is that you cannot use it to record computer video games.  This means you cannot use BSR Screen Recorder to record a video session of a computer game’s gameplay.  The second bad thing about BSR Screen Recorder is that it does not work well with USB headphones.  I’ve found out that I cannot record the loud enough sound level of the sounds that pass through the earpieces of a USB headphone.  Nonetheless, BSR Screen Recorder does record crystal clear sounds from the microphone of a USB headphone.  To clarify, this only happens if you want to record both the sounds from the earpieces and the microphone of a headphone.  You can always record crystal clear sounds from the earpieces of a USB headphone if you do not allow Windows 7 to record the sounds from the microphone of a USB headphone.

In summary, BSR Screen Recorder is surprisingly easy to use and useful.  It has all the trademark features that can be found in many great screen recording software.  The best part is that you can use BSR Screen Recorder for free.  BSR Screen Recorder is now my favorite screen recording software on Windows.  For your information, I don’t know how well BSR Screen Recorder will work on other versions of Windows other than Windows 7.  I know that BSR Screen Recorder is working rather well on Windows 7.  BSR Screen Recorder is currently supporting Windows Vista, 7, 2008, 2003, XP, Me, NT, and 2000.  The system requirements are Pentium CPU processor minimum, 512 MB memory minimum, and 20 MB free hard drive space for installing.  Nonetheless, I think you need a lot more than the minimum requirements to really reap the benefits of many features that BSR Screen Recorder has to offer.

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Windows 7 HomeGroup Makes Sharing Contents Easy

Dec 30, 10 11:15 PM
my first desk at MegsINet

Image by wjr via Flickr

Windows 7 users are able to link multiple computers so they can share videos and music and files and printers on all of them.  Microsoft calls this feature as HomeGroup.  When a Windows 7 user allows a computer on the same local network to join HomeGroup, the very computer which joins the HomeGroup will be able to view files, videos, and music on all other computers that are in the HomeGroup.  Also, I believe you can also use the printers that are available on the local network even though the specific computer that you’re on is not even connecting to a printer, but it’s able to do so since it’s belonging to HomeGroup.

This feature is also very convenient in a way that when you have a computer in HomeGroup once, you don’t have to bother with it again unless you make a computer leaves HomeGroup.  Viewing contents from HomeGroup is easy as go to Start >> Computer >> HomeGroup.  I’m confident that when you have HomeGroup set up, you’ll be able to view contents of other computers on the local network as if those contents are on the very computer you’re looking at.

So how do we go about setting up HomeGroup?  First of all, HomeGroup is a feature that will not work if you don’t have a network!  What is a network?  Usually, a simple network requires a single wireless or wired router, couple computers that are connecting to the same router, and the router is connecting to your ISP’s modem.  The part where a router is connecting to your ISP’s modem is optional since a HomeGroup requires only local area network.  Sometimes, your ISP may provide a router which saves you some money from buying a router.  Sometimes, ISP’s modem is a router itself — as if it’s providing two capabilities.  Making sure you have a correct setting for your local area network or else your HomeGroup won’t be working.  Here is a hint, sometimes a firewall on a particular computer or on the router itself may prevent contents from being available for HomeGroup, but this is rare.  In the case of a router with strict firewall setting for local area network may also prevent a computer on a local network to join HomeGroup, and this is also rare.  It’s important for you to work on one thing at a time so you will be able to spot which particular area of your local network is the cause of non-functioning HomeGroup.

The next step is to create HomeGroup.  Just remember that only Windows 7 will be able to join HomeGroup.  If you have a Windows XP or Vista PC, I fear you have to upgrade your PC’s operating system to Windows 7 before it can join HomeGroup.  Also, if you’re using Windows 7 Starter or Windows 7 Home Basic, you can join HomeGroup but won’t be able to create one.  Let us create HomeGroup by firing up a Control Panel >> Network and Internet >> HomeGroup.  Following the instruction that Windows 7 gives you so you can create HomeGroup correctly.

After HomeGroup is available, you can begin to walk to other computers of your and fire up Control Panel >> Network and Internet >> HomeGroup, and join HomeGroup.  At the time you create HomeGroup or join one, Windows 7 offers you choices of choosing what you want to share such as printers, videos, and so on.  Obviously, you can always change this particular setting again at a later time.  When creating HomeGroup, Windows 7 will help you create a HomeGroup password, and you have a choice of printing the password, but you can always write it down — it’s really depending on you.  Some people notice that they cannot print the HomeGroup password, because they had not set their Internet Explorer browser as a default browser for their computer.  By making IE as the default browser, printing a HomeGroup password won’t be a problem.  At the time of joining HomeGroup, you have to enter the HomeGroup password.

In addition to what I’ve already written above, here are a few more tips where a computer may not be able to join HomeGroup.  Tip number one, a computer must be on a Home network in order for it to join HomeGroup.  Tip number two, you have to enable IPV6 for your Network Adapter, but usually this is enabling by default.  Tip number three, entering wrong HomeGroup password is usually the cause of unable to join HomeGroup.  Tip number four, check your physical wiring or wireless setting, because a break in a network at physical level or an error in wireless setting can prevent a computer to join HomeGroup.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEI2dQPODrQ&feature=player_embedded

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