Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Video, Beta, Web

Screentoaster does web-based, app-free screen recording



You won't find many particulars about ScreenToaster on the web site, but here's what matters: it's built on Java, so as long as you have the right plugin for your browser you're ready to use it on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

They're currently in beta, so you'll have to request a code if you want to play around with it (expect to wait about two days). Once you've got it, head back to the site, register, and you can begin capturing.

ScreenToaster supports both full screen and selection-box capturing. On your home page, click the start recording button and wait for the ready message to appear. To select a region, simply press alt+shift+S and drag a box around your target. For full screen, it's just alt+s, which stops recording in both modes.

It's dead simple to use, and even my netbook's tiny Atom processor had no trouble firing up ScreenToaster in a few seconds.

While Screentoaster's simplicity is a bit of a good thing, it also means that there aren't any options you can configure yourself. There's no way to adjust frame rates, for example. There's also nothing posted on their site about how much storage space you get for your clips or how many clips you can upload. Since they're still in beta, I'd expect this kind of information to be added as they get closer to a public release.

If you want a quick-and-easy way to create and share screencasts, give Screentoaster a shot.

A three-minute recording session on my MSI Wind's 1024x600 screen yielded a 10mb clip. Quality is great, even at full screen, though I did have some buffering issues. Finished clips are displayed on your home page along with a permalink and HTML embed code.

Here's the downside: you're not going to have an easy time saving your screencasts to your own computer. I tried several FLV downloader extensions for Firefox (and a few other methods), and wasn't able to capture the actual Flash video.

For direct-to-web recording and sharing without requiring an application install, ScreenToaster is a great way to go. Give it a shot, and let us know what you think!

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse