HyperCam is a powerful screen cam software that records in real-time the actions and sounds of a Windows desktop and stores it as a standard .avi movie. Naturally this comes in handy for making a software presentation, demos or tutorials.
Basically after downloading the user has to defin e a rectangular selection of the desktop (or the whole desktop) through a selection tool or via direct input of the co-ordinates. Now, HyperCam will be recording every visual action within that frame along with accompanying sounds into the AVI file. Inbuilt features include in-video annotation, screen notes and voice over.
A search for a free unregistered hypercam online will yield several results. Among these there are some that host the trial ‘free’ version of the software.
The ‘Free Downloads Center’ has a HyperCam version 2.10.00 download page that actually provides the software without any license expiry date or any other catch. However the downside is that a small “Unregistered HyperCam” tag is affixed to the corner of the movies that are thus captured. This can be removed by registering the product with its creator – Hypersonics. This requires you to purchase a license for $39.95 which is not feasible.
The tag itself is hardly obtrusive and the free unregistered HyperCam will be fully functional in all its other capabilities. It can capture cursor movements, show the highlighted menus selections, windows popping up and in effect everything else you see on the screen.
The video encoding can correctly handle color palette changes if recording is done in 256 color mode. You are also able to pan the recorded area around the screen. As mentioned above one may also optionally annotate recorded movies with text making it ideal for tutorial or guide video purposes.
CNET provides the latest version of HyperCam for free download – version 2.14.02 as of now. But the unregistered hypercam symbol is still tagged onto the top left corner of every frame of videos made from the screen captures.
Other functionalities are unimpaired including the newer version features such as a ‘starburst’ being added to enhance a mouse click, the user being able to decide the specification of frame rate and file compression etc. Moreover the unobtrusive nature of the software is a boon for gamers who intend to record their ingame battles/matches and later post it on a video-hosting site like Youtube.
Finally, the upshot is that a free unregistered HyperCam can be readily downloaded, including the latest version with no evident features disabled or any spyware installed. The downside to this is the unregistered logo which will make it rather difficult to use recorded AVI movies for official purposes.
