Bandicam Review

Detailed Reviews

Everyone likes to have a multitasking, handy, and useful software for any purpose. There is a fragile line of difference that makes users choose some product over another. Have you crossed the line? Are you contending yourself with some primitive and dull screen recording software? Try giving a chance to Bandicam screen recorder.

It is a handy, easy to use and Multitasking software that comes with various features, and functions. It can provide you much more than merely recording screen and capturing a screenshot.

Pros

• Screen capturing is easy.
• It can record the screen of other devices.
• It can record the gameplay.
• It provides recording scheduling function.
• You can prioritize the task of screen recording.

Cons

• It supports only a few video formats.
• There is an ullage of editing features.
• Allows sharing only through limited platforms.

Introduction

You might have made an image of screen recording software of being tedious and dull. It is the time to break the stereotypical image of that software. You might be thinking, how? Bandicam is the answer. It is a screen recording software with numerous features and functionalities.

Through this review, we shall try to find out what this software can provide you, what are its features and functions that make it different from other screen recording software. We shall try to figure out the new additions to the software and improvements in the standard features. We shall also try to compare it with other software of the same kind. We shall try to study all the features, functions, and options in detail so that we can make a verdict regarding its chance of being there on your desktop.

Let us begin

The downloading and installation process is like any typical software. You can download the .exe file from the official website of the software and then you can easily install it on your computer.

 

While installing, if you choose to launch the software immediately after installation completes, the software launches itself automatically. Otherwise, you can open it by going to its location. The computer, by default, saves the installed software in C drive.

As soon as the software launches itself, the following screen appears.

You see several options, each one of which is intended to perform different functions. The first icon allows you to record the screen, the option next to it is used to capture gameplay, the other one helps to set up the device recording mode, and many more.

We shall discuss these features one by one in detail. We shall also try to elaborate on some of their functions in the upcoming sections. Let us begin with screenshot and screen recording.

Screenshot and screen recording

The first option on the extreme left allows you to capture screenshot and record screen. The software allows you to choose a recording region through various available options. ‘Select a recording area’ allows you to choose a capture area of your choice by dragging the frame. The blue lens that comes with the frame is used to choose the area.

The other option allows you to choose a rectangular region. Choosing a rectangular region means that you can select any of the areas that are already available in the software. They generally are a rectangular frame.  You can choose an area between 320X240 to 1920X1080.  You can also choose a custom size.

Moreover, the software also shows you a list of the recently used sizes. You can also choose them.

‘Fullscreen,’ naturally allows you to choose the entire screen as the capture region.  However, you can also achieve this capture area by dragging the mouse with the help of other options, but here you cannot have any other resolution. The software, by default, records the entire screen. You cannot drag or change the resolution.

You can also choose to record some area around the mouse cursor by using the option ‘area under cursor.’  Through this option, you allow the software to record only the specified area under cursor. It means, wherever the cursor moves on the screen during the recording, the software records only the area around the mouse, that too of the specified resolution.

After you select to record by anyone of the above options, the software introduces a frame on the screen. The frame that opens is the same irrespective of the options you select. You get the same options and feature with every area you choose, no matter through which medium.

 

You can immediately start recording by the available record button. You can also capture the screenshot by the camera icon available next to the record.

While capturing the screen, the software allows you to edit and draw. Any changes you make on the screen, during the recording period is recorded and can be seen while the video plays.  In the same way, you can make some changes in the specified area and then capture the screenshot. We shall discuss the editing features in a while in upcoming sections.

With a free version, you cannot record screen for longer than ten minutes. If you do not stop recording before this time, the software automatically stops the recording and generates the following pop up.

 

The recording window also allows you to select another recording area for a new recording without going back to the home screen.

Recording the gameplay

As we mentioned, Bandicam is not a stereotypical Screen recorder. It is no more confined to merely recording screen and capturing screenshot; it has come a long way. Along with recording screen and capturing a screenshot, it also allows you to record the gameplay of the games that you play on the computer.

To record the gameplay, you need to select some specific window; the software refers to it as the target window. It means you cannot record a regular window (other than computer game window) through this feature. If you try to use this feature without a game window, the software generates a popup.

It is one of the few screen-recording software that possesses this feature. This feature is useful for gamers over there.  Through this feature, you can record some gameplay and can share it with the world through the internet. You can also snatch a cheat code from the gameplay recording of some other person.

Moreover, you do not have to worry about the quality and graphics of the gameplay video. The software allows you to record games and videos using DirectX. It is a collection of application programming interface that is used to handle multimedia tasks. It can be used to improve and retain the graphics quality while playing video games.

Device recording mode

Bandicam has slightly stepped into the community of advanced recorders. Webcam recording has always been a part of screen recording software and has become common in almost every such software. The device recording mode is an extension to this feature.

In Bandicam, you can find this feature immediately next to the gameplay recording feature. Through this feature, you can set up any external device to the Bandicam, and the software allows you to record and capture through that device.  When you choose to record through this recording mode, the software shows up the following window and directs you to make specific changes and settings, to begin with, recording.

As you can see in the image that if there are many devices available on your computer, the software allows you to select any device of your choice to record with. Since it is an extension to webcam recording feature. You are generally expected to choose a webcam recording device. You can also choose the video format in which you want to record the video. You also can choose a video input and an audio input.

If you do not wish to change the audio recording device and want to use the conventional input mediums, you can choose a custom audio device. The audio input methods the software provides you are the microphone of the system, a line In connection and the microphone of the default selected device. It is the device that the software selects automatically if there is only one webcam device available on your PC.

In case, there are more than one such software is present, you are free to choose to anyone of them.

Record any screen you want

You might have wondered many times if the recording screen of your tv was also that simple. Sometimes you might wish to record all those things that are going on at the screen of your phone. Do only computer screens are entitled to experience the privilege of recording. The answer could have been a big ‘no’; if we had not been discussing BANDICAM. With BANDICAM, you can record the screen of many other devices along with the computer screen. These devices include television screens to your mobile phone screens.

If your computer fulfills the hardware requirements, and you fulfill the installation criteria, you can record the screen of other devices such as iPhone, Xbox 360, PlayStation, and a few more.

This feature is useful if you are performing some task on your mobile phone and want your audience to watch it, you do not need cables or pen drive to transfer that data to the computer, you can easily record it through BANDICAM.

Alternatively, if you see some video on television and find it useful enough to show to your audience or at your office, you can record it immediately and can show it to the world anytime you want.

The only requirement to achieve this function is that your device should possess the required features, and you ought to have other necessary hardware. Also, you should not lack in any registration or installation procedure of Bandicam.

Thus, we can say that Bandicam supports and function well not only with the computer devices but with the required hardware and installation setups, you can make it utilitarian even for other devices. Undoubtedly, this feature increases the scope of utility of the software and makes it stand away from the queue.

Webcam and associated features

In the previous section, we discussed the device recording mode that also allows you to record webcam videos. We also discussed the features that the software provides with other devices. In this section, we shall discuss the features that are particular to webcam and recording through it.

The image here shows the features and settings that the software provides us with the webcam.

The ‘sound’ allows you to select a primary and secondary audio device for your recording. For both, you can select a microphone, an Inline connection, or a default system audio of the computer. If you wish, you can also mix both the audio to produce a single output. You can also save the audios of the recording separately in .wav format.

If you do not want to record an audio with the recording, you can mute it while you record.

The option next to sound is a webcam.  Through this feature, you can make some changes to the webcam settings.  You can add an overlay, change format, change position, and a few more. The software also allows you to have. You also get some ‘advance settings.’

Through the advance settings, you can change the position of the presets. You can also change the overlay size, to get the precise position of the preset, you change the X and Y coordinates through the respective slider. You can also choose various colors for the presets. Also, you have functions like flip screen, chroma key, similarity, and blend to get various effects.

If the webcam set up is appropriate and active, the software provides various other settings like decoder where you can make a few changes in video standard, detected lines, detected signals, etc.

Moreover, the ‘Video Proc Amp’ section provides some other features like brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, sharpness, gamma, white balance, backlight comp, gain. You get these features only when an active webcam is installed in the computer.

‘Mouse’ provides you various features and functions associated with the mouse cursor. You can select the size of the cursor that appears during the recording, or more correctly in the recorded video. You can also change this size while clicking through it.

If you wish the cursor to change the size when you click somewhere in the video, you can achieve it. Also, you can let the audience differentiate between left and right-click by choosing different colors for both the clicks.

Similarly, if you want to track the cursor on the screen, you can highlight it using various colors and sizes.

Applying logo on the videos sometimes become necessary to prevent any copyright issues. You can achieve this in webcam videos also. ‘Logo’ helps you to overlay a logo on the video. You can choose an image from the previously saved files on your computer. By changing the opacity, margins, and positions, you can get the logo placed precisely how and where you want it to be.

Naturally, you can get to see the logo in the video, when the webcam is there and is working.

Adding text is another feature that the software provides you with the webcam. You can add and text overlay to the video.

With text, you get customizations like size, color, font style, outline, shadow. Also, you can change the alignment and position of the text on the video screen. ‘Alpha’ feature allows you to change the opacity of the entered text. You can change it through the slider provided there.

If you want the computer to record the webcam video before any other task of the system, you can prioritize it. Through ‘Options,’ you can select the priority of the recording. You can choose a normal priority, high priority, or the highest. ‘Normal’ does not prioritize the recording, and the computer treats it as a regular computer task.

When you choose a high priority, its priority increases and the computer assumes it a special task and places it in the list of the tasks that it performs immediately. The higher priority increases its priority even more. It means that the computer records the video at first place and dismisses all other tasks for that duration. However, it may affect other tasks of the system.

For screen recording mode, you can select whether to show or not to show the timer before starting the recording.

Similarly, in the game recording mode, if the screen is not ready or the frame is not placed appropriately, you can delay the gameplay recording. Through these settings, the software provides the user with a chance to make the screen utterly ready for recording. A precisely placed frame, accurate audio and video settings, proper color contrast, suitable cursor effects, and all other settings may seem of little significance, but they matter and play essential roles in acquiring a sound and presentable recording.

Why wait, schedule your recording

You sometimes plan to record some upcoming videos, or you wait to watch some movie or video for a long time but miss them. With BANDICAM, you can now watch those videos even after they finished playing.

The recording scheduler feature helps you to achieve this.

Through this feature, you can schedule your upcoming recording and can watch them later. You can schedule timing, date, and their frequency of recording. The image you see above is the scheduler of the software.

To schedule a recording, you need to enter the name of the recording. It can be any name that suits you and which is also easy to remember. The start time is that time of the day when you want the software to record the screen. The end time is the time at which the software would stop recording. It means that the software records any activities that occur on the screen in this duration. Naturally, the software does not know the activities you intend to record. It is only you who can manage the computer regarding what and when to play.

 The software also allows you to schedule the frequency of the recording. Other than once, you can schedule your recording daily or weekly. For this, you only need to enter the start time, end time, and date once and then you can schedule it weekly or daily according to what suits you.

You can also select the capture region for the upcoming recordings. You can choose the full screen as the capture area, or you can drag the frame to achieve the area of your choice.

Moreover, if you wish to shut your computer down after recording, you can select it in ’After recording.’ you can also choose to exit Bandicam and simply allow the software to do nothing. The software automatically saves the recording as soon as the recording time ends.

Don’t just record, ‘drecord’!

Have you ever drecorded a video? So far, you might have merely recorded one. Drecording happens when you draw on the screen and record it simultaneously. Thus, you can say drawing and recording together make up drecording. Do not doubt your vocabulary; it is an extract of some creative mind and has nothing to do with the English vocabulary.

In this section, we shall review the various drawing and editing features of the software.

While you record, the software allows you to draw on the screen or say on the capture region. Anything that you draw or insert in the capture region, the software records it, and you can watch it while the video plays.

The image above shows the various drawing tools; the software provides you to draw. You get a pen, a highlighter, a line tool, an arrow tool, a box tool, a numbering tool, a text tool, an eraser, and a few more.

A pen tool allows you to draw any shape on the screen. Through this tool, you can draw a square, a rectangle, a circle, or any other shape of your choice. You have customizations in color and size with this tool. You can choose various colors for the entries you make through the pen. You can choose the thickness within a range of one pixel to thirty pixels. 

The following option is highlighter; naturally, this tool allows you to highlight some objects or entries on the screen. Except for the traditional yellowish color, you can choose various other colors for highlighting the object. Highlighting is done to present something, whether it be an object, or some text distinctly among other entries. Like the pen, you also customization in thickness.

The tool next to highlighter is the line. This tool allows you to insert or draw lines on the screen. You can insert as many lines on the screen as you want. The same customizations of thickness and color are available with this tool.

Arrow is another tool available in this software. Not necessary to mention, it allows you to draw an arrow on the screen. You can draw several arrows on the screen. You can choose various colors and thickness from the options that are available with the other tools as mentioned above.

The rectangle icon is ‘box’ tool. It allows you to draw a rectangle or square-shaped entries on the screen with the same customizations in color and size.

If you make a video for a tutorial, you might require marking or rank some entries in it, if you explain some hierarchy to your students through the video. You would undoubtedly require ranking the steps. That is what ‘Numbering’ tool does. Through this tool, you can mark any entries of the screen. You can rank them sequentially.

After selecting this tool, you only need to click the various entries in the sequence you want them to get numbered, the software automatically assigns them the number at which you select them.

If you do not choose any specific color, the software automatically uses the last used color of the screen.  Otherwise, if you wish to have a different color, you can select it from the option as mentioned in previously discussed tools. Similarly, you can also choose the thickness of the background of the numbers.

The option that follows the numbering tool is text. This option introduces a text box on the screen and allows you to enter some text in it. The size of the text box that appears depends on the size of the text you choose. The size of the text ranges between ten pixels to eighty pixels. You can choose various colors for the text.

Through a user’s perspective, there is an ullage of some features regarding the text, like the features of font style, or features of adding other effects to the text such as bold, italic or underline. Though the text can be presented distinctly by using highlighter, that does not vanish the need for these features.

The eraser tool naturally helps to erase any incorrect insertions made by you.

The last three options in the tool palate allow you to choose a color, choose the size and to undo or redo the drawing actions, respectively.

The color option allows you to choose various colors for the entries on the screen. There are two separate sections in the color palate. One is basic color, and the other is custom color. The basic colors are the standard colors that are present in every editing software.

The custom colors are those colors that the software allows you to create by adding different colors. You can generate these colors by mixing different colors and by adjusting the hue and saturation of the colors.

Once you make such a color, it becomes available to you in the software from then, and you can use it anytime. It can partially solve the problem of the lack of colors in the software. Also, it allows users to have a separate color palette of their colors.

The choose size option allows you to choose sizes for various entries of the recording region.  It allows changing the size for all the insertions. The range generally lies within ten to eighty pixels but may vary according to the tool you work with.

The last option the editing tool palate allows you to undo or redo the actions on the capture screen. The forward arrow allows to undo the last lastly made action on the window, and the backward arrow allows for redoing the action that you undid. You can also choose the standard shortcut keys for these actions.

The editing options in the software might be enough for an ordinary video. However, yes, these tools cannot fulfill the need for some fantastic video. The videos that you record to share with a vast population or say through the internet requires to be distinctly presentable. The tools are too primary to achieve this.

Saving and sharing of the files

After creating and editing the videos, you need to save them and then share them through various platforms. In this section, we shall discuss the saving and sharing methodologies of BANDICAM.

By default, the software saves the recordings in C drive of the computer. The software allows you to change the location if you wish to do so. You can browse on the computer to choose and change to a new location. The ‘General’ feature provides you this function.

Unlike, much other screen-recording software, it does not provide you an online or say cloud storage.  You cannot save your files on cloud platforms like Google Drive, Dropbox.

There are some more functions under this feature which we shall look in upcoming sections.

The image above shows the actions that the software allows you to perform on any saved recording. In this section, we shall discuss the third option that shows up there, which is upload. It allows you to upload the video. When you select the option to upload, the software allows you to upload through two platforms; YouTube and Vimeo.

If you choose to upload through YouTube, the software allows you to provide a suitable title and description to the video.

Moreover, you get some privacy settings that allow you to choose the viewers of the video. You get three privacy features to choose, namely; public, unlisted, and private.

‘Public’ allows everyone to view the video.

‘Unlisted’ refers to that group of people who has the link or URL o the video. Not everyone present on YouTube can watch it.

‘Private’ makes the video available to only you. Also, you can add other people in this list who can access the video.

The help section there leads to the official website of Bandicam that helps you with the problems you face while uploading the video.

Other features

After discussing all the standard and additional features, we have arrived at the point to discuss other miscellaneous features of the software. FPS, some more features related to videos and images and a few more.

FPS is another overlay feature of Bandicam that allows you to overlay hotkeys and allows you to hide or show the hotkey. You can also choose to show or hide the overlay that you apply on the preset. If you wish you can also change the preset for the overlay.

Moreover, you get six different positions for the overlay. You can choose anyone out of them. However, for a single video recording, you cannot have more than one preset overlay arrangements.

You can also control the frame rate of the video. By default, the software provides the frame rate of 60 FPS. If this does not suit you, you can change it to the one you wish.  The software also provides F10 as the hotkey to change the frame rate.

The video feature in the menu at the left side of the screen provides you various hotkeys and allows you to change them if the default hotkeys do not suit you. It provides you hotkeys to begin the recording and to stop the recording.

The further options allow you to pause the hotkey, which means that if you want to control the software through the cursor or the conventional options of the software, you can enable this function. It ceases the hotkey and does not respond if you strike it.

Moreover, you can enable or disable the appearance of the cursor while recording the video.  If you do not want the mouse cursor to be a part of the recording and want to hide it, you can enable this function. Disabling it allows the cursor to appear in the video.

You applied some cursor effects for a previous video but do not want those effects for the current video or say you do not want any effects on your cursor; you can disable the ‘Add mouse click effects’ feature. Disabling this feature directly from here allows you to retain the previously made changes and does not allow them to activate for the current video.

In the previous section, we discussed the webcam overlay, from here, you can enable or disable adding them in the video.

The format section allows some changes in video and audio of the recording. For video, the software allows you to change the format. By default, the software saves the video in MP4 format, if you wish you can make it to AVI format. The software does not support any other video formats.

Further, you can change the size of the video screen, the frame rate, and quality. The software also allows you to change the codec of the video.

 For audio, the software does not allow you to change the format. By default, it saves the audio in the MP3 format. You can also change the codec, bitrate, channels, and frequency of the audio.

By default, the frequency is 24000 for the audio, which is the standard frequency that is necessary for clear and audible sound. However, if that does not suit you, you can change it with the help of other available options.

The presets option provides you furthermore options to change some settings regarding it. You can choose a default size or a half size for the presets. You can allow the preset to present an effect of YouTube or Twitter.  Through this feature, you can create a video that is compatible and suitable to upload through YouTube.  If you wish, you can choose a preset for any other device other than the computer. Also, you can change the width of the preset.

Moreover, you can add a new preset or can edit the available preset.

The ‘image’ option provides you all the options that you get with the video. You get settings for the hotkeys, mouse cursor, mouse cursor effects, logo overlay, and shutter sound. The shutter sound is the sound that the computer produces when you capture an image. You can select any hotkey of your choice that allows the software to capture the screenshot.

If you wish to repeat the action of screen capturing, you can achieve this by enabling the respective feature. Also, you can select the time after which you wish to start the recapturing.

The format section allows you to choose various formats in which the software saves the captured image. BMP, PNG, JPG are the available formats for the image. For JPG format, you can choose the quality of the image out of normal, high, and custom quality.

Conclusion

The software seems to be a perfect package of recorder and editor. Though it does not provide any extraordinary features other than device recording, the available ones are enough to acquire a good and sound recorded file.

The game capture feature indeed spellbinds the gaming minds among the users.

It does not seem very rich in editing features and is likely to fail to contend some of the creative minds. These days, other software of the same kind provides hundreds of editing and drawing features. It appears dull and primitive before them.

Moreover, there are not many sharing features, but yes, it can allow you to share your files only through conventional platforms.  It does not allow any online or cloud storage, which is a significant drawback for software of the twenty-first century.

The preset functions are available in adequate number and provide enough customizations too.

Similarly, the webcam features are also worthy of being noticed.

The software at first glance seems to possess enough capabilities to provide you a tremendous screen recording experience, but a detailed analysis shifts your attention towards the drawbacks.

The software seems appealing, and a few changes or improvements on some grounds can increase its potential to serve the users. For now, it is fit to serve as a screen recording software, but improvements would undoubtedly do better to it.