• Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro
• Ambrosia Software For Mac Snapz Pro
• Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro
• Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X

Ambrosia Software. Ambrosia Software, Inc. Is a predominantly Macintosh software company located in Rochester, New York. Ambrosia is dedicated to bringing you quality software, excellent support. Ambrosia Software. 15 November 2012. It gives us great pleasure to inform everyone that the update to our award winning software, Snapz Pro X 2.5 has been released!!! Snapz Pro X 2.5.0 has been rewritten from the ground up with the most modern APIs to take maximum advantage of Mac OS X 10.7.4 or later.

Phew! It’s only taken them, oh, a little over three years.

When Ambrosia Software released Snapz Pro X 2.0 three years ago, the big improvement was the addition of advanced video recording capabilities. (Snapz Pro X 1.0 only had basic video recording capabilities.) At the time, I was a registered user of Snapz Pro X 1.0 “with movies” and I used it exclusively for taking still pictures (screen shots). I therefore had no incentive to upgrade to 2.0 for the video capture, but I was interested in the improved interface, and the upgrade path indicated that you could use Snapz Pro X 2.0 with your 1.0 license, as long as you didn’t want the advanced video recording capabilities.

There was only one slight problem with that option. If you chose to use Snapz Pro 2.0 with your 1.0 license, each time you launch Snapz Pro 2.0, it would display an annoying modal dialog that had to be manually dismissed, as if you were using an unlicensed copy of the software.

I complained to Ambrosia Software about this back in 2004, and here’s what I was told:

I can send you a license code for SP X image capture only. You’re getting that notice cause you have a license code for SP X 1.X *with movies*, which is different than a license for SP X 2 with movies. The static image capture license codes are the same for SP X and SP X 2.

If you enter a license code for SP X without movies that notice will disappear forever. However, if you ever want to upgrade to with movie capture at the discounted price of $20 (SP X with movies to SP X 2 with movies is $20, but using the code I’ll send you that will dismiss that notice for good, it would cost $40 to upgrade to SP X 2 with movies) you’ll have to use your SP X 1.X with movies code.

Sorry for all the confusion. We’re still working the kinks out of the registration/upgrade system.

Let me know how you’d like to proceed.

Well, since I was only interested in taking still pictures, I did ask them to send me a code for Snapz Pro X 2.0 without movie capture. But I never got a reply.

Since the e-mail seemed to indicate that they were “working the kinks out” and would eventually get around to the problem for registered users of Snapz Pro X 1.0 “with movies,” I thought that the problem would get fixed in a future update. But it never did get fixed.

So I ended up living with the nagging modal dialog box for three years. It only appeared when launching the application, i.e. after a user log out or system restart, so it wasn’t so bad, but it still was annoying. Of course, I could have simply spent the $20 on the upgrade to the full Snapz Pro X 2.0 with advanced video features, but really I have no use for these features and, for the principle of it, I didn’t want to spend $20 just to get rid of a bloody modal reminder.

Then yesterday I got around to installing the 2.1.1 update, for no particular reason other than the expectation that a few minor bugs that I might never encounter had been fixed. I also noticed that the release notes indicated that the registration process had finally been folded into the main application, instead of being handled by a separate (and rather antiquated) application.

Well, it looks like that, in the process of folding the registration process into the main application, they actually have got rid of the modal dialog that has been annoying me for the past three years. It is probably not entirely intentional on their part, but I somehow feel vindicated for not having spent the extra $20.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I truly appreciate the fact that, after several years, I haven’t had to spend any money in order to be able to continue to use the software. We have been through several major system upgrades and an architecture change from PowerPC to Intel. Ambrosia Software could easily have forced me to purchase an upgrade license just to be able to continue to use the software, because of the work required on their part to maintain compatibility with the new system software and hardware. They did not, and I am still using Snapz Pro X today with my original 1.0 license.

I am still somewhat disappointed that it has taken them three years to address an issue that has been a regular source of annoyance for me. But maybe I’ll feel a bit more comfortable paying a small upgrade fee the next time a new version comes along with improvements/features that I might actually enjoy using.

Review - Screen and Movie Capture Software

August 16, 20044

Snapz Pro X 2.0 (with movie capture)
Ambrosia Software
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
$69.00; Upgrade $29.
OS X.2 or later only

By David Saraceno

Screen and/video captures can be an important aspect of any production environment. Apple provides a limited image capture tool incident to OS X, and there are shareware screen capture utilities available on the Internet. SnapNDrag, for instance, is a freeware screen capture utility more robust than Apple's built-in keyboard sequence. (http://www.yellowmug.com/snapndrag/). Others, such as Screen Catcher and ScreenRecord are available for free or a small shareware cost. (http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/screencapturemac/).

Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro

Most provide good static screen grabs for limited use. Recording screen movements in OS X is an entirely different issue for those of us who produce tutorial CDs or DVDs or have similar uses. In most cases, recording via a scan converter has been the only, and pricey option. However, Ambrosia Software's release of an OS X version of its classic SnapZ Pro capture tool has changed the equation. Ambrosia claims that its movie capture option is 20 times more powerful than others available. While I couldn't independently verify the claim, I am impressed with its capabilities, particularly on a fast DP G5. Mileage may vary with less powerful OS X configurations.

This complete rewrite takes full advantage of the power of OS X, adds new functionality to the OS9 version, and provides an excellent alternative to expensive scan converters when capturing full screen video ­ even, in my case, a full screen 30 fps capture of a Final Cut Pro session.

Ambrosia Software For Mac Snapz Pro

Installing the Snapz Pro X adds it to your startup items, which has both an advantage and disadvantage. First, the app will always be available with a preset or customized hot key combination. The negative is that the app is always running in the background, which could cause some concern for any video production environment. However, the app utilizes virtually no system resources, and did not provide any discernible interference with any of my FCP or DVD SP sessions. If it still bothers you, however, you can eliminate it as a startup option in your Accounts pane, and then manually launch whenever you wish.

A second issue deals with an audio kernel extension that permits you to capture your Mac's built in audio output. I contacted Ambrosia to determine if this would interfere with either Soundtrack or FCP, and was assured that it would not. The only way it may cause a problem is if you have SP X 2 set to capture the Mac audio, which would mean no other application would be able to grab the audio at the same time. This isn't a likely case, however.

Launching SP X 2 produces the following screen that controls captures of the screen, objects (menus, etc), selections, and movies.

You can elect where the files are stored, and how you name each file, or have it done automatically. The preferences section includes settings to establish hot key launch combination, file naming conventions, what application will launch the captured file, and various settings for how SP X 2 interacts. Make certain you turn off the 'interface sounds.' It can get annoying.

Electing the 'Movie Settings' produces a number of options to control movie captures of your Macintosh screen.

Once the Movie option selected, a highlighted area of the screen appears.

The selection can be resized by grabbing the sides or corners, and moved by clicking inside the highlighted area and dragging the selection tool. You can also set the capture target manually. There are drop down menus that control the aspect ratio, size, frame rate, scale, and camera mode of the onscreen movie capture. If you check the microphone box, SP X 2 records your narration using an external or built in microphone. You can capture any built in audio that your computer may be outputting. There is another option to smooth video capture if you're not getting the motion you require. The manual provides an extended explanation of this option.

You may also set the movie capture to follow your cursor, produce a 'smooth pan' while following the cursor, or to use a 'fixed camera' to capture the screen. Another option allows you to scale your capture from 10% to 400%.

Once captured, you can elect what video codec you wish to output, and at what depth using the normal QuickTime video save dialog box.

You can also view the move setting pertinent to the movie you've just captured.

Various capture options have been expanded for still screens as well, including the capability to grab single and multiple menus. You can save in multiple formats including bitmap, portable document format (PDF) and native Photoshop. More accurate capture is possible using a magnification feature with pixel-precise targeting, and a capture preview that dims areas of the screen not being captured. This should eliminate the need to clean up the images in Photoshop. You can capture with various borders, elect square, rounded, or normal windows, and capture with various fades and drop shadows.

There are literally dozens of settings for each of the capture alternatives that govern final output. Although SP X 2 is fairly intuitive to use, the supplied 54-page PDF manual is fully illustrated with 'getting started' and detailed instructions on how to use the application. It discussed the options and settings available for each type of capture and suggested optimum settings depending on intended use.

If there is one negative to SP X 2, it's that you cannot use it to capture its own images. To get some of the screen grabs for this article, I resorted to Apple's utility. Some may find all this functionality to be easily worth the price of $69.95. With the newer movie capture capability, and the seamless interfacing with OS X, I would have to agree. If you just do occasional screen grabs, Apple's OS X utility or a shareware app like SnapNDrag may be all your need. But for sheer breath of capability in excellent movie capture, Snap Z Pro X with movie capture is your best choice.

Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro

©Copyright 2004 David Saraceno
All Rights Reserved

David Saraceno is a motion graphics artist located in Spokane, Washington. He has written for DV Magazine, AV Video, MacHome Journal, and several state and national legal technology magazines. David also moderates several forums on 2-pop.com

This article first appeared on lafcpug and is reprinted here with permission.

Ambrosia Software Snapz Pro X

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