Video, Camtasia and YouTube

This section is for announcements, information and discussions relating to the help community -- for example news about events and seminars of interest, developments in help technology and so on.

Moderator: Tim Green

User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

I did that with Camtasia 7. In the meantime I've upgraded to Camtasia 8 but I haven't had time to play with it yet. However, it is actually MP4, it's just in a Flash wrapper with an HTML5 controller, and Camtasia 8 still does that. Once you tweak the output settings you can get excellent quality and more compact files with that setup than with SWF, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't have experience with uploading other formats to YouTube but it's possible that there are things you can tweak for how the compression and quality are managed. In particular, YouTube often does multiple playback formats, you may just be selecting the smallest, fastest format. Check whether it has also generated a higher-resolution format.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Thanks Tim,

But I have actually been there several times and all round the Wrekin and back. I'm not much the wiser. :?
Once you tweak the output settings you can get excellent quality and more compact files with that setup than with SWF
Having now spent several hours testing the Camtasia 8 demo alongside Camtasia 5 I beg to differ, unless you can provide chapter and verse? It seems I'm not alone, there is a lot of ill-feeling on the TechSmith forum about the dropping of SWF in favour of MP4 only. It's also a bit of a joke that having dropped SWF output for users they then have to use it as a delivery means for Firefox and other browsers which don't support MP4 because of patent issues.

It seems we are caught in the crossfire of someone else's war.

FLV Flash is clearly dead. But SWF Flash appears to be the only web* format which can provide lossless video for screen recording of CAD drawings and similar line animations. Indeed, that appears to be the original purpose of the SWF format, rather than photographic video. I have tried all possible MP4 settings and even with zero compression and a file size an order of magnitude greater than SWF, the MP4 image quality remains inferior to SWF.

*lossless video is also available via TSCC codec/AVI and Camtasia's own executable player or WMP (all now dropped too).

I've also found that the Camtasia 5 Screen Recorder makes a much better job of capturing custom mouse cursors in Windows7 than the Camtasia 8 Recorder. Fortunately the recorder executables will run stand-alone to create .camrec files, so I can go on using the 5 recorder for both versions.

It seems that I now have to provide videos in 3 different formats instead of 2, and let my users choose:

1. SWF created in Camtasia 5 -- recommended for online browsers.

2. Camtasia 5 executable player downloads -- for offline tutorial use, but only for Windows (and Linux if the AVI is extracted).

3. MP4/HTML5 created in Camtasia 8 -- for Apple devices and mobiles. I've got 7 days left to decide whether this extra option is worth buying.

Fortunately I can use the same 5 camrec recording for all, but not the edited callouts, etc. I shall go on creating that in Camtasia 5, which Camtasia 8 will then import and convert each time.

It's all a bit of a palaver -- there must be an easier way. If I wanted to post real-world photographic videos it's no problem, but that's not what I want (and presumably not the prime purpose of Camtasia anyway?) :?

regards,

Martin.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

As I said, I haven't tried Camtasia 8 yet, that may have something to do with it. It was released just before I went on holiday and I updated and installed it, and have since also updated it with a patch, but I still haven't been able to get around to working with it. I can't claim any kind of extensive experience -- all I remember is noticing that I was surprised how compact and reasonably good quality the MP4 files I produced with Camtasia 7 were.

But as to the video wars: Yes, they are a complete and utter mess at the moment. the <video> tag was supposed to solve everything, and if h.264 had been released as a public standard it would have. But now it's in a worse pickle than GIF was in the bad old GIF copyright days, and as a result online video is an explosion in a Babylonian garbage dump. :frustration:
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Darren Rose
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:01 pm

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Darren Rose »

I'm using camtasia 8 to record how to videos for my customers and can see no loss of quality at all in this format - the finished videos look exactly the same as the original screen does when I took the video clip
User avatar
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Darren Rose wrote:I'm using camtasia 8 to record how to videos for my customers and can see no loss of quality at all in this format - the finished videos look exactly the same as the original screen does when I took the video clip
Hi Darren,

I'm baffled. Could you post some screenshots and say what settings you are using?

This is what I'm seeing (Windows7/64-bit/Aero):

1. Original screen, captured using PaintShopPro (which makes a poor job of capturing mouse cursors):
original.png
2. Recorded in Camtasia 5, produced as SWF Flash actual size, and playing in Firefox 15. I can't detect any loss of quality, and the Camtasia Recorder 5 has captured the custom mouse cursor perfectly, even with Aero switched on:
swf_video_playing.png
3. Recorded in Camtasia 8, produced as MP4/HTML5 actual size using the default settings (50% quality), and playing in Firefox 15. Notice the smudged effect of the text and thin lines. The Camtasia 8 Recorder has made a pig's ear of the custom cursor:
mp4_video_playing.png
Notice that the "dirty" second image has massively increased the PNG size for this screenshot from 17KB to 94KB, as a clear illustration of the difference.

What am I missing/doing wrong? Even at 100% quality the smudginess is still visible (and the file size is vastly increased).

regards,

Martin.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
Darren Rose
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:01 pm

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Darren Rose »

Literally using default setting as it was when I installed camtasia 8 trial version

I am capturing from a virtual PC running on my main computer, so am capturing a 1024x768 window - and the completed file looks same as it original did

Will try and do some screenshots or point you to a video when I get a moment - still in process of trying to get all new guides completed - so a bit harassed today
User avatar
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Thanks Darren.

I have now discovered how to get the correct cursor in Camtasia 8 -- it means deselecting a default setting in the recorder: Effects > Options... > Cursor and untick "Make cursor effects editable".

regards,

Martin.
User avatar
Darren Rose
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:01 pm

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Darren Rose »

Martin Wynne wrote:Thanks Darren.

I have now discovered how to get the correct cursor in Camtasia 8 -- it means deselecting a default setting in the recorder: Effects > Options... > Cursor and untick "Make cursor effects editable".

regards,

Martin.
Yes that makes sense - I had it enabled so I could edit click effects after capture - but if you use a custom mouse pointer then I did notice it had to be off
Post Reply