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
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Video, Camtasia and YouTube

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Hi Tim,

Taking this a bit further, what is your current advice for videos? For some time now you have suggested Flash as the best all-round format for use in help files. But I believe Flash support in Windows 8 will be limited or only temporary, and that we should be using HTML5 video instead. And Flash is already gone from many mobile devices.

Having to create videos in multiple formats to suit different devices and older browsers is a major headache. Not so much the format itself as writing the accompanying controller notes about pausing, stopping and restarting, moving to a specific frame, changing playback speed, etc.

We can't even stick with the rock-solid Camtasia executable player, because Windows 8 now won't run unsigned executables without the user having to override draconian warnings and find the relevant hidden option. This is also causing problems for the excellent PicturesToExe software used by professional photographers: http://wnsoft.com/picturestoexe

regards,

Martin.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

This is still a little unclear. The problem is that Flash will definitely NOT run in the Metro version of IE, or in any other Metro browser, although it WILL run in the Desktop versions. I'm not yet sure whether you can force a switch to the Desktop version, and I'm also not sure whether there will be a Desktop version of IE with Flash support on Windows RT for ARM tablets (probably not). It is all still a little bit up in the air.
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 »

Good question Martin - and something I had not even thought of

Have been spending the last few weeks creating some videos for my customers which will be in H&M and now a bit concerned that I am going to have to redo them all to make sure of compatibility in Windows 8 and the metro version of IE

nightmare.....
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 »

Tim Green wrote:This is still a little unclear.
Thanks for the reply Tim. But you get the prize for understatement of the month! :)

So if you were creating a video this afternoon for use in H&M's own Help, what would you be doing? :?

regards,

Martin.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

At the moment the absolute safest option is to put your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and link to them there. This also has the advantage that the bandwidth for your users watching the video is on YouTube's account and not on yours. They handle problems like compatibility support dynamically, so if things change for W8 you can expect YouTube to handle that for you automatically. :?
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 »

Tim Green wrote:At the moment the absolute safest option is to put your videos on YouTube or Vimeo and link to them there.
Hi Tim,

I tried that, uploading AVI files from Camtasia. SWF upload wasn't available when I tried. But the image quality on YouTube from the TechSmith TSCC codec was awful. I must have a loss-less format for screenshot videos, and the TSCC codec with its own player or Flash output does provide that when played at actual size.

Another option is to use TechSmith's own media hosting at screencast.com. They also will presumably have to do something about Windows8 compatibility. The problem is that their site does seem very slow and unreliable at times.

At present I'm playing with PicturesToExe: ( http://youtu.be/htUQ-dvz8FQ ) although I'm not too sure yet where it is leading.

regards,

Martin.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Martin,

Don't use Flash or AVI for YouTube. Use MP4 files encoded with the h.264 Codec, that's the only way to get decent quality. If you don't use it directly YouTube will convert it anyway and you'll probably lose quality.
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: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Darren,

I definitely favor Camtasia over Adobe Captivate at the moment. We have had a lot of reports of errors generated by Captivate SWFs in CHM files recently. This seems to be caused by JavaScript calls being made from within the SWF file itself.
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 »

Thanks Tim

Had a feeling you would say Camtasia - I thought it was good and seems to work well - but quite expensive for me as I will use it so little which is a shame
User avatar
Darren Rose
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Mar 03, 2012 3:01 pm

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Darren Rose »

Hi Tim

Question re video:-

When I insert a video to use lightbox player and select a poster image - the poster image shows fine

BUT when I try an insert a video inline and select a poster image - it doesn't show - instead I just get a black square for the video instead

Any ideas?
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Darren,
BUT when I try an insert a video inline and select a poster image - it doesn't show - instead I just get a black square for the video instead
What video format are you using? There may be problems with some formats, particularly Windows video (WMV). You will generally get best results with MP4 or Flash.
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 am using mp4 created with camtasia
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Looking at Windows 8

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Darren,

Mail me a small demo at support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @), then I can send it directly on to the developers to deal with. They're much more likely to get onto it quickly if they have something to work with directly... :mrgreen:
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 »

sample sent

seems to be something to do with turning off play automatically for the inline videos - when it is set to play automatically the poster shows, but not when it is turned off - and obviously don't want video playing until they click play
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 »

Hi Tim,

I'm currently using Camtasia 5. It doesn't create MP4 videos and the only way to create videos using the H.264 codec is to create them as QuickTime .mov files. I tried uploading one to YouTube and the image quality was just awful.

TechSmith are currently offering me an upgrade to Camtasia 8 at a special price ($99) -- I've got only a few more days to decide.

The snag is that they now provide only MP4 output, and have removed the option to create Flash SWF/FLV files (and several other formats).

So I'm in two minds. What I have noticed is that any format other than SWF vastly increases the file size and bandwidth requirements while simultaneously reducing the image quality (for screenshots and computer graphics). This is similar to the difference between lossless 8-bit PNG screenshots and compressed JPG -- bigger files for reduced image quality. The new HTML5 video may be great for real world photographic videos, but what are we intended to use for animations and screen recordings for CAD drawings?

SWF Flash produces excellent lossless results for small file size using the TSCC codec and I want to go on using it. But if eventually no system will be able to display it... :?

p.s. I see your own video at http://www.helpandmanual.com/demos/Feat ... kDemo.html is using SWF Flash from Camtasia. Which version of Camtasia are you using and will you be upgrading to Camtasia 8?

regards,

Martin.
Post Reply