Archive for April, 2010

Camtasia HD Settings For Youtube

Posted Apr.14, 2010 under Camtasia Features, Tips, Videos

This week I am featuring another Bill Myers video for Camtasia Studio. The video touches an important area, how to set up your Camtasia Videos to be viewed in HD on Youtube.

There are several reasons why I think this is important. One is of course the viewer experience is greater when showing your videos on HD. But there is more to it than that.

For one you get the Youtube HD logo on your video, which you will not get otherwise. People also tend to watch videos in full screen mode more and more, and stream videos to their High Definition television sets and for HD TVs it’s great if you have a higher quality of video.

I have included the important take-aways of the video below. My hope is that you can use the list as a quick reference when setting up your Camtasia settings for HD.

The video runs 4:40. OK take it away Bill…

Here are some take-aways from the video.

Before you record

  1. Set your recording to save as .avi in your Camtasia Recorder Tools/General Options.
  2. Set framerate to 30 (Tools/Options/Inputs)
  3. Select area to record to 1280×720

After recording, when editing

  1. Select HD in settings and if you don’t have this setting, choose the same size as you are recording in, in this case 1280×720.
  2. Edit your video

Producing Video

  1. Go to custom production settings
  2. Choose other formats MOV
  3. Under QuickTime options set H.264.
  4. Set your framerate to 30
  5. Set Keyframe to Automatic
  6. Set Compression to Best
  7. Data rate set to Automatic
  8. Sound settings for production – Set it to 48.000, 16 bit and set it to Stereo so Youtube can recognize it as a HD file.
  9. Check that video size is 1280×720

And then upload it to Youtube. Youtube should recognize it as a HD file.

That’s all there is to it. Now start creating lots of HD Camtasia files! Let me know what you think about this article/video in the comment area below.

Until next time ;-)
Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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Camtasia Mac 1.1 Out Now

Posted Apr.09, 2010 under Mac, News

Camtasia for Mac 1.1There has been alot of exciting news on the PC side of Camtasia lately, but today I have some interesting stuff happening on the Mac side…

Following the feedback from the Mac community, Camtasia for Mac has now its first ever update since the first release, Camtasia for Mac version 1.1. This upgraded version has been updated with the most frequently requested features. The new version includes the following new features:

  • Region Capture

A specific area on your screen can now be selected instead of recording the entire screen. You don’t need to crop and zoom anymore as you will be recording only the exact part that you want to capture.

  • Audio Enhancements

Noises coming from clicking, typing, fan and other distractions can now be removed. This audio enhancement can also regulate the pitch of your voice and remove the clicking sound when you’re speaking closely to the microphone.

  • Monitor Selection

If you have multiple displays on your Macintosh, you can now select which monitor you’d like to record.

  • Voice-Only Recording

This feature allows you to capture only the microphone audio without recording the screen video. You can also create and edit a voice-over separate from the screen recording so you can easily make changes in the narration.

  • Pause and Resume

If you’re recording a long video, you can now go into “Pause” mode while trying to gather your thoughts or clear your throat. With this feature, unwanted content can be avoided while recording.

Using these new features will surely result in a hassle-free recording experience and high quality projects.

For current users of Camtasia for Mac 1.0, start using these new features now by checking for an update directly in your software then select Install Update on the Software Update window.

Not yet a Camtasia for Mac user? You can learn more about Camtasia for Mac 1.1 here!

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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Camtasia 7 Reviews

Posted Apr.01, 2010 under Reviews

Camtasia 7 ReviewsThe initial reviews of Camtasia 7 are in. Generally I would have to say that the reviews agree with my first judgement, Camtasia 7 is a great upgrade. But as I am a bit biased (love Camtasia and all that) I thought I’d let some other reviewers have their say.

If you are looking to buy Camtasia or upgrade to the new release Camtasia 7, our partnersite, SoftwareCasa offers a number of bonuses.

Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration is a professional blogger and personal technology columnist. The review is published on Digital Inspiration.

Amit says: “If you are already using an older version of Camtasia, the first change that you’ll immediately notice in Camtasia Studio 7 is the revamped UI — they’ve moved from the classic XP like blue design to a black glass-like but non-transparent interface. The vertical task bar is gone and instead, you have a tabbed horizontal bar that gives you quick access to all the various editing tools but you can no longer hide this area.”

Amit goes on to mention the new features of the Library and that finds the new feature cursor effects one of the most useful features. On the negative side Amit mentions: “…the built-in title editor is very basic and there’s absolutely no support for rollovers and closing credits. As a workaround, you can produce title videos in Windows Live Movie Maker and import them into Camtasia Studio.”

T. Michael Testi is software developer, a writer, and a photographer. His review is published on blogcritics.com.

Michael cover the new functionality of Camtasia Studio 7 in depth and I am quoting his final judgement here.

“I think that with all of the improvements to the prior version like the SmartFocus technology and improved recording engine that running Camtasia Studio 7 was very crisp, clean, and had a noticeable improvement in the final video rendering.

Then when you add the new library capabilities, the sketch motion feature, all of the new callouts, the improvement to the audio capabilities, the answer to my initial question is that TechSmith has made the premier video capture program even better. If you are looking for a complete product for creating and editing video casts then I highly recommend Camtasia Studio 7.”

Travis Campbell of Marketingprofessor goes through the seven reasons why he thinks you should upgrade to Camtasia 7. Here is his bottom line: “Software companies often push things out the door without adding enough value add features to justify it for customers. I’m glad to say this is not the case for Camtasia 7.

The huge time savers for me will be:

  • YouTube integration
  • Media library
  • Improved controls for audio editing (background music).

Couple these with the:

  • Revamped user interface
  • Post recording motion callouts
  • Improved screen recorder, and
  • Improved cursor effects…

…and this could be the best version released yet.”

Nice review Travis.

And last, but not least, Screencaster Lon Naylor from Screencast profits has done an extensive review and in which he grades all the new features. Lon likes the new interface change although seasoned Camtasia users will have to get used to a few changes. Library, new callouts and keystroke callouts get several thumbs up. Lon hasn’t seen my SuperCallouts yet, I wonder what he will say about those :-0

Lon goes on to comment about getting control of the fading in and fading out audio controls. He loves those but isn’t so keen on noise removal and volume level affect all tracks. That gets the only thumbs down.

And with that I end this Reviews overview.

Happy Screencasting,

Peter – Your Camtasia Guide

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