What is Camtasia?

The Camtasia suite of tools captures the action and sound from any part of the Windows desktop and saves it to a standard AVI movie file or streaming video. Camtasia screen recordings could either be shared on a Web site, or distributed via e-mail, the Intranet or a CD. Camtasia suite of tools includes Camtasia Recorder, Camtasia Producer, and the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC). Camtasia allows you to record, edit and publish compressed videos for computer based training, technical support solutions, product demonstrations and sales presentations.

Camtasia suite of tools:

Camtasia Recorder:
Camtasia Recorder has a customizable interface that displays full capture properties and statistics during the capture. This interface can also be minimized to a floating toolbar. Camtasia Recorder has simple mouse driven VCR-like record/pause/stop controls in addition to hotkey control. You can capture cursor movements, menu selections, pop-up windows, typing and everything that you see on your screen. It also has a ScreenPad annotation feature to add callouts, logos and graphics as you record your movie. Real-time effects, which include cursor and object highlighting, ability to pan and zoom the capture area, graphic and image annotations, watermarks, time stamps, captioning, and audible mouse clicks can also be applied.

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Recording tips:
Set the screen resolution of 640 by 480 or lesser before you start recording; since higher resolution requires more computer resources. Also, the actual viewing resolution has to be stepped up from the recording resolution. So, when a screen is captured at 640 by 480, it should be viewed at a minimum resolution of 800 by 600 for the viewer to be able to control the video without scrolling. Use simple backgrounds and keep the colors to 256 or 16-bit color Fast animations may cause problems at low bandwidths Preferably record at 1-5 frames a second There are features available that may be used to enhance the recording. Incorporating time and date, cursor highlights and keyboard clicks are some of the features incorporated in Camtasia. Also, to maintain a high quality of the final output, it is preferable not to record at one resolution and produce it at another resolution.

Camtasia Producer:
Camtasias non-linear editor quickly edits, trims and joins AVI clips. Transition and watermark effects can also be easily added to any video. You can also include AVIs you have created with Camtasia Recorder or incorporate an AVI file from another source. You can
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produce industry standard movie files, Microsoft Windows Media, and RealNetworks RealMedia streaming formats with Camtasia Producer. Pack and Show is one of Camtasias tools which compresses your videos into an email friendly executable file (which requires no special software to run on the viewers machine).

TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC):

Camtasia uses the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC), developed expressly for screen recording, for video renderings of desktop activity, and file compression in industry standard formats. Codecs, short for compressor-decompressor, are basically mathematical formulas for handling your video information. The TSCC provides exact video renderings coupled with good compression ratios and performance. Clips encoded by TSCC are able to preserve image quality through multiple decompression /recompression cycles. The TSCC is also recommended for screen recording and editing. Camtasia is fully compliant with the Video for Windows specification, so you can choose the video codecs other than the TSCC for final distribution. Camtasia also allows you to use the audio codec of your choice.

Microsoft Encoder is another alternative available to produce streaming files after capturing the raw movie files in the Camtasia recorder. (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/default.asp) It is recommended to use Microsoft Encoder to produce streaming files since it is a more powerful tool than the Camtasia Producer and has advanced options to target audience bandwidth.

Microsoft Encoder (alternative to Camtasia Producer):

Audio Support and Live Broadcast:

You can either narrate your Camtasia video while you record your movie or you can use DubIt (included free of charge with Camtasia) to add narration and sound effects to any AVI movie while you view it.

College Station, Texas Copyright 2000 LOT All rights reserved Published 3/5/2001 M:\htms\training\handouts\pf_files\camtasia.doc

Live Output broadcasts your screen over the Internet in real-time. Camtasia simulates a hardware PC camera and works with streaming media encoders, video conferencing, and webcam applications. All of Camtasias special effects such as annotations, watermarks and cursor highlighting are available using this feature. Note: Make sure the Audio toolbar is visible, and you see a sound meter before you start recording. Default for the audio toolbar is off. A microphone plugged into the computer is sufficient to record audio, and does not require any supplementary software.

Camtasia System requirements:

- Microsoft Windows 95 OSR2, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 or later version - 90 MHz processor (400 MHz recommended) - 16 MB RAM (64 MB recommended) - Windows-compatible sound card and microphone (recommended) - 12 MB of hard-disk space for program installation

Industry Standard:

Camtasia supports the AVI format and standard video for windows audio and video codecs. You can either modify videos created by Camtasia with other AVI editors or use AVI files from other sources in the Camtasia Producer. You can play your Camtasia productions with Windows Media Player and RealNetworks RealPlayer.

References: http://www.techsmith.com/products/camtasia/requirements.asp http://www.techsmith.com/products/camtasia/snagvscam.asp http://moreinfo.vbonline.com/vbonline/techsmith/camtasia/codec.htm Powerpoint presentation by James Hardin and Mike Speeds (03/02/01)
College Station, Texas Copyright 2000 LOT All rights reserved Published 3/5/2001 M:\htms\training\handouts\pf_files\camtasia.doc