Video for Web?

[creativelimits]

Hi,

I am looking for a utility/software which is used for Creating Video Tutorials for web. I have seen plenty out there which downloads quickly.

I heard abt. Camtesia studio but not sure this is the perfect application that people are using. If so what is the exact difference between Flash and Camtesia. Or we integrate Camtesia Captured movies into Flash?

Is there any trick associated with Captured movies so that they download quickly?

I am interested in creating my own Video Tutorial set for Photoshop which I would like to add Free for Visitors to my website. How I can go about it?

Thanks in advance for any inputs.

--Life is beautiful… You need that Eye.

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, creativelimits.

I believe you're asking about Camtasia Studio, which is occasionally misspelled Camtesia on the web, correct?

If so, I have found no better approach for creating software tutorials. It captures, in motion, whatever you are doing on screen and allows you to add a recorded voice-over awith more information. You can output the final files in several formats, including Flash -- and the interface is very intuitive.

The "trick" you asked about is called streaming, which means that whatever format your video is in, the client play the file after just a bit has downloaded, and will continue to play even as the rest of the file downloads in the background. This is one of the strengths that Flash demonstrates. It allows streaming without any extra server utlities, where other video formats definitely CAN stream, but oftern require extra server software to do it.

[creativelimits]

Hi Ted,

Thank you very much.

I am looking to create demo tutorials of my own. I have just started using Camatasia but the problem is if the tutorial is lengthy it creates a HUGE file either SWF or AVI i played with both.

So is there any trick to minimize the file size so that it can help downloading faster?

Thank you.

[harbs]

I think what you're looking for is something like Windows Media Encoder. You can download it free from Microsoft. It allows you to compress your existing video files into various distribution options like low bandwidth, high bandwidth, VHS quality etc.

[mkolowich]

Yes, an AVI file is a full-resolution, barely compressed file that would typically be used by a non-linear editor (such as Adobe Premiere Pro), but is not designed for, nor is it suitable for, distribution on the web. While you might want to edit with the AVI file output from Camtasia, you must compress the output into one of four highly compressed formats -- Windows Media, QuickTime, RealMedia, or Flash Video. In my experience, if you need to choose one, Windows Media is the best option for quality and compatibility; many websites offer two formats, and we use Windows Media and QuickTime. The two other major choices you need to make are the bitrate (which is, in effect, the amount of compression applied) and the frame size.

For general video, we generally like Windows Media, encoded at 256k, in a 320x240 frame size. But because of the nature of screen shots (which compress unusually efficiently because there aren't a lot of pixels changing from frame to frame) you probably could get away with a larger frame size.

Good luck!

[creativelimits]

Hi,

Which will be more effective for web? Coz I am planning to use it for my Video Tutorials which I am going to display on my website.

The biggest factor in my mind is the file size I have tried using it but the file size for a 1 min video is going around 5 MB which will take lot of time to download.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[tedster]

One of the ways I approach the longer tutorial is to create several parts rather than one single file. The last bit of software I used Camtasia for was nearly two hours of content, but split into 32 individual Flash movies.

[aghill]

Breaking it up into segments is the way to go. Not only does it allow for easier download, but users can return and go to a specific portion of the tutorial if they choose.

I've recently started a video based site and chose to deliver the vids in flash video. This method was chosen because flash seems to be the most pervasive throughout net users. Prior to launching the new site, I'd throw up a link to a vid on a forum site I run to gauge reaction. Someone always had problems with the video if it was in windows media, real, or quicktime formats. This doesn't mean there are no problems with flash, but it seems to be lessened. If you choose flash, one of the trade offs seems to be that the compression for flv's isn't as good as some of the others. I've purchased Sorenson Squeeze, and am fairly happy with it. Then again there is the theory that if the content is worth it, users will download whatever delivery requirements. Just choose one platform. It will save you time, money, and headaches.

Sorry if this rambled...

[creativelimits]

Hi all,

I am trying to create my own video tutorial. I am trying Camtasia Studio but the file size even if I export it as SWF is getting very high MB’s?

Is there any free utility / software available which will capture video as a JPG or GIF file sequence. and then allows to import all those as a sequence in Flash to create an SWF out of it?

Does it help in reducing the video file size?

Thank you.