The freemium screen capture and screen recording application Jing received an update on Tuesday that adds new video functionality to paying users, and a few other enhancements for all Mac and Windows users.
Two hotkeys now help Jing's capture crosshairs snap to common aspect ratios. Press Ctrl to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio and Shift for 16:9 widescreen proportions. While locked into a ratio, dragging out the crosshair shows you boundaries for common screen measurements within that ratio that you can easily snap to, like 320×240 or 640×480. This is a nice addition in keeping with Jing's visual, low text-density design.
Jing 2.1 adds buttons to export the capture to Camtasia or Snagit.
(Credit: CNET)After capturing a video or still, Snagit and Camtasia Studio users can export the clip to either of Jing's sister programs. Techsmith, the creator of all three, offers a 30-day trial for Snagit and Camtasia prospectives to give either a try. After taking the capture, click the program icon to continue editing the video or still using those premium tools. In addition to sharing captures with yourself, you can add toolbar shortcuts to push captures to any Screencast.com folder you've set up. In Jing 2.1, you can further let Screencast.com visitors comment on your captures.
As usual, premium users get the most impressive addition. Subscribers to the $15-a-year Jing Pro can now record from their Web cam, and toggle between recording from the Web cam and from the screen. For more details and video clips, read the Jing blog here.
TechSmith raises the bar with version 6 of Camtasia Studio, which was released Wednesday. While the essentials remain the same in this feature-stuffed software for creating and producing screen recordings, a few well-placed adjustments and capabilities make their mark in creating overall faster screencasts.
Among the changes, support for high-definition (Blu-ray) video, independently editable audio and video tracks, and time-saving hot keys are the most critical.
The ability to produce HD-quality screencasts (for the Web and mobile phones) is cool for those with HD computers, but on the technical side, the HD-friendly format (MPEG-4 AVC format with H.264 compression) produces videos faster and in dramatically smaller files than the Shockwave format (SWF) that was Camtasia Studio's default before this release. Videos play back in Flash, so you'll be making Web demos, for instance, that use less bandwidth. You will lose a smidge in quality with the format (about 10 percent, TechSmith estimates), but it's of little notice to the untrained eye.
Larger icons make it easier to cut to the chase while recording.
(Credit: CNET)Editing tools
The brand-new ability to edit audio and video tracks separately is another noticeable improvement to Camtasia Studio 6, and one you'd find in professional video production software like Final Cut Pro for Mac. This is a huge boon for anyone who needs a few passes to get their recording right. If you made a mistake in a previous version, you'd have to restart your narration and screen recording until you got it right. Cropping a video clip in the timeline also meant chopping off your narration along with it. This new division of labor lets you sub in sections of tape and video without wrecking the entire timeline.
Camtasia Studio 6 also scores big with hot keys, introduced for the first time in this version. By pressing a single letter on the keyboard, you'll be able to split the video (S), and add zoom (Z), transitions (T), callouts (C), captions (A), markers (M), and extended frames (E) in the video timeline. We've tried this and it's instantaneous.
A handful of loose tweaks also tightens up Camtasia Studio 6. For instance, the splash screen and recording module have gotten a visual scrubbing. The recorder, which seemed unfinished in the last version, is now much more dashing in a dark module set with large icons for recording areas of the screen. The new design lets you turn cursor effects on or off anytime during your screencast. You can also quash the perpetually blinking and often distracting corners found in version 5.1 that signified when the recorder was on.
In the realm of advanced editing, the 'tilt' feature adds perspective to a screenshot and can be used effectively (but judiciously) in combination with zoom and pan effects to make it appear that you're gliding into the center of the video. A new slider control lets you decide the effect's duration. Our one peeve: it's buried in the Advanced portion of the Zoom and Pan menu.
A new editing feature lets you tilt the video left and right.
(Credit: CNET)The last added feature we'll mention is new support for dropping any self-contained MOV file into the video timeline. The ability to splice and intersperse video with PowerPoint slides, screen recordings, and scenes from the imported video has been available for AVI, WMV, and MPEG-1 formats in past Camtasia Studio builds. Version 6 brings the valuable capability to MOV files, while support for MPEG-4 formats has been unfortunately shelved for another day.
Price
Camtasia Studio 6 costs $299 new, $149 for an upgrade, and has a free 30-day trial that we'll post here.
The steep price tag makes Camtasia Studio 6 better suited for pro bloggers, businesses, academics, and avid amateurs, but those able or willing to make the investment will find a classy screen-recording application that continues to advance its flexibility, speed, and ease of use. Those looking for quick and dirty screencasts should look to CamStudio's freeware.
YouTube isn't the only way to share video, and it's certainly not the way to store and share professional screencasts with hiked-up bitrates. After 18 months as a beta mewling, on Wednesday, TechSmith's Screencast.com graduated to a full-fledged release.
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CNET Networks)
Version 1 of Screencast.com continues to receive screen recordings produced in the freeware Jing Project (for Windows and Mac) and premium Camtasia Studio, though it's available to anyone willing to register and pay for storage. It has come some distance from the site covered by Webware.com as part of a July 2007 review of Jing Project. Webware editor Rafe Needleman had remarked that
"the well-established Screencast.com site is the weak link in the chain. It's unattractive, and the links you need (the embed codes) are nearly impossible to find. Plus, after 60 days, the free trial service expires--so don't get hooked if you can't stomach the $6.95-a-month fee for screencast hosting."
A lot has changed since then. Screencast.com's makeover addresses most of these critiques. In addition to a revamped interface, said Dirk Frazier, Screencast.com's product manager, in an interview with CNET, "we've moved from what was a very confusing workflow to a polished workflow."
Clicking "Share" pulls up URLs and embed codes you can copy to the clipboard.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Though still simple, Screencast.com's UI is intuitive and pleasant to behold. As a new addition to version 1, a details dialog springs up with each newly created folder. A portlier Help Center features a new design with improved search and deeper answers to common questions. Similarly, a new Tools page lays out links to TechSmith tools, like a media uploader for desktop videos and the MediaRoll embed widget that shares folder content for public folders.
The navigation buttons along the left remain useful for executing uploads and managerial tasks. Clicking an entry in the visual file system similarly offers up intuitive icons to open, edit, delete, or share the recording. (P.S. Clicking "share" is one way to get at those embed codes.)
Screencast.com's developers have also been sweating over back-end changes, like adopting a multiserver architected back-end that can bear more visitors and their recordings. Over the past six months, Frazier added, "lots and lots of improvements have been made on the data center side."
Fans of the service can expect more, too, in the upcoming months. Frazier's blog shares a snippet of Screencast.com's technical road map that includes H.264 encoded playback and social tools to "create a conversation around your content." "Oops," he writes, "that might be too much sharing."
For professional screen-recording software, it's hard to top Camtasia Studio, a popular--and pricey--application for capturing, editing, and producing screencasts, especially tutorials and presentations. One of Camtasia Studio's strengths is its well-rounded list of preset production values for multiple media formats, including Web-optimized Flash, DVD, and iPod. On Tuesday, TechSmith released Camtasia Studio 5.1, an update that officially packages your screen recordings as MV4 files for playback on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This is good news for owners of Apple's vanguard media players and great news for corporate Camtasia producers trying to reach them.
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CNET Networks)
In addition to adding support for the two touch-screen gadgets, Camtasia Studio 5.1 enhances a few other operations. For instance, users will now find a drop-down menu for a third audio track. The tools for adding and editing call outs have also been streamlined, and two new call outs have joined the library. Producers will appreciate that the slick Express Show template has opened up to FLV files, and that Camtasia Theater can now wrap FLV and Express Show files into a snazzy presentation that users can navigate on their own, instead of just SWF files.
Licensed users of Camtasia Studio 5 will receive the updates for free. Everyone else can download the 30-day trial.
If programs were people, the sleeker, trimmer-looking Camtasia Studio 5 would be the guy or gal who, after emerging from a months-long stint with a personal trainer, has now stretched out on the sand to enjoy the response.
Behind the scenes, TechSmith's Camtasia team has been pumping serious iron into a handful of new features for each of Camtasia's major recording, editing, producing, and playback functionalities. The final result is a more robust screen recording and producing app that's gained significant muscle without added fat. While there are still some flaws to work out, Camtasia Studio 5 offers streamlined performance for the same price as its predecessor--$299 new; $149 to upgrade.
Here's a look at the new and enhanced features in order of appearance.... Read more
With five applications bundled into one, Camtasia Studio truly is a full-fledged screen recording workshop. It's what I use to record and edit screencasts for my day job, and for my needs, it far surpasses free competitors.
That's not to say it's the best toolbox for your job. For many casual users, that honor could belong to freeware like CamStudio (reviewed 9/17/07,) and Hollywood producer types may swear by Apple's Final Cut Pro. But for Windows users in need of strong capturing, editing, and production features, particularly PowerPoint crossfunctionality, Camtasia has quite a lot to offer.... Read more
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