Techsmith codec + Media Player object

[TheMatrix]

Hi All,

I have built a training menu with Autoplay using the media player object. The training menu has avi files produced with TechSmith's Camtasia screen capture product.
What do I need to include on the cd when I am burning the software so that other users can play & display the avi files correctly?
My thoughts are to include Media Player & Techsmith codec on the cd, so that if users install Media Player & the codec, the videos should play/display ok, but I have searched this board and found nothing.

Hoping somebody out there has done this before.

Cheers

[kpsmith]

Couple of choices with this...

You could play the videos using Windows Media Player and install the techsmith codec. The advantage here is you could embed the player right in the AMS project.

Or...

Techsmith has a Camtasia video player that is a stand alone player that you could run from the CD. This would not require you to install anything. It pretty much guarantees the videos will play on the mahcine. You would just have to launch the Camtasia player with a command line switch pointing to the video file.

The other cool thing is the Camtasia player has a bunch of switches that can control the size, buttons, etc that are displayed in their player.

FYI...If you are going to install the techsmith codec and want to check that it is installed at program launch just do a search for tsccvid.dll in the %Windir%\System32 and %Windir%\System directory. If it finds it the codec it is installed.

[eric_darling]

Great info, kp!

[buggy]

You could also create Flash movies with Camtasia that can be embedded directly into AMS...

[kpsmith]

Hadn't thought about using flash?

Here's something else I saw done with camtasia that I thought was pretty cool.

Take the camtasia player and the video file and zip them up together. Now turn that .zip into a self extracting zip that when it finishes extracting launches the camtasia player .exe and loads the video.

It will cut your file size on the CD (or web) in half and make a cool standalone video app.

[TheMatrix]

Hi,

Thanks for the info KP. One thing I'm not sure of is, as I have built the menu system with the media player object, does a user have to install media player or is this application built into the menu system?

[TheMatrix]

Must convert the avi in flash and see how big the video is.

[kpsmith]

You'll want to test this out but ....

I think all you would need to do is install the camtasia codec.

Windows media player is installed by default for all windows 95 and higher machines. I believe the camtasia codec works with all version of windows media player since windows 95.

What AMS does is call the media player program from windows to create the media player object inside of the AMS program....so you do not have to install it.

[TheMatrix]

Thanks for that KP. I appreciate your help. As always testing helps. I'll post when I get this tested over the next couple of days.

[Corey]

Camtasia Producer also has something called "Pack and show" kp, easier than the zip trick when you need standalone.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[kpsmith]

Hmm...

Funny thing about all this is I don't even have Camtasia. I just get the camtasia video files and put things together.

[Corey]

You're right, that is funny. A real humdinger.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[AGRO]

"Macromedia Flash reaches over 497 million users.

Macromedia Flash is the leading vector technology for designing high-impact, low-bandwidth Web sites that attract, engage, and retain site visitors—providing a richer, more compelling Web experience.


In December 2002 , NPD Research, the parent company of MediaMetrix, conducted a study to determine what percentage of Web browsers have Macromedia Flash preinstalled. The results show that <font color=blue>98.0%</font color=blue> of Web users can experience Macromedia Flash content without having to download and install a player. Reference found here (http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/survey/)


With that said, I have found it to be an easy decision to export most of my movies with the .swf extention. 98% of the people have the Flash player installed. If i remember correct, Windows 98 was the first operating system to include the Flash Player and they have been doing it ever since. The video is compressed, leaving more room on the CD, and it still looks great. Adding controls to the flash video is easy. There are so many options for controls, the hard part is choosing one. There are so many 3rd party programs that aid in adding controls, effects, player templates and more. Now that AMS has Flash support it is a dream come true.

[Corey]

Techsmith also offers a free flash control bar component for Camtasia produced .swfs. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif It's a great one too...

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)

[AGRO]

Yeah I saw that Corey, it is really nice. It is almost like the quicktime player controls. Simple, compact.

[TheMatrix]

Nice one Corey, I have Camtasia Producer, but didn't know it had the pack &amp; go option. Ah well training is packaged now, but will use that feature in later versions of products.

[Corey]

Yeah but remember, when you use pack and show, it adds something like 500K or so to every movie you pack...

Honestly in the course of producing my current Powetips CD I have discovered that Camtasia Recorder is a bit glitchy, especially on audio. So believe it or not I am now using the freeware Camstudio simply because it produces higher quality audio/video.

Camtasia Producer is still a good choice for conversion, etc. though. It's fast and simple, I like that.

Corey Milner
Creative Director, Indigo Rose Software (http://www.indigorose.com)