Review: TechSmith Camtasia 5
In some instances, this is OK; you can just soldier on and continue. If you’re producing a marketing video, or even a tutorial, it tends to make the application look a bit silly, so you feel compelled to edit this out, adding production time and often producing an obvious mouse jump or two.
In the excellent preview tutorials that TechSmith posted here, the snap-to application worked perfectly, although my results weren’t so positive. Using Ulead’s PhotoImpact, I selected the application window as the capture area and clicked Locked to application.Camtasia didn’t center the Save As window when I attempted to save the file.
I also tested several other programs, including Roxio VideoWave and Adobe Premiere Pro, using different computers, and I got the same results. I spoke to TechSmith about this; after going back and forth, the last word was, "Yeah, it seems to be a balancing act of trying not to be to obtrusive with other apps processes, so yes, we need to do a better job of trapping and will address this in a minor upgrade ASAP so most likely right away in 5.0.1."
Other New Features
Also new in Camtasia 5 is ExpressShow, essentially a new output template that produces a single SWF file that’s easier to upload and transfer than the multiple files produced by Camtasia during normal Flash output. The SWF includes a poster frame with a convenient button that expands the Flash file to full size and exposes playback controls.
TechSmith (finally!) added auto save capabilities, which worked well for me during the single crash I experienced during testing. Also new is automatic FTP upload that can upload your finished project automatically after rendering.
Other Tests
I tested on multiple computers, including an HP xw8400 (Dual-Processor, Quad-Core), a Dell Precision 390 (2.93 GHz, Core 2 Duo), and an older HP xw4100 (3.2 GHz Pentium 4 with HT Technology). Other than the "Lock to application" glitch mentioned above, the only problem I encountered was when I recorded an 8-minute narrated screencam of Microsoft’s Expression Encoder on the 8400; I lost audio/video synch very early in the screencam.
I discussed this with TechSmith representatives and sent them the captured file, and they confirmed the problem. They suggested a fix, which was capturing in PCM audio rather than MP3, which didn’t help. So I tested live recording on the other computers using the same audio hardware (M-Audio’s Podcast Factory) and produced perfect synchronization. I then retested on the 8400, recording narrated tutorials with Adobe Premiere Pro and Ulead PhotoImpact, and synchronization was perfect. One last retest with Expression Encoder produced the same lack of synchronization. My only conclusion is that Camtasia has issues with Expression Encoder, at least on that one machine. Otherwise, operation was perfect on all three computers.
Overall, Camtasia 5 is a very strong release that’s well worth the upgrade price, which should make Camtasia even more attractive to those just starting to produce screencams.
Related Articles
The addition of project themes and 60 fps editing makes the trusted screencam program more useful, and some will get rendering speed improvements.
08 Oct 2018