Camtasia version 6 Released and Reviewed
November 7, 2008
On November 5th, Techsmith Corp. announced the availability of Camtasia Studio version 6. Here is my take on the highlights:
There are a couple of biggies and the rest are mostly time saving features and, of course, standard bug fixes rolled up into any major release.
1. High Quality Output With Small File Size – The biggest boost consists of several new production presets that provide HD quality output at some VERY attractive file sizes. This is HD-quality video by way of MPEG-4 AVC, H.264+AAC and Flash. What does that mean? Simply superb quality and sound no matter what you are producing for (from iPod’s and iPhones to HD TV) at totally usable file sizes. And you can produce for all of them at once! For detailed technical specs check here: MPEG-4 AVC
My testing shows that videos produced with H.264 (the future of video codecs in my opinion) are nearly half the size of SWF Flash and are noticeably higher quality. Cool! Oh…and they sound better too!
All this comes by way of the presets (including one for YouTube…still testing that one) and make producing this great quality and small size a push button operation. Outstanding!
2. Unlock Audio and Video Track – The other huge modification addresses (but doesn’t eliminate) a HUGE pet peeve of mine…the fact that in all earlier versions the audio and video track of your screen recordings were “married” together. In other words, if you made a mistake in either the narration or video itself and wanted to edit it out you were basically screwed. You just couldn’t do it without jumping through several large and very painful hoops without messing up the synchronization of the audio and the video. Ouch.
In version 6 you can now “decouple” the audio from the video and move them around independently like you can in any other video editing software on the planet. Finally!
That being said, Camtasia Studio 6 will still not be my main video editor (I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum) because I have much greater control and the ability to add multiple video and overlay tracks. But for smaller, less complex projects this feature is a freakin’ godsend!
Productivity Enhancers:
Here are some other nice little touches.
1. Redesigned Camtasia Recorder App – the user interface for the recorder is all new. Ya…kinda cool but the one thing I really love is the addition of a “Restart” button. Previously, if you wanted to trash a recording you were doing because of mistakes you need to Cancel it…and then Delete it…and then start the whole process off again. Ugly and time consuming. Now…just hit the “Restart” button. Sweet!
2. Workflow Hotkeys – Camtasia now have a bunch of Hotkeys available when editing. Need to Split your video? Just hit “S” in the timeline. Want to add a callout to the current spot on the timeline? Just tap C on your keyboard. Need a transition? Hit T. The same goes for caption, zoom, marker, split, and extend frame.
Nice…but hardly ground-breaking. I expect that the more I use them the more productivity gains I’ll experience. Techsmith’s testing touts a 30% reduction in editing time…Hmmm, OK.
Cool Stuff:
3D Tilt – The Pan & Zoom function now has a cool feature that allows you to do a 3D Tilt of your video. I’ve done this for about a year now but used Adobe After Effects to achieve it. Much harder to create the clip and then import it into Camtasia. Now, you just do it right inside Camtasia Studio during editing. Nice.
Improved Effects Control – Advanced editing techniques with complete control over transition and callout fade durations down to 1/10 of a second to create more polished videos.
Import MOV File Formats – In version 6 you can now import MOV files as native content. This is handy since many video cameras use this format and now you can get that content into your project easily.
Techsmith also lists integration with Screencast.com and a free 2GB disk and bandwith account as a “feature” in version 6. Not sure what that’s about…you can get that with version 5 (unless I’m missing something).
Links to Resources:
Here are some links so you can check things out for yourself:
1 – What’s New – includes a video overview with Troy Stein (Camtasia Product Manager).
2 – Video Overview & Demo – Troy again with a more in-depth video overview.
3 – A slew of new version 6 Video Tutorials. Scroll to the bottom…
4 – User Forum Thread – here’s a thread I started on Techsmith’s User Forum RE the upgrade. Some spicy comments about the upgrade provisions and dropping FLV output!
5 – Version Comparison Chart. Pick your current version and see What’s New.
My Biggest Concern:
As I was testing the new production outputs, I was shocked to find (or more accurately NOT find) that there is no longer an FLV option for Flash! OMG! David O’Rourke (Lead Developer) says:
MP4 replaces FLV in CS6. It’s true that we were focused on the FLV format in v5. At the time, FLV was the recommended way to do video in Flash. Then Adobe changed the game by announcing that they’d reached the limits of what the FLV container could do, and that they were adopting the stardards based MPEG-4 container instead. They also announced decoding support for H.264 video and AAC audio. The MP4 output in CS6 is our response to this change. The MP4 files produced by Camtasia Studio use H.264 video compression and AAC audio compression. This combination delivers high quality at reasonable file sizes across a wide spectrum of content. In short: small files, high quality, no guesswork, standards based container, ubiquitous playback. That’s a winning combination in my book.
OK…that’s all well and good and all…BUT:
I use several custom players that only accept FLV as the video source! Most notably is the Media Menu Producer I use for ScreencastProfits.com. OUCH! I’ll probably have to output to a lossless format (like AVI) and use Sorenson Squeeze to FLV…I think it will be an issue for many. Be advised…
Is It Worth the Upgrade Price?
Unlike some software companies which release new major number versions every two years, Techsmith typically does one every year or so. While this gets new features into the hands of users quicker, it also means that sometimes it appears that the “upgrade” is lacking in a large number of highly impactful functions. You’ll hear some complaining from users who have recently upgraded from earlier versions to v5 and feel that they are getting stuck for another $150 to go the v6.
Techsmith has historically provided some provisions for recent upgraders so contact Customer Support to see if they can do anything for you.
But for me, the addition of the new HD quality settings and unlocked audio and video are enough to justify the upgrade. For others, it basically depends on how many videos you make ( to realize the time savings) and how difficult you find it to produce quality videos at decent file sizes. But the whole FLV support thing is a potential problem…especially if you use custom players.
One thing you can do is to download and install the 30 day fully functioning free trial and give it a test run. Camtasia 6 installs in it’s own directory and Program Group so you won’t overwrite your existing Camtasia version. I actually have versions 3 – 6 installed on my computer…
I hope this review helps a bit and I’ll have much more detail (and video reviews!) soon as I continue to work through all the features and functions.
To get the MOST out of your video creation efforts no matter what version you are running, be sure to go to ScreencastProfits.com and start making more effective marketing videos!!!
Join the discussion and leave a comment or question! If I don’t know the answer…I’ll find out!
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Posted in Camtasia, Screencast News
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November 7th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hello Lon,
I just received my notice yesterday from the folks at Camtasia
and aside from the flv issue, I’m looking forward to taking it for
a spin.
I’m 2 videos away from finishing my latest project and I’m going to
create and produce the final 2 using version 6 and see if either myself
or my customers can see the difference in the quality.
I should have them finished in a few days and I’ll report back my findings.
Til’ then..thanks for a fantastic review and your awesome videos are
always an inspiration for me.
Steve Dougherty
http://www.plrvideodirect.com
November 7th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Hi Lon,
I tried C6 yesterday (I copy a daily screencast for my customers up to youtube). I have found the m4v youtube upload is inferior to FLV (I screencast over spreadsheets, so the quality here matters). AT 480×320, youtube quality is never great, but with FLV is was workable, but the MP4 uploads so far are not and they don’t seem to offer the setting variations like FLV that give some degrees of freedom…David Harper
November 7th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Lon, Fantastic review! I especially liked the tilt and flv part. The quote from Adobe about flv is a mind blower. My wild imaginative guess would be that Apple/YouTube got to them and they cut a deal – to say they have reached the limits of a container does not jibe. Oh well, ya think i listen to too many conspiracy theories? HAHAHA. This is only fantastic news for Apple and Quicktime. Oh BTW, Did you know that the jeroenwijering player plays back h.264? Way cool! Great review my friend.
Perry
http://www.AskMrVideo.com
November 7th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Hey Lon,
Thanks for the review, actually I don’t think I will upgrade just yet to be honest.
I am quite happy with my current version and although there are some nice new features, it doesn’t swing it for me!
Sally
November 7th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Hi Lon,
Thanks for the great review, very detailed – good job!
I purchased my upgrade yesterday and am excited to ‘dig in’ and crank out some new vids when I get a chance.
Keep up the good work dude!
-Ron
November 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I have a friend who recently bought version 5 and then they brought out version 6. They upgraded her for free though just a few days ago, she is delighted with that.
Kindest
Gordon
November 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Lon, you freakin rock, that was the right info,
at the right time…
priceless,
Keep on rockin, oh and thanks so much for the
dreaded “green frame” tip on the zoom, my vids
improved 200% from that tip alone…
lookin forward to learning more…
Jeff Davis
November 7th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
HI Lon…great informative review! Just last week I was struggling with trying to uncouple the audio from the video, so this update is great news. I also use IShowU to capture screen videos on the Mac. IShowU only saves in .mov format, and up till now I have had to use a third app to convert the .mov just to get it into Camtasia for editing and production. Now that’s solved, too.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hi Lon,
Great review and thanks and like you I’m especially excited about the ability to unlock the audio and video tracks.
I will be upgrading
Monique Terrell, Virtual Assistant
Sparkle Professional Office Services, LLC
“We Maximize Your Visibility To The World”
November 8th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Loved it!
November 8th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Hi Lon,
Thanks for a great review. I upgraded to v6 yesterday, Nov. 6th and it seems to produce videos a little faster than v5.
One Note:
When I run an Express Show with TOC in IE7, clicking on the link in the TOC at the beginning of the video crashes IE7. Also, using the slider also crashes IE7. The error message indicated that an Adobe plug-in failed.
When I called TechSmith support, on Nov. 6th, they knew about the bug, that TechSmith determined it was an Adobe problem, and that Adobe techies were working on it.
The only work=around suggested: Run my videos in Firefox where no problems have been encountered. No idea when the bug will be fixed for IE7.
Second note:
You said in your post:
Perhaps you can share with us here or in your video tutorials how you use Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum
Thanks again for a great v6 review.
Cheers,
Rich
November 8th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Good blog. I am not that much into producing videos yet. It would be a good future project.
November 8th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
“I have a friend who recently bought version 5 and then they brought out version 6. They upgraded her for free though just a few days ago, she is delighted with that.”
I “upgraded” immediately from Camtasia Studio 3, which they gave away free for about one month in December (thank you…) at a cost of $150… and now less than one year later I am definitely NOT delighted at all that now I would have to pay another $150 to upgrade to Cam Studio 6.
I wrote to Techsmith and I received a very curt answer: I have the option to not pay and stay with Cam Studio 5, or I have the option to upgrade to Cam Studio 6 for $150, or I have the option to upgrade and also buy an “upgrade policy” for an additional $75, with which we can upgrade “within one year” for the bargain price of $75…
There is no guarantee that there will be an upgrade within one year. So in fact it would be equally expensive to upgrade to Cam Studio 6 and buy the policy for $225 + $75 to upgrade to Studio 7, than to buy a new Cam Studio 7 when and if it comes out within one year.
So in fact it makes sense to not buy the “upgrade policy” and in fact I am debating whether or not to pay another $150 for the upgrade in the first place. I am one of those that feels it is unfair, I feel I am being stuck with an upgrade that only has one feature that interests me, and that feature should have been included when I bought version 5.
Lon, a question: now that you have “upgraded” to Cam Studio 6, can you still use Cam Studio 5 so that you can still have FLV output when you want it? Or… Let us suppose that you can… you would still have to produce the video two times, once in Version 5, once in version 6… but you say you need FLV output for FLV Media Player… so you either have to decide whether it is more important to use version 5 so you can use FLV Media Player, or forget about FLV Media Player and menus…
Am I right, I think I should skip Cam Studio 6? Which new feature is truly important about Cam Studio 6?
The ability to unlock video and sound is the single feature that seems important to me, because I don’t need for it to be “faster”… and who really cares so much about high definition, if content of a video is what is truly important…?
So the ability to edit video and sound is the only really important improvement, and Techsmith should have included that in version 5… so they only fixed a mistake… in my opinion they shouldn’t charge $150 because they fixed an omission… they should charge zero… or… I would settle for $75 if it also would include their “upgrade policy”… (you can upgrade next year, if they have an upgrade, for $75…)
It seems to me that if I would decide for Techsmith, they would be more customer friendly. – Ellis Toussier
http://www.rajeun.net/rejuvenation.html
November 8th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Lon, thank you for the time and effort to make this great review! I appreciate very much!
Rogerio Job
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I am a charter user of Techsmith products and always been pleased with their advances over other copy cats (including Adobe). I also use Sony Vegas (the best!!). Camtasia Studio was never meant for professional video editing but it is nice that they are adding features as long as it does not slow down the most needed processes. There must be some political reason to drop the .flv. You can’t tell me that they could not keep it as an option!! If you have Flash Pro or some third party tool than you can convert an avi to .flv. This is not faster Techsmith!!
July 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
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