CamStudio

It seems as though the tip I posted previously to try and fix the audio/video desychronization problem hasn’t worked, at least according to the people who have emailed me with their results, or lack of them …

CamStudio SuperStar ™ Ben Ward sent this workaround a while ago and it looks as though I never got around to posting it up here … could’ve sworn that I did, tho’ … oh well here it is anyway …

Download VirtualDub (Free)

Open up the AVI file in VirtualDub you recorded previously

Click “Video”, “Frame Rate…”, and under “Source rate adjustment” choose “Change so video and audio durations match”.

Save the AVI (using “Video” > “Direct stream copy” mode), open it in CamStudio Producer, and convert to SWF.

Hopefully, job done!

Let me know …

I was doing some research on this subject the other day as I keep getting emails from CS users saying that the audio keeps desynchronizing from the video …

It seems as though when you drop down the audio sample rate to 22,050Hz, it increases the chances of audio/video desynch …

I’m recording some test videos but I was wondering if anyone else has come across this before and is it true?

The guys over at Free Decent Downloads just awarded CamStudio a “Decent Download Award” in their Multimedia section …

They’ve got some great freeware listed on their site - in fact, I just found a DVD authoring program I’d never heard of to convert some AVI and FLV files into DVDs (it’s DVD Flick if you’re interested) … awesome!

A big thanks to Chung and the rest of the team for the award - it’s things like this that make it all worthwhile …

Cheers

Nick

I just got an email from CamStudio user “mkbarth” who let me know about some videos he’s created and posted on YouTube using CamStudio, Google Earth And Google Sketchup …

All I can say is … WOW!

Click here to check them out and see for yourself …

Cheers Mike!
Nick

Hi there

I hope you and yours are all well …

I just wanted to give you a quick update on what’s been happening with CamStudio since I last contacted you and also make a couple of major announcements …

First, I was delighted to learn that CamStudio has made it onto the Nov 2006 coverdisc for .Net Magazine here in the UK and not only that, they gave it a great review, calling it

” … a little rip-snorter by anyone’s standards.”

At least, I *think* that’s a great review …

For those of you not in the UK, here’s a link to a screenshot of the CD-ROM:

http://www.nickthegeek.com/images/dotnet.gif

Second, I want to give you an update with the progress of v2.2 …

In a nutshell, it there isn’t any and won’t be!

Hold on, before you virtually lynch me, I thought about this long and hard and after a lightbulb moment, I’ve decided to completely bypass the whole 2.x versioning (real word?) and so …

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT #1: CAMSTUDIO V3

CamStudio V3 is now in active development!

I’ve managed to acquire some dramatically modified CS code which will be used as the basis for V3 and I’ve secured a small amount of initial funding to ensure V3 is released …

Between all the people who’ve emailed me over the last 18 months and my own notes, I have a list of features to add which I hope everyone will benefit from …

I’m not going to say too much here, right now, but I’ll be making regular posts on the blog as and when I can …

I’m incredibly excited by the prospect of releasing the first new version of CamStudio for 3 years and I don’t want this to be a one off event …

And so, it’s time to ask for your help …

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT #2: DONATIONS

Over the last 18 months or so, there have been a number of people who have either donated their money, their time or clicked the AdSense adverts on the site to show their support for CamStudio and I sincerely thank them.

However, to secure CamStudio’s future, we need to have a someone working on it full-time and as I’m not a programmer, the only option is to hire someone - and that takes money.

For those coders who have offered their services, again I thank you and please don’t see this as any kind of “snub” - it isn’t. Once V3’s source code is released, I will welcome any and every contribution you can make, but right now I want V3 done and dusted as fast as possible and in my mind it just isn’t fair to rely purely on you spending your time and effort after a hard days graft.

I know that’s sort of contrary to the whole “open source” vibe, but there you are … that’s me all over!

So, I’m asking for as many people as possible to donate a small amount every month, just $5 (which equals a miserly $1.15 a week) so I can hire a coder who can provide regular bugfixes and new features.

In return, not only will you get a kick ass piece of software, but all donaters will have their name and a link to their website on a “CamStudio Legends” page …

If just 10% of all CamStudio.org’s visitors donated, it’s future would be assured.

So what do you say - will you help me?

If you can, please click the link below and commit to donating just $5/month

http://snipurl.com/csdonate

Regardless of whether you’re able to donate or not … please help spread the word … post about it on your blog, email everyone in your address book … do whatever you can to let the world know about CamStudio, the little app that just wouldn’t die …

Like a software version of Captain Jack Harkness …

Anyway, thanks for your help in advance and let me know your contribution in the comments below, so I can add your details to the “Legends” page …

Best Wishes

Nick

It looks like a little bit more of the world will discover this great little program …

.net Magazine, one of the largest Internet magazines published here in the UK, put CamStudio onto it’s Nov 2006 companion CD and gave it a cracking review …

Thanks peeps - much appreciated - and if you think CS is a “little rip-snorter” now, wait till you see what’s coming …

Got 13 minutes spare …?

Check out these incredible machines …

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3163263343187879320

I just need a couple of minutes of your time … it’s important.

As a valued CamStudio user, I really need your help.

>>> DON’T LET CAMSTUDIO DIE <<<

Let me explain …

Since I setup CamStudio.org in April 2005, the website has had 292,095 unique visitors (including you), and CamStudio itself has been downloaded an incredible 152,420 times not including downloads from Sourceforge …

I’ve had hundreds of emails asking me for help, thanking me for making CamStudio available, sending me training videos (which will be uploaded shortly) and offering some excellent suggestions on how to improve it.

Here’s a recent one:

“I was delighted to find Camstudio appear again on the Internet having disappeared for so long. Many thanks for bringing it back to the public eye.

“My role involves advising teaching staff in post16 education how to use technology more effectively to meet the needs of disabled learners and Camstudio has a powerful role by enabling teachers and lecturers to create lively learning materials very easily – and indeed to involve the learners in the process. I’d be very willing to promote Camstudio on our website (www.techdis.ac.uk) through an appropriate article. We are currently working with all 24 Higher Education Subject Centres and all 400-ish FE colleges in the UK.

“Keep up the good work – this is too significant a program to lose!”

Alistair McNaught
TechDis Senior Advisor
The Higher Education Academy
York, UK

I love reading emails like that …

The vast majority of emails seem to be from people who just can’t believe a program this good is free - I felt exactly the same way when I first stumbled onto CamStudio and I still feel that way now …

I was completely gob-smacked when I saw it in action - I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a “home” website for it, which prompted me to setup CamStudio.org in the first place …

I want to assure you I’m 100% committed to Camstudio and over the last year and a half I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into responding to emails and keeping the website up and running, but there was one thing I wanted to do, but just wasn’t able …

What I really wanted to do was kickstart development of the next major version of CamStudio and hire a full-time programmer to work on it, fixing outstanding bugs and adding new features but since CamStudio is free and I rely on donations to keep it up and running, the funds just aren’t there …

And so, that’s why I’m appealing to you, fellow CamStudio users, for help …

You know how good CamStudio is and how much potential it has …

You’ve only got to look at a commercial product like Camtasia (www.techsmith.com) to see what’s possible …

CamStudio isn’t that far away from being able to emulate the features of a top-level commercial package like that … especially when using the excellent MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec I mentioned in this post …

But the only way it’ll get anywhere near that level is with a full-time coder working on it and that takes money, cha-ching …

I’ve just invested in a new hosting account with 1 TeraByte of data transfer, which should come online during the week sometime (sorry in advance for any downtime) so everyone should be able to download CamStudio without any problems in the future … unless I get Dugg, Slashdotted and BoingBoinged all at once … ;o)

And I’ve also managed to find and hire a coder who’s going to fix the outstanding bugs and add a couple of extra features to make CamStudio even more valuable …

But when that work’s done - he’s gone … unless I can get some regular funds in to pay him to keep working on it …

So, I want your advice … what would you do if you were in my shoes …?

• Should I just out-and-out start selling it …?
• Should I keep it free to download but sell it on a CD with some video tutorials …?
• Should I keep it free and charge for support …?
• Should I just ask users for a small donation every month, like $5 …?
• All of the above …? Something else …?

WHAT SHOULD I DO …?

I really want your feedback on this … post away in the Comments below …

Thanks David from http://www.dezineasite.co.uk/ who sent this video, showing how to recompile CamStudio videos with the MSU Lossless Codec and MP3 audio using VirtualDub so you end up with a highly compressed AVI file …

Click here to watch the video (opens in a new window)

More videos to come

Ever since I started messing around with CamStudio about 18 months ago I’ve been trying to find a video codec that delivered results as good as the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec which comes with the $300 Camtasia Studio …

The CamStudio Lossless Codec isn’t bad but people have reported to me that it does seem to generate blocks on finished videos and some of the videos aren’t as small as they could be - even when using MP3 as the audio codec …

Well, I think I’ve found the answer … The MSU Screen Capture Lossless Codec …

The results I’m getting are incredible, especially when you compress a “raw” video using the MSU SCLC and MP3 audio … I’m getting as low as 10:1 compression with minimal distortions - which I think is very impressive …

Not only do they have a lossless codec for screen capture, but they also go a video codec for “footage” videos as well as VirtualDub filters and other goodies for the geeks … [grin]

The only “downside” is that you have to get a licence to use the SCLC in commercial products - I’ve emailed them for more information and pricing - but hey, so long as it isn’t $300 you’ll be good to go …

And certainly for “freebie” tutorial videos and other non-profit tasks, the SCLC is definitely the way to go - I highly recommend taking a look at it …

UPDATE: I thought I’d also let you know - YouTube will accept videos encoded with SCLC/MP3 audio and video compression methods onto its site … and they come out pretty nice too …

If uploading to YouTube, you’ll get the best results if your source video has the same dimensions as YouTube’s which are 450 x 325 … anything larger than that and you’ll get slight blurring when the video is compressed into smaller dimensions and in FLV by YouTube …