Editing Screencasts

[kamiller42]

I am having a bad case of the whole being significantly greater than the sum of its parts.

I created two AVIs using CamStudio. One is 52MB. The other is 10MB. My project has the little one being inserted in the middle of the big one. I want to output the two together into a single AVI file or another container with a CODEC a Windows user would likely have. Every time I create a file, it ends up being either way larger than the sum of the two video files, like 1.5GB(!), or I am unable to change the frame size to match the source video (880x612).

How can I create a video file which respects the specs of the original file, is viewable on most Windows systems, and doesn't result in a file 100x the size of the source files?

For reference:
GSpot reports the source files as using Microsoft Video 1 (CRAM) at 20fps with PCM audio (22Khz, 706kbs).

[kamiller42]

Just FYI. If I create a video the same a first file, I get a 1.1GB file. I don't think it's compressing Microsoft Video 1. 1.1GB from 60MB of source video is too much.

[Ron P.]

Are you using Techsmith's avi codec? This is more compressed than DV or MS Video 1. So converting from Camtasia Studio to MS Video 1 will produce a significantly larger file size. In Camtasia Studio try using the WMV.

[kamiller42]

I am using CamStudio, not Camtasia. http://camstudio.org/

I think I discovered some bugs and the source of my frustration.

Given: Windows 7 Pro 32-bit with 3GB memory

Problem 1: Program attempts to write new video encode profiles to a forbidden directory. If run as myself, click Copy on an existing profile (WMV in this case) on the Manage Profiles screen, the program fails. If I start as administrator, no problem. New profile created.

Problem 2: When saving as WMV, I review the Options and the list of profiles I can pick from. There are some under the Customize option for WMV that do not exist in the drop down, specifically the Screen Video and Screen Video/Audio profiles, which happens to be what I need.

Problem 3: Upon reviewing the Screen Video and Screen Video/Audio profiles, I notice they contain a description but no options are set when I click Edit. So, I create a New profile and select Import to import these WMV profiles. The description appears and the settings are set. Now it's looking like it's supposed to!

Problem 4: After I import the Screen Video and Screen Video/Audio profiles, they appear in the Manage Profiles list. Everything looks good. But when I go back to the Video Save Options screen, none of them appear as options in the Profiles drop down. How can I use these new profiles I created via import?

[kamiller42]

Hmm, no answers. I thought editing and producing screencasts would be a fairly easy thing to do.