Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library)

Up to this point, we’ve talked about how to get information from small screens onto your Windows desktop. But what about doing the reverse? This isn’t limited only to video iPods - Camtasia Studio can produce videos that look amazing on other mobile devices, too. Now, you’ll often require a third-party application to get these videos onto your machine of choice, as these devices and their various media applications generally have a preferred format (some proprietary, some not). The thing you’ll need to keep in mind on the recording end is that the dimensions of your videos should be the maximum resolution supported by the device in question, so as to avoid scaling issues. For example, several high-resolution Palms have a screen resolution of 320 x 320. By confining your screen recording to a 320 x 320 area, you can ensure that your content looks great on these devices. No scaling. No scrolling.

Here’s a brief list of software that can help get those little videos all ready for display on smaller devices:

• TealMovie (http://www.tealpoint.com/softmovi.htm) - Palm devices. Comes with both a Windows-based conversion tool and a media player. The produced file format is proprietary, but file sizes for Camtasia Studio videos are low and the quality is outstanding (practically lossless). Cost: $29.95 for both producer and player.

• Kinoma Producer and Kinoma Player (www.kinoma.com) - Palm and PlayStation Portable (PSP) devices. Sports a conversion tool for Windows and a media player on the Palm (the files work with the built-in media player on PSP). Produces videos in MPEG-4 format. Kinoma has an advantage in that their media player is already bundled with several Palm OS devices. Cost: $29.99 for the producer, $24.99 for the player.

• Pocket DVD Wizard 2005 (www.pocket-dvd-wizard.com) - Pocket PC, Portable Media Center, Palm, PlayStation Portable (PSP), and a host of other portable media devices. In addition to converting DVDs, this handy application will also convert your AVIs, MOVs, or WMVs created in Camtasia Studio. This is a Windows-based conversion application. It is a producer only - you’ll still require a player app on the device that can play one of its available output formats (AVI, WMV, MP4). Cost: $24.95 for the producer. Keep in mind that this application’s main advantage lies in selecting the proper dimensions, file type, and level of compression for use on particular media devices. With the exception of MP4 output, Camtasia Studio can do all this natively if you know what you’re doing.

• PSP Video 9 (www.pspvideo9.com) - PlayStation Portable (PSP). Donationware app that converts Camtasia Studio AVIs, MOVs, and WMVs for viewing on the PSP’s standard media player. Windows-based. Cost: free.

Keep in mind that there are a multitude of player applications out there for the various media devices. Some are commercial (i.e., they cost money), some are open-source (free), and some are bundled with the OS or device. Before dropping a mint on new software, double-check with the free applications to see if they support a file format from which Camtasia Studio can output.