Making a high quality dvd of tutorials

[jeff dachowski]

Hi There,
This is my first post, and I am grateful for all of you who read this, and are willing to give me a hand.

I am looking to make a high quality dvd of tutorials.

I am using camtasia to record my computer screen, which saves to a camtasia file format (.camtec) I think.
I then need to use Camtasia studio to process this into a format that most editors etc will work with. In this case, I can save to a variety of formats, but I am choosing .AVI. When I view this AVI, it looks great. Super sharp, and nice defintion.

I then import the AVI into Sony Vegas 10, and then export to a dvd, and upon authoring, it turns to mush! I need this to look great when played on a computer, and good when played on a tv.

I am working on a pc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Jeff

[poisondeathray]

DVD is standard definition (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL)

So if you were capturing a HD screen for tutorial (e.g. 1920x1080 , 1920x1200 or similar for example) , there is a huge difference in resolution, so it's not surprising it looks like mush

I would consider making a blu-ray, which supports HD resolutions



There might be some minor improvements you can make, if you post your recording specs (use mediainfo => view=>text on the AVI) , your project settings used, and export settings used (inluding bitrate)

[jeff dachowski]

DVD is standard definition (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL)

So if you were capturing a HD screen for tutorial (e.g. 1920x1080 , 1920x1200 or similar for example) , there is a huge difference in resolution, so it's not surprising it looks like mush

I would consider making a blu-ray, which supports HD resolutions



There might be some minor improvements you can make, if you post your recording specs (use mediainfo => view=>text on the AVI) , your project settings used, and export settings used (inluding bitrate)

Hi There,
Thanks for your reply. I am not in front of that particular tower right now, but I wil try to post that info for you first thing in the am.

Jeff

[redwudz]

jeff dachowski, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,

Moderator redwudz

[jeff dachowski]

DVD is standard definition (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL)

So if you were capturing a HD screen for tutorial (e.g. 1920x1080 , 1920x1200 or similar for example) , there is a huge difference in resolution, so it's not surprising it looks like mush

I would consider making a blu-ray, which supports HD resolutions



There might be some minor improvements you can make, if you post your recording specs (use mediainfo => view=>text on the AVI) , your project settings used, and export settings used (inluding bitrate)

Hi there,
I did not see where I could choose mediainfo, but I did check in properties, and here is the specs:

1680x1050 data rate 3237 kbps total bitrate 3590 kbps frame rate 15 frames per second

When I rendered in Sony Vegas, I rendered as a MPEG-2, ntsc widescreen, 23.976fps, 3-2 pulldown, 720x480, yuv, 6 mps, pixel ratio 1.212

Thanks so much!
Jeff

[poisondeathray]

In Vegas, right click the AVI, go to the properties and select "disable resample"

Because your recording was 15FPS, and your export is 23.976FPS, vegas will insert blended frames (blurry). Disabling resampling will insert duplicate frames (less blurry)

You can try using a slightly higher bitrate (maybe 8Mbps instead of 6), but it's unlikely to help for a screen recording, unless you are moving all over the place very fast in the tutorial

The main issue is 720x480 is a lot smaller than 1680x1050

[jeff dachowski]

In Vegas, right click the AVI, go to the properties and select "disable resample"

Because your recording was 15FPS, and your export is 23.976FPS, vegas will insert blended frames (blurry). Disabling resampling will insert duplicate frames (less blurry)

You can try using a slightly higher bitrate (maybe 8Mbps instead of 6), but it's unlikely to help for a screen recording, unless you are moving all over the place very fast in the tutorial

The main issue is 720x480 is a lot smaller than 1680x1050

Great! I will try that is Vegas. Do you think I should rerecord my screen captures in a lower resoloution? My issue is that when I illustrate something in my tutorial like a menu etc, it cannot even be read. Should I start over, and if so, what should I record at?
Jeff

[poisondeathray]

Recording a lower resolution won't help, unless you record only part of the screen

Other techniques would be to zoom in on the text as you are moving there

I think there are some recording software that do this automatically (they pan and zoom into areas, and zoom back out) . I've seen some tutorials done this way, and I don't think it was edited that way.

[Nelson37]

I would strongly recommend that you abandon the requirement for TV viewing. This will allow you to use the full resolution for PC playback.

Screen-capping a PC screen, and then re-formatting that for TV display using standard DVD resolution, will be extremely difficult to get readable text.

The only other option is to use extreme zoom effects. 720x480 is just not good enough.

[poisondeathray]

I think autopan/autozoom/smart focus are options in camtasia and maybe camstudio . There are a bunch tutorials on youtube

(anyone else find that funny - looking for a tutorial on how to record a tutorial? )

[jeff dachowski]

I would strongly recommend that you abandon the requirement for TV viewing. This will allow you to use the full resolution for PC playback.

Screen-capping a PC screen, and then re-formatting that for TV display using standard DVD resolution, will be extremely difficult to get readable text.

The only other option is to use extreme zoom effects. 720x480 is just not good enough.

Nelson,
So if I go this route, I would stick with what I have recorded, but what would I output it to? It needs to be on a cd or dvd. I dont mind making not readable on a tv.
Jeff

[jeff dachowski]

I think autopan/autozoom/smart focus are options in camtasia and maybe camstudio . There are a bunch tutorials on youtube

(anyone else find that funny - looking for a tutorial on how to record a tutorial? )

So true! Luckily I am not making a tutorial on video!!! I appreciate everyones time. I am taking your suggestions and advice seriously!

Jeff

[jeff dachowski]

So...would I just take my AVI's that look good and burn them onto a dvd as data? So when a student opened the disc it would have 10 files on it marked chapter 1 through 10?

Jeff

[Nelson37]

You need to pick a format that is common to all or most PC's, or use a near-universal player like VLC, for instance.

MPG1 or WMV will play on virtually any PC. MPG2 or Divx would require a codec install or an on-disk player.

I would also seriously consider a slide-show rather than full motion, unless the motion is necessary. This would reduce file-size for hi-res, hi-bitrate MPG1.

Try it and compare the readability. You can also try a full motion capture and use the screen caps where text is critical, pretty much like a zoom.

I would start with a resolution of 1024x768 and capture it that way, actually as multiple BMP screen caps. Depends on how universal you want it to be.

[jeff dachowski]

Nelson,
Thanks for the tips. I am working with a tutorial on software, and really need to have good resoloution on the whole screen. I would not want to do a slideshow of it. I have tried burining the avi's onto a dvd as data, and can get playback on my machine, but cannot get playback on any other machines in my shop. They are all near identical.

Would I convert the avi's to vlc's for better compatability?
Jeff

[poisondeathray]

I am working with a tutorial on software, and really need to have good resoloution on the whole screen. I would not want to do a slideshow of it. I have tried burining the avi's onto a dvd as data, and can get playback on my machine, but cannot get playback on any other machines in my shop. They are all near identical.

Would I convert the avi's to vlc's for better compatability?

No, VLC is a software player that is cross platform and has support for many file formats

So you could use it on a Linux OS, Mac OS or Windows OS

If you were to go that route it won't play on "regular" DVD players, only computers

You could bundle the "portable" version of VLC on the DVD for example

[jeff dachowski]

Hi There,
I downloaded divx, and that did not work, but I tried vlc like you suggested, and it works and looks great! Thanks for your help! How would I bundle the portable version on the dvd?
Jeff

[poisondeathray]

If you click on the vlc hotlink, look for a portable version on that page. The "portable" version can be run from USB sticks, DVD's etc.. and is independent of system install . You would just burn it as a data file, just like your other videos. You would instruct the viewers to use the bundled VLC player to watch the tutorial videos

https://www.videohelp.com/tools/VLC_media_player

[jeff dachowski]

Hi there, just another question... I have changed my frame rate to be 30 instead of 15. Would this explain a considerable change in avi file size?

Jeff

[poisondeathray]

Not directly

filesize = bitrate x running time

but a higher fps requires more bitrate to maintain a certain level of quality

best compression would be achieved from h.264/aac; I think you were using divx or something. You could probably get 1/2 the filesize and still better quality if you used the right settings

[Nelson37]

IF this is a commercial product for sale, you may be violating the licence terms by including VLC.

This is one reason I zeroed in on MPG-1 when I considered a similar project. Everything needed for playback is already there and no licensing is required. Playback of different sections is simplified. Click-and-play.

H.264 will impose a hardware requirement of a reasonably modern PC. Older hardware may have issues, this depends on your target audience.