Most compatible way to send video?

[IMJimK]

I am a NON video guy trying to figure out what I thought would be a fairly simple process WOW........this world of video is quite the complex one!!

I am trying to figure out the most compatible way to send videos to potential clients for prospecting purposes, most important thing is that most if not all will be able to view no matter their viewing device. My videos are basically screen recordings I made with Camtasia. I figured the best way to accomplish this would be encode the video into a DVD format so that pretty much any computer or DVD drive could play the video. I used a free program called DVD Flick to do the encoding. Quality went down a bit, but it works great on the computer. Of course, being a newbie I was surprised when I saw edges of the video being cut off on the TV......I then learned about overscan and title safe in finding this forum. I consider myself a pretty technical guy, but this just spins my head almost right off my shoulders

This has been a grueling process the last week as everything from Camtasia to DVD Flick and everything in between was all a first for me........but I really need this to be as quick and painless of a process as possible.

In case it's important........I have been rendering from Camtasia to MP4 in both 1080 and 720 experimenting to see which would provide for best quality.

I really don't have much interest in becoming a video guru and am simply looking for the quickest and easiest path to my desired outcome in being able to create nice looking videos I can send out that everybody can view and see the entire video.

I did attempt following an older thread on this forum using Avisyth and FitCd to no avail.......Avisynth would not install on my Win 7 64 bit system for some reason.

Would REALLY appreciate any help or advice I can get!!

IMJimK

[dustie]

You might want to check out the free downloabable trial version of PowerDirector from Cyberlink and watch a couple how to video's on youtube.com. I've found this the best free way to quickly crank out a universal DVD. They've a great user forum to help with their software too. Wasn't long before I purchased their full version, but if you're only planning on this one DVD, then the trial version should help a lot.

[IMJimK]

Hey Dustie,

Thanks for the quick reply!! Yeah, definitely have a computer that can handle all this, just bought a gaming system myself from a friend of mine and even upgraded after with 16 gigs of ram and SSD hard drives. It registers a 6.9 windows experience rating, I can run other programs while this machine is rendering or encoding with absolutely no notice in drop of performance or speed. Funny, I have a free version of PowerDirector on my machine as it came with a drive I bought......it would not even look at the MP4 files I have created with Camtasia.......this is when I went out and found DVD Flick which seems to work fine except the slight degrade in quality and the fact that the screen edges get cut off when viewing on a TV. Does PowerDirector resolve the issue with the screen edges getting cut off when viewing on a television?

[IMJimK]

Seems like countless people on this forum complain that PowerDirector crashes constantly.......not sure I want to go through the hassles of dealing with such a temperamental program. I really am just looking for the easiest solution without getting heavily involved in all this video stuff!

Anybody have any other suggestions??

[jman98]

AviSynth WILL install on Win 7 64 bit. I've got the 64 bit and 32 bit ones both installed and both work. However, you should only install the 32 bit one. The 64 bit one has hardly any filters available for it and it's also a little flakey. I only use the 32 bit one any more.

[IMJimK]

Ok, thanks man.......but I am VERY lost with all this stuff and felt I needed to check my whole process from start to finish before spending anymore time learning other programs. I essentially am looking for the easiest way to accomplish my end goal of being able to take my screencast from Camtasia, either as an MP4 or I can render in another format and get that video onto to a DVD that anybody can watch. preferably even if they can't access a computer and just use a TV and DVD player. Also, where the video fully displays properly on a TV. Like I said, REALLY just want the easiest route to the end game bud as I am really not into all this video stuff........or better I say, I just don't have the time. I have honestly already racked my brain playing around with a half a dozen or so programs messing with this stuff and need to get to my solution quicker than that is providing)

The stuff I read on this forum concerning AviSynth and FitCD was completely confusing, especially when trying to understand the information in relation to getting me to my end game

Also, not sure why AviSynth would not install, should have worded that differently as I did not mean to imply that it would not work with Win7-64......I just kept getting an error trying to install saying it could not access some .dll file.

[Cauptain]

AVS video Editor.

- Easy to learn
- Nice compatibility
- Export in various containers/codecs
- Effects, transitions, texts...Too easy.



Claudio

[dustie]

Sounds like you're computer will cover it all then...

What version of powerdirector do you have on your computer? If it's earlier then 8 I'd download their latest trial version. 11 is out now so any earlier then 8 would lack many current helpful features.

As for crashes...if you do try PD, you'll want to disable the Hardware Acceleration. You'll find this in user options (click the little gear like icon next to the ratio numbers at the very top left of the screen when you're in Power Director to access the options menu). I had crash problems too, but once I learned this little trick, crashes nearly disappeared. Before that, I was ready to give up on Power Director. Love it now though...It really is a pretty easy program once you learn the steps. Easy to learn with all the video how to's on Youtube. I learned the basics in just one evening.

As for Power Director and the screen edges getting cut off, I've not noticed any of mine cut off. But then I've only done a couple DVDs and they were more nature landscape type videos where the ends being cut wouldn't have been that noticeable.

[IMJimK]

Thanks Dustie............am going to go ahead and try out Power Director today to see what happens. I got everything to work including my issue with the Overscan........Funnny, as DVD Flick has had this option in it the whole time to be able to choose the Overscan borders byt percentage, but have not heard anyone mention this!

Problem now, is that areas in the video where there is text on the screen.........example being in Google's search results.....the text is VERY blurry........so I need to figure that out & I think I have my procedure locked down. I have heard of suggestions of rendering out to AVI initially instead of MP4 and then using Sony Vegas AND Sony Architect to get a better and more crisp picture that will fix the blurry text issues.......but I surely cannot afford those programs after just dropping $300 on Camtasia..........hopefully this Power Director will produce better results.

Anybody have personal experience with what I am trying to do with Camtasia and a Power Point vid.......and taking it to a finished DVD product?