Compare to Camtasia

1. With Camtasia you can create avi with CP3 you will not (and probably never).
2. The price for Camtasia is strictly less than the price of CP3 especially if you live in Europe.
3. With CP3 it is easier to edit the project than in Camtasia. With Camtasia you have to be carefully with the mouvement of the mouse. I do not have an extended experience editing with Camtasia. General opinion on reviews that I have seen is that editing with CP3 is easier than with Camtasia.
4. Better to download trial both products and see for yourself.
5. Camtasia has a knwoledge base, answers by camtasia not by users. You can access to it for free.

Captivate is Flash-based, and it shares Flash's timeline-based metaphor, with objects existing on layers. So yes, it has multiple channels/tracks that you can hide/show over time. I'd recommend downloading the demo and playing around with it. Once you figure things out, Captivate is a pretty simple program to use.

The Safety-Kleen video has been around since the launch of Captivate 2, so my guess is that it was created as a .FLV using the Flash 8 Video Encoder. I think that came as part of Flash 8 (or maybe only with Flash 8 Professional).

Out of the box, the Flash 8 Video Encoder supports the On2 VP6 codec for Flash Player 8 and Sorenson Spark for Flash 7. The Safety-Kleen video could have been created with either of those, but I'd wager it's the On2 codec. I've seen some really pretty samples created with that.

Flash CS3 is out now, so I imagine it also has a video encoder component to it that should be as good if not better than Flash 8.

Thanks to TheBurger and Erik.

Does Captivate have additional channels or tracks for crteating mixed elements?

What do you think was the software used to create the Safty-Kleen Video? And what was it rendered as...SWF or Flv

J Michael

I haven't had the chance to check your productions, but I guarantee that
movie on the Adobe site was not created with Captivate. That looks to be
a custom Flash (with FLV) production.

What do you want to improve about the existing Camtasia movies you have?

I defer to TheBurger on importing a Camtasia movie into Captivate.
Sounds reasonable to me, but I've never tried it.
Erik

LoanGenie wrote:
> ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:
>
> Thanks to Erik, TheBurger and tykebrahe. Your comments are Very helpful.
>
> Can I import Video files created by Camtasia (.avi) into Captivate for their
> superior interactive format?
>
> Has Adobe reduced their output Flash file sizes?
>
> It seemed the video on the website about Safty-Kleen at
> http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
> is incredibly clear. Is that done with Captivate or something else?
>
> I'm looking to improve our presentations. Here's what I've been doing...
> I use Camtasia for our Mortgage Moment and Apprentice programs....

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
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Just viewed your video...it looks like you would have loads of fun with Cap 3, just my opinion. Instead of having a mouse rolling around the screen, you can just take mouse pointer out (one click!). Copy your slide then just highlight and record as you go...or you could just record over one slide and adjust your highlight to when you speak about it in your video. These steps are very very simple!

Now I know the true power of the hybrid option arm!

I would assume you could use a Camtasia AVI file in Captivate 3 so long as it's a AVI file and not using a Camtasia interface. But if you look in the topics I have had a problem uploading any AVI's in to Captivate 3. When I publish the flash movie just crashes. The only way to come close to viewing it is when I convert in to SWF or FLV and import it in my slide and it looks horrible when you play (pixilation) this could just be a "demo" version problem of Cap 3. Mysteriously flash files work perfectly if converted through Captivate. I will know better when my company buys the full version next week. Erik is completely right about the recording of video and everything.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

Thanks to Erik, TheBurger and tykebrahe. Your comments are Very helpful.

Can I import Video files created by Camtasia (.avi) into Captivate for their superior interactive format?

Has Adobe reduced their output Flash file sizes?

It seemed the video on the website about Safty-Kleen at
http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
is incredibly clear. Is that done with Captivate or something else?

I'm looking to improve our presentations. Here's what I've been doing...
I use Camtasia for our Mortgage Moment and Apprentice programs....

MortgageMoment:
http://www.understandingyourmortgage.com/MortgageMoment/MM22/HybridTrueRate.html

Apprentice:
http://www.understandingyourmortgage.com/Apprentice/

Thanks all

J Michael

Preface this all with the fact I've not played with Captivate 3 yet, so
this all refers to CP2 compared to Camtasia 4.02...

Camtasia blows Captivate away in 'full motion recording', there's simply
no comparison. So if your recording requires captures that are 'movie
like' in the fact that constant motion is required (like scrolling, or
dragging items, etc), Camtasia rocks.

However, Captivate equally blows Camtasia by when it comes to
interactivity. Camtasia is really limited to just putting in hotspots,
that will indeed pause the piece til clicked and have some limited
reactions, but there are no 'feedback options (correct/incorrect) like
Captivate, and absolutely no branching.
Well, maybe you could branch with some real creative editing, but that
could quickly get messy.

Camtasia requires a lot more precision during the recording, since the
whole process is captured as a movie. Captivate is a LOT easier to make
mistakes with and edit later by using its 'keyframe' approach.

Both have their bugs. Captivate's seem more diverse but Camtasia's one
'extend frame' bug is REAL annoying (if you use that function).

In short, for something like a product demo, I'd use Captivate. For an
elearning project requiring interactivity judgment, Captivate hands-down.
Erik

LoanGenie wrote:
> Can anyone tell me the advantages and disadvantages as compared to Camtasia 4.
>
> Do the Videos come out cleaner...maybe because Captivate is related to Flash
> (both Adobe products)?
>
> Can you create a long presentation and/or make chapters of different projects?
>
> Thanks
>
> J Michael
>

--
Erik Lord
http://www.capemedia.net
Adobe Community Expert - Authorware
http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/
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*Search the A'ware newsgroup archives*
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Hi, a while ago I saw this this article http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2005/04/16/camtasia-vs-captivate/

I used Camtasia 1,5 years ago, and that was little cumpersome to use it, and some obvious features did not exist at that time. This winter I started to use Captivate and are more pleased with that. I do not have any experience of the latest Camptasia version though

Thanks Larry.

I appreciate your thoughts and time

I gave you the wrong impression. I haven't used Camtasia for several years. Captivate 3 (current version - brand new release) is the culmination of Adobe's rewriting of the code to make a better mousetrap. Long full-motion is possible now (AVI captures converted automatically to SWF) where only short 3-5 second sequences were reliable earlier. Audio is reliable (someone is going to call me a liar somewhere in here).

The best part of the last iteration is that with one recording session, you can have Captivate create separate files for differing purposes ... for instance a demonstration of software complete with audio and text-captions and highlight boxes can be recorded, and at the same time, Captivate will be creating an Assessment Simulation and/or a Training Simulation complete with click-boxes (hot spots) to train or test the end-user.

Captivate supports a very hearty "quiz" capability that can be used in LMS (learning management) compliant with either SCORM or AICC or a variety of other elearning standards ... or simply send test results to a department head or other party by email (this use is problematic and I don't encourage it).

The product is just waaay to versatile to describe in the limited time I have available, but it is basically the best etutoring tool in the world today - in or close to its pricing structure (IMHO).

Have a good day!! I hope this is some help, but I still think the answer is going to have to come from your after trying both.

.