The Screencast.com team has published a collection of improvements related to the Beta Library which brings it closer to meeting or exceeding parity with the traditional Library. Playlist contents now appear in the Beta view, and you now have the ability to add/delete content, view and change playlist details, including privacy level. In the new Library you can now see folders and playlists that have been shared with you through the Authenticated user privacy method.
At this point there should be little need to switch out of the beta view and back to the old Library interface. (Hidden playlists are still a bit wonky - let us know how often you use them.)With the added search and sorting improvements in the new Library, we hope you find it more efficient and comfortable to use the new interface instead of the old. If not, let us know!
Along with a few bug fixes, the length of an iTunes RSS feed is now unlimited. You can now host your iOS-centric content on Screencast.com, and distribute that content through iTunes without worrying about hitting a display limit.
Finally, we upped our Flash player limit to 10.1. We know there are still some holdouts still using the version 9 series player (less than 1% of all viewers), but we are experiencing compatibility issues with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the old Flash players, which is forcing us to increase our minimum player version.
Let us know what you think via our Get Satisfaction topic and if you have a technical problem, creating a ticket and working with our technical support staff is still the fastest way to get help.
Dirk Frazier
Product Manager
Screencast.com
The Screencast.com team is going to be doing some work on the database Sunday night, September 4, 2011.
Screencast.com will be down and inaccessible beginning around 10 PM Eastern (GMT -5:00). We expect the work and implementation of the improvements to last between 15 and 30 minutes.
We apologize for the inconvenience but we feel this is important in order to improve the service and address performance issues encountered this week. We will do everything we can to keep the downtime to a minimum.
Thank you for your patience,
Mike Curtis and the Screencast.com team
We pushed some new functionality on Screencast.com which is now available to content owners. To try it out you must be in the "Beta" view.
Our new details view not only allows you to easily see and compare your content details, but it also serves as a much more convenient way to enter or update content details such as title and keywords. In addition, you can more quickly enable download links or enable commenting on the content you wish.
Here's a little video demo (2:26)
In this release we addressed an issue where people were having thumbnails in their Library go missing. You may notice that based on some feedback and testing we cleaned up some of the "tile" view interface including the big details tool tip/hover box.
As always, the best way to send us your feedback is at http://feedback.techsmith.com.
Hi! I'm cross-posting this from Betsy Weber's Visual Lounge TechSmith blog. I'll be at this camp and would love to meet some fellow Jingers!
Come on in! Our doors at TechSmith are open! I'm really excited to invite you to the first ever ScreencastCamp!
So, what is ScreencastCamp? It is a gathering of screencasters and visual communication aficionados who want to network, learn, and collaborate on the art of screencasting.
The event relies on... YOU! All sessions, discussions, and demos are led by attendees sharing their knowledge. The program isn't determined beforehand--it's created the first day by the participants. Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join. ScreencastCamp follows the BarCamp model-an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is for new screencasters and veterans alike.
TechSmith trainers, developers, video staff and evangelists will be onsite and sharing their knowledge too. You'll have access to TechSmith's studio and sound room. You can even visit the giant spork.
Here are some more details:
- When: Friday, August 12 to Sunday, August 14
- Where? At TechSmith headquarters, in Okemos, Michigan.
- Cost: Free! All meals and drinks Friday evening through Sunday afternoon are provided by TechSmith.
- How do I sign up to attend: Sign up through the Eventbrite site here. Note: We have a limit of 100 attendees.
I know you're probably thinking, "Do I really have to set up a tent and camp?" No, you don't have to camp. If you don't feel like roughing it, you can camp inside TechSmith or there are a couple hotels within walking distance. I'd encourage you to camp - around the campfire is where great ideas are born, interesting conversations happen, new friends are made and creativity is sparked... and, lets not forget about s'mores (did I mention I make homemade marshmallows?)!
The hashtag we're using for the event is #screencastcamp. You can follow @screencastcamp on Twitter. You can find out more about ScreencastCamp here plus I'll make periodic updates on the Visual Lounge as well.
Will I see you at ScreencastCamp? I'll bring the marshmallows if you bring yourself!
It's easy to see the dramatic changes in the new Beta Library. Others may have noticed how the short URL (e.g. http://screencast.com/t/RaNd0M) stays short once entered into the address bar. It used to redirect to the full content URL.
Anyway, if you're into "invisible" performance-related facts, you might be interested in a post from Jared Wein's blog. Jared worked on Screencast.com for a short time and made significant contributions.
The latest Screencast.com release included a couple speed improvements that were quietly included.
URL improvements
The first improvement was one requested by Kyle Mulka, of Twilk, [among others] during a visit to TechSmith. Kyle mentioned that he wished the Screencast.com short URLs would stay short after the web page was accessed. He mentioned that a lot of users like to copy and paste the URL from the address bar and use it in tweets.
I spent a bit of time researching what we would have to change to fix this issue, and in a couple of days we had the changes implemented.
This change also brings about a nice speed improvement to the loading of pages on Screencast.com. Previously, when a piece of content was visited, the server would reply with an HTTP Status Code 302 - Found. This causes the browser to then load the page at the redirected location. This little bit of communication takes time, and with our new change we have removed this initial hurdle.
Here is a graphic showing the change in loading times:
With this improvement, we have increased the speed of viewing your Screencast.com content by 4.1% on average. If you are viewing your content from outside of North America, you can expect an even larger speedup. [We know it's not a large speed increase, but every bit helps, right?]
Reduced page size
The second [and more noticeable] improvement that was added to Screencast.com was a new library layout. Much care has been taken to reduce the filesize of the webpages, to the point where loading up my library using the Library (beta) only uses 1/4 of the bytes yet sends more data. The Library (beta) also makes 11 less network requests than the current library. This means that your Screencast.com library is now more accessible under tighter network conditions such as 3G.
In the video below, I'll show you how you can modify the Screencast.com embed code so you can use whatever image you want as the first frame. The first frame is what appears behind the Play button before the viewer clicks it. Since many videos start with a fade from black, the first frame is black. This isn't always the best first impression.
Update: The image you use for the first frame should be hosted on Screencast.com. The video is not clear on this, and it won't work if you reference an image on Flickr, etc.
I'll also show you how you can add a special "flashvar" so the video starts plays as soon as the viewer loads the page. This can be a little disconcerting and a lot of people like to be in control of starting the video. (Click here to jump right to the part about auto-playing videos.)
With Screencast.com's recent Library redesign comes a particularly interesting enhancement that many may have missed.
In the old design, you could upload anything to your Library. Some people might have a bunch of loose content that wasn't in any true folder. Further, this content is "Public" - meaning anyone that knows your display name can see your Library.
Take a look at my public offerings at http://www.screencast.com/users/d.frazier You see two public playlists that I've created, and four folders that are publicly visible and able to be browsed. What's not showing up are all the individual pieces of content that are stored at my Library level.
When you log into your account using the old UI, you find yourself in a "My Library" view by default. Here's a snapshot of some of my Screencast.com account now with me logged in:
Uploading content by clicking the "Upload Content" button results in your file being stored at your Library level, i.e. not in a specific folder. (You can of course upload content into a specific folder by navigating to that folder level and initiating the upload process.)
Previously we had no way of implementing any level of privacy at the Library level other than "Public." With our new UI, and particularly by displaying all folders in the left hand navigation area, we can now treat the Library as a real folder (and it is now called "Default"...by default. Clever, I know). Now with the new UI, when you log into your account you find yourself not in your Library, but in a "view" - specifically the "All items" view.
When you choose to upload content from this view, your content goes into your Default folder - for the time being. (A logical enhancement for us is to put a folder picker on the Flash-based uploader, but that's for a different discussion.) The point here is that because the Library is now a real folder, you can set the privacy of it to something other than "Public".
If you set it to "Hidden", anyone browsing to your account by using your display name won't be able to see any content that's been uploaded to your Default folder, until you send someone a direct link to it, or move it into a "Public" folder of your choosing. I see this as a benefit to most who want to upload lots of content in bulk (through the Desktop Uploader application or Camtasia Relay for example), not have it be instantly, publicly browseable, and then decide later how to organize and share it.
Our intention is to one day index all public content in Screencast.com in order to provide discoverability both internally (as related content perhaps) and externally through the various search engines. Additionally, we will one day make the new UI the only available viewing option for content owners. When we do that (and for those who don't realize that their Library/Default content is publicly browseable), we have an opportunity to set everyone's Default folder to "Hidden" (by default), without affecting any of the content or links to content that have previously been shared. If after that update, you want your Library/Default folder to be browseable, you can easily set its privacy level back to "Public", but it will be you that initiates that action and not us, on your terms and with your understanding.
For now, if you want to take advantage of this new degree of security, feel free to update the privacy settings of your Default folder and rest assured that any content you upload into your account that's not uploaded directly to a Public folder, will be hidden from view until you decide to share it.
The Screencast.com team has been hard at work making improvements to make it easier for you to find, manage, and share your content. While we still have more work to do, (better folder management and playlists come to mind) you will likely notice a snappier performance and a more efficient and consistent workflow.
What do you think? The best way to send us feedback is to post it here. Thanks in advance for taking the time to tell us your thoughts. We crave it.
Have three minutes? Check out this overview video.
I made a little video that attempts to explain why you might care about embed code. I then address the top three reasons people contact us for embed code help.
The top problems are:
- The code is displayed to viewers (instead of the video)
- Video is way too big for blog or website
- Code doesn't work, or isn't accepted by html tool
I welcome feedback on the video, especially as I plan to create a three-part series on embed code. This would be the "Basics" video. Do you like the live intro or should I just cut straight to the screencast? Anything you want me to cover in the next videos?
Don't forget you can click the Full Screen button to watch the video at it's original size. (I also made a low-res version that is a faster download.)
We've received reports that some people are having viewing issues--the tabs or layout doesn't look quite right... The culprit is that your browser is using some cached data so it's not loading updates we made with yesterday's release.
The fastest way to clear the cache is to hold the Shift key and then click the browser's refresh button (while still holding down the Shift key). That should do the trick!
