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Screencast.com January 2010 Update

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Screencast.com is continuing to grow and improve. We started our most recent development sprint back in November 2009, before there was snow on the ground. The Holiday season came and went, I gained a few pounds; and the Screencast.com team has continued to work on a variety of visible and not-so-visible enhancements which we just unveiled today with our most recent publish. 2010 will be all about iteration and improvement (and hopefully weight-loss), but with an ear to the ground and an eye to the future. We'll need your help to let us know what works and what doesn't work.

So what DO we have to show you? Well, you can now customize the colors of your embeddable Flash player (by virtue of embed code flashvars for now).

You can now "deep link" into MP4 video through the use of a time-coded URL, and we'll automatically hyperlink any reference to video time in comments.

We cleaned up the iTunes and podcast publishing process, and we put some things in place to better handle viewing mobile compatible content through mobile devices - though you will still need to know what kind of content is compatible with what devices...more on that later.

We did a lot of things we can't show you but you'll appreciate none-the-less. Those things have more to do with backend, architectural improvements to support the millions of viewers that visit the site and the even more millions of pieces of content that are constantly being uploaded, managed, and shared. We also did a few things we can't show you yet, but will one day. Think Silverlight, multiple account management, intra-video text searching, and ... dare I say subfolders? Someday...

Well, what's clear is that we're not running out of things to do, thanks to you. So thank you to all of you who've been so loyal to Screencast.com; all of TechSmith appreciates your business. I and the team will continue to read your feedback each and every day, and I will do my best to respond personally when I can. Happy New Year to everyone and as always - happy screencasting!

-Dirk

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36 Comments

Is there a way to recover the information in the "Edit Content Properties" fields that no longer appear - particularly the "additional information" field and the "project name" field where I stored information about the original file?

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I have been trying for a week to find a way to have a nice video player interface (instead of folders here at SC). I see Vimeo, Youtube, VodPod give you cool interfaces. There are even some cool ones to be bought and used with Word Press. When I try to use my code from here, it works no where. What do I have to do you have my videos hosted with you, but able to play through a professional looking player interface???
Thanks
jack

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Jac has an excellent point, any suggestions, solutions, options, inquiring minds want to know.

Jerry

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I used to love using Jing and Screencast to share how-to videos with my users, but the store sucks so bad that I'm giving up on it.

Why does the store
1. Have a totally separate login?
2. Demand my street address for a virtual product?
3. Try to impose a monthly payment by stealth? This one leaves a really, really bad taste... it's not just incompetent, it's sneaky.
4. Not take Paypal?

Your fantastic products show that you have lots of clever people working there - why not ask just one of them to spend a week fixing this awful, awful experience that you impose on anyone who wants to actually give you some money?

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@jac and @Jerry - I appreciate your comments and want to let you know that they are not falling on deaf ears. The Screencast.com team has been working behind the scenes to create a more customizable Flash player, and some of our efforts are visible through the recent improvement that allows you to customize the player colors through FlashVars. Of course that's not enough, and I too see the many different Flash players that exist on the Internet and want to mimic their look and feel. Technical details that I can't go into here prevent us from "dropping" a canned Flash player into our service. Regardless, I appreciate your feedback and want you to know that we are continuing to explore options for Flash player improvements for all Screencast.com users. Stay tuned...

Dirk

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Great to see the customisation of the appearance of the player. But it would also be great to incorporate Google Analytics event tracking so that I can use a standard system for seeing how people are interacting with the videos. Is this on the roadmap please? (Or already present and I've just missed it, of course!)

Thanks

Tim

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Per @Ian's comments above, our Ecommerce team is working on improving the purchasing experience for all TechSmith products and services. We have improvements in the works that will address the login issues @Ian describes, but as far as I know, most credit card purchases require a billing address for card verification purposes. I'll see if I can get a better understanding of how PayPal fits into our improvements; and while we are not trying to be sneaky about the fact that Screencast.com and Jing are recurring subscriptions, we can make the process more apparent, and even easier for those who don't want a recurring subscription purchase (let users buy x number of months of service). I can assure you we take this kind of feedback very seriously and we'll do our best to better meet our customer's expectations.

-Dirk

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hey quick problem guys. After getting the new Jing update, Whenever i try to upload on screencast or click save, it just closes the video preview, and i can't find the file ANYWHERE. im getting upset because i worked hard to get money for jing pro, and it wont even help. please, if you have any suggestions, i am open to them all. thanks you for your support

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We were told that the video player would have a volume control slider or some other way to control the volume other than only the on or off option by late January. Has there been any progress made towards this improvement?

Thanks!

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@Everett, Have you tried the controller? If you are viewing a MP4 file it has the volume control. I'm not sure if that's true for all media types, but all my mp4s now have a volume control which is pretty cool! :)

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Thanks John for the reply.

I am viewing an .FLV file. We pretty much do everything in Flash video.

I was also sorry to hear that screencast.com will not support H.264 encoded .flv's.

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I wish that if I have a .mov .flv or whatever files that if I want it converted
that I could pick to be converted to another type of file by screencast
I now use realplayer pro which cost me a one time fee of $29.95

I'd rather have a "one place"

Oh - and have it sizable -

another optional take off "screencast.com on the bottom of my
playlists.

see www.ourinfopage.com/foodservice

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I would just like to chime in with Ian. The re-occuriing charge thing for Jing Pro is frustrating. I just want to buy and use Jing Pro and don't really care about screencast.com. I am trying to promote Jing Pro in my company and the biggest complaint is the purchase process, the re-occuring expense and why can't we just get a corporate license? Thanks for listening! Micah

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Cool features, guys, great to see you responding to comments too. Looking forward to future updates.

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Why not, but the feature that we all need is the possibility to customize our library and the content of a subfolder with the logo and the colors of our company! I hope that will come this year...

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i have an mac and i can´t install the the version pro of jing... i buy it and they send me an e-mail and said me that i restart my jing and.. im pro!!! but i try it few time and i can´t get pro!!!! i send and e mail, but they said me the same that i restart and .. you are pro.. but i `m sure that i´m stupid but i can´t be prooooo. I need help!!! i have a macbook pro... please i need help!!!!!

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Hi,

is there a way to get the streaming to start faster , seems to be the same content on screen cast starts in an embedded frame in IE8 slower than from you-tube , any ideas

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I have exactly the same problem as Manuel. I used to be "pro", then I updated. Now I'm back to the "free" version, and I have no idea how to fix it. I tried restarting Jing, restarting my macbook, I logged into my sreencast account (where I was congratulated on being "pro") I don't know how many times, I tried purchasing a new "pro" licence (was told I already had one), etc... I know I'm not that stupid! Please can anyone help?

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"You can now "deep link" into MP4 video through the use of a time-coded URL..."

How do I do that? Your "deep link" link seems to imply that this is only for comments.

Thanks in advance,
-Danny

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This is a great product/service. Thanks for keeping it updated and keeping the blog updated!

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Just drop in the site and it looks great. I may create an new free account to try it later. Thanks.

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This update took a while. Thank God I got it.

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Thanks for the update on Screencast Dirk, seems to be coming along nicely.

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goooleee..!!!! deep linking trhough mp4 that could be really useful for marketer.. thanks for the info

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Great information found here, thanks for sharing


Mailing lists for sale

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you should definitely support paypal
and I believe your registration form looks a bit messy
love the design of this definition website.
you should try something similar

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Why is it not possible to have the low height minmal control that you guys use for your content. The height of the screencast standard control cuts off too much content from smaller embedded website videos. I have made the progress bar more transparent but it is still annoying . Can we please have the option to have a smimilar control to yours in future ?

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The controller seems really easy to use, comparing with the previous versions. The feeling is more pregnant and the effects are better than now. Best regards, rca ieftin

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Bom-dia
Muito bom artigo.
a minha mãe fez um processo de sobrendividamento que é admissível ela espera a data de início do seu plano. Simulação de créditos, simulacao de créditos, simulacao de credito

Vai ser despedida em 2 meses razão económica, a minha pergunta é: as indemnizações que vai tocar pode ela guardar-o (10 000) sabendo que aquilo não cobre de forma alguma estas dívidas.

Obrigado de adiantamento para os vossos conselhos.

Kenza

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Nice to hear that some development is going on. Though I am using your screencast for few days and satisfied so far. I think there are some problem you have still like sometime I can't download the videos uploaded using your screen.cast. HCG Diet Plan

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Very simple but very catchy as well, it is good to know that you know how to draw your viewers. Can check mine see what can do to my site.
hotels near disneyland

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Is it possible to disable the floating search/index window? It's probably controlled with "tocdoc" or "showsearch" parameters, but I failed to find how.

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The new updates of Screencast.com is a huge influence for they are evident in making thing possible. I have to say that what you have shared is educative and a learning process for us readers.Keep up the good work!

Pain On Top Of Foot

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Great to know about the advancement of the style of the playlists. Very interesting and easy to do.

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goooleee..!!!! deep linking trhough delete myspace account mp4 that could be really useful for marketer.. thanks for the info

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The floating search/index window is infuriating. The lack of documentation on how to control it extremely frustrating. The tocdoc and showsearch parameters are undocumented.

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About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Dirk Frazier published on January 26, 2010 1:51 PM.


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