Video recorder creates videos incompatible with Camtasia

[patrickABAWF]

[ FlexSim 19.0.0 ]

Hello, I have a weird situation. The model videos that I record recently are no longer compatible with Camtasia studio. Whether I use the mp4 or h264 encoder the file can't be read by Camtasia. It's a recent problem. It didn't use to be like that. But they work fine in Windows.

I emailed Camtasia a sample file and they tell me it's because the file is encoded in h.263 codec.

I can't attach the file to this post...

I have a workaround by re-encoding the file with Handbrake and then it works but I don't understand what causes the initial problem. Bug in the video recorder?

[allister_wilson]

Hi Patrick,

I'm not sure how the output could end up encoded with H.263, that seems very odd.
I'm not even sure what arguments you'd need to pass ffmpeg to get H.263 but as far as I can tell it certainly shouldn't output that with any of the Video Recorder's predefined codec setups.

I just recorded short clips in 19.0.1 with the various output codecs and VLC shows all of them as using the correct codec.

Could you provide a short (a single second is enough) recording so I can run it through VLC to check it is indeed H.263?
You can put it on a hosting service and put a link here, or just send it to me directly via email.

Also, could you clarify what you mean by this "But they work fine in Windows"?

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

@Patrick Cloutier, you can zip any unsupported formats to attach directly to a post.

[patrickABAWF]

Here is the file.output1mp4.zip

[patrickABAWF]

What I mean by "They run fine in Windows" is that the video plays fine with any video player in Windows 10.

[allister_wilson · Accepted solution]

As far as VLC can tell, that's just MPEG-4 :

So I'm not sure what the issue with Camtasia is, but as far as I can see the Video Recorder is doing the same as it always has.

Have you also tried with the H.264 Adaptive codec in the video recorder?
If not, maybe give that a shot (and save the file as a .mkv).

[patrickABAWF]

I tried that and it doesn't work either. The only thing that works is by re-encoding the videos with Handbrake. I just use the default parameters, don't change anything, click encode and then the video works in Camtasia. Weird. Thanks for your effort.

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

@Patrick Cloutier,

Did Camtasia recently update itself? Since FlexSim's encoding hasn't changed, and the files still play fine in other media playback software, it seems like a change in Camtasia could be to blame.

[patrickABAWF]

I have the same issue again. Not resolved.

I have the latest version of Camtasia 2018. As I said above, their response is that the file was encoded in h.263 and it is not supported by Camtasia 2018.

Sorry. I will keep re-encoding...