Camtasia headache = sadface.

May 20, 2012 11:54 AM

Why are my Camtasia MP4 exports cropping 1/4 of the video?

I've used Camtasia for Mac quite successfully in the past for creating tutorial videos. I upgraded to Camtasia 2 yesterday, and since then have had all kinds of trouble with exporting to YouTube automatically and exporting to MP4 manually. TechSmith's support forums aren't that great for this particular product.

Here's my most recent upload, which shows about 1/4 of the video cropped out inexplicably: YouTube This was exported automatically from Camtasia, not exported manually as an MP4 and then uploaded to YT.

My advanced export settings: Screenshot

My canvas settings: Screenshot

I filmed the video in 1280x720, which is the same size as my canvas.

The word "Codec" is tossed around in threads with different-but-maybe-related problems, but this is beyond my knowledge.

I have no idea what's going on. Help me, hive!

posted by denriguez to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

The part that isn't cut off is 1024 pixels wide, which is no coincidence as that's a common resolution. But I have no idea why it would be doing that if you've got everything set to 1280x720.

If you choose to create a .mp4 file, and then view that file in a media player, is it cut off? In other words, does this happen if you eliminate Youtube from the equation entirely? Or does the local clip look fine but it gets cut off after being uploaded to youtube? (And if that's the case, can you post that .mp4 file somewhere?)
posted by Rhomboid at 1:46 PM on May 20, 2012

Response by poster: Yes, it's cropped even in a media player (VLC). I've tried resetting the default canvas size to 1280x720, (it was set to 640x360 before), and I'm still having the same problem. Any chance there are settings elsewhere on my computer that is defaulting an MP4 to 1024px wide?
posted by denriguez at 1:49 PM on May 20, 2012

Response by poster: Update, FWIW: When I reduce the canvas size to 640x360 and shrink the clip to fit, the resulting video looks like crap, but it's not cropped.
posted by denriguez at 2:07 PM on May 20, 2012

Response by poster: Then there's this, when I change the canvas to 1080. Cropped even further. MP4 download/view
posted by denriguez at 2:14 PM on May 20, 2012

Never used this program but the first thing I'd try is to turn off "preserve aspect ratio" and see what happens. What other options are in that drop down box?
posted by nathancaswell at 2:48 PM on May 20, 2012

Response by poster: In advanced export options:

Image size dropdown

Preserve Aspect Ratio dropdown

I've tried messing with settings in both dropdowns, no luck.

However, in an interesting development, I'm trying to export the same file using the same software on my wife's MacBook. It's working like it's supposed to. This leads me to believe there's a setting buried somewhere else on my computer (I'll have to double-check all of the Camtasia settings to make sure they're identical). Anyone have any ideas there?
posted by denriguez at 2:59 PM on May 20, 2012

Best answer: From TechSmith Support (who responded quickly, bless them):

Note: GMA950 is my video card (Intel) in 2006/7 Intel MacBook (black).

Our developers have identified an issue with computers using the GMA950, it doesn't support larger export dimensions and so a recording or production is sometimes cropped. Unfortunately, at this time the only fix is to use a newer Mac with a better video card or do a smaller export. Many of the computers with that card were released in 2006 and are starting to become obsolete and unsupported by Apple.

Our developers may have a fix for this in the future but I can't promise that it even is fixable for those older computers.

There you go, future problem-havers.

Now to start saving for a new computer...
posted by denriguez at 1:02 PM on May 21, 2012