Making the Screencasts (Part 2: Encoding and embedding the screencasts)
- Posted December 19th, 2008
- Filed under: How We Do It, Technology
Earlier this month, I kicked off a three-part series about how I recorded the BatchBook screencasts with a post about the hardware and software I used to record the screencasts. I also included tips about scripting and recording the screencasts.
Today, I’m going to talk about how I exported the screencasts and embedded them within BatchBlue.com and BatchBook, our small business CRM.
When we last left our heroes, we had just recorded our screencasts (with Screenflick), done some simple splicing with QuickTime Pro, and saved a full-size, full-quality QuickTime video. This video looks and sounds great. The only problem is, it’s too big for the web. I’m not just talking about the file size. For example, the uncompressed version of the “Manage your contacts and social network” screencast came in at 27.1 megabytes. That’s not bad for a four-minute video.
The problem is the video’s dimensions. Before resizing, my videos were 1038 pixels wide and 758 pixels tall. While many users have large monitors now, there are still a ton of 1024×768 screens out there. That’s pretty much the size of our video. Factor in menu bars, task bars, browser windows, browser buttons, and other toolbars and we quickly realize we need to shrink our video.
