Camtasia Player 3.1.1 - README file 31 March 2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Description 2. System Requirements 3. Setup and Configuration 3.1 Installation Instructions 3.2 Uninstall Instructions 3.3 How to make Camtasia Player your default AVI player 4. How to use Camtasia Player 4.1 Command Line Parameters 5. WHAT'S NEW 5.1 Version History 6. Contact Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Description ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Media Players have become large complicated applications that depend on the latest Windows features (e.g. the current version of DirectX). The common Media Players have also become a battleground for streaming formats, entertainment portals, advertising, etc. These players tend to be optimized for entertainment content and are often simply not appropriate for playing screen recordings. Camtasia Player is designed to guarantee simple high quality playback of your Camtasia Studio videos. Camtasia Player is a simple, standalone video player, optimized for playing screen recordings. Camtasia Player always plays movies at 100% of their original size so that they remain readable. It runs on any 32-bit Windows platform, with no dependencies on runtime libraries, OS version, or DirectX. The Player is a single .EXE file that does not need any setup, nor does it use the registry or any configuration files. Camtasia Player is designed to be as easy to use as possible to avoid support issues. Command line options are provided which allow Camtasia Player to be invoked in various ways from CD-ROMs, multimedia authoring tools, and scripting languages or batch files. The command line options are listed below in the "How to Use Camtasia Player" section. Camtasia Player only plays AVI video files. Beginning with v2.0, Camtasia Player has built-in support for the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC). This means that an AVI encoded with the TSCC codec will always play in the Camtasia Player, even if the TSCC codec is not installed on the system. Any other audio or video codecs required by the AVI file must be installed before Camtasia Player can play the movie. Camtasia Player does not setup any shell associations to become the default AVI player. However, this could be setup by an install program that you provide, or by an end user. Please refer to CAMPLAYLICENSE.TXT for details about the software license agreement and about redistribution of Camtasia Player (CAMPLAY.EXE) with your Camtasia movies. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. System Requirements ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In order to run Camtasia Player, your system must meet these specifications: o Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4, 2000, XP or later version o Windows-compatible sound card and speakers (recommended) o About 420 KB of hard-disk space for program installation o Any audio or video codecs required by your AVI files must be installed in order to play the AVIs. ** Note: Beginning with v2.0, Camtasia Player can play AVIs encoded with the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC), even if the TSCC codec is not installed on the system. However, you may still wish to install the TSCC codec so that the AVIs will play in other media players. You can freely distribute and install the TSCC video codec using the TSCC.EXE codec installer, included with Camtasia Studio. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Setup and Configuration ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 Installation Instructions The Camtasia Player distribution file contains the following files. CAMPLAY.EXE Camtasia Player executable CAMPLAYLICENSE.TXT Software license description CAMPLAY.TXT This file To install Camtasia Player, simply unzip the contents of the distribution file to a new folder. 3.2 Uninstall Instructions To uninstall Camtasia Player, simply delete the files listed above from your computer. 3.3 How to make Camtasia Player your default AVI player On Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP or later: 1. Right click on an AVI in Windows Explorer. 2. Choose "Open With..." 3. Click the "Other..." button. 4. Navigate to and select "CamPlay.exe" (e.g. C:\Program Files\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio\CamPlay.exe). 5. Check the "Always use this program to open these files" in the "Open With" dialog and then click OK. On Windows 95, 98, and Windows NT 4: 1. In My Computer or Windows Explorer, click the View menu, and then click Options. 2. Click the "File Types" tab (or the "Folder Options" tab on Windows 98). 3. In the list of file types, select the file type for the .AVI file extension (e.g. "Video Clip" or "Movie Clip (AVI)"). The settings for that file type are shown in the File Type Details box. 4. Click Edit. 5. In the Actions box, select Open. 6. Click Edit. You may want to note the current setting, in case you want to restore it. Then specify the full pathname for Camtasia Player followed by "/open" (e.g. "C:\Program Files\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio\CamPlay.exe" /open) and click OK. 7. In the Actions box, select Play. 8. Click Edit. You may want to note the current setting, in case you want to restore it. Then specify the full pathname for Camtasia Player followed by "/play" (e.g. "C:\Program Files\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio\CamPlay.exe" /play) and click OK. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. How to use Camtasia Player ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1 Command Line Parameters When you launch Camtasia Player, by default it has a title bar, a menu bar, a tool bar, a status bar. You can customize those elements by specifying arguments on the command line when launching Camtasia Player. Here is the exact syntax for the command line arguments: CAMPLAY [] [] where is an optional movie file name and is an optional set of options among the following: /A - Launches with "Always on top" option /BC RGB(255,0,255) - Set background color, default is black /D - Launches without allowing "Dragging" by the movie area /E - Exits after playing the movie /F - Launches in Full Screen Mode /M - Launches without a menu bar /MX - Launches with its window maximized /open - Open the specified movie () but does not play it /play - Immediately play the specified movie () [default] /R - Repeats the movie forever /S - Launches without a status bar /ST - Stay on last frame after playing /T - Launches without a title bar /TB - Launches without a tool bar Notes: - For the /BC background color, you must supply a color argument with the syntax RGB(r,g,b) where r, g, and b are the red, green and blue components of the color. Valid values for r, g, and b are in the range 0 to 255. For example: RGB(0,0,0) = black RGB(255,255,255) = white RGB(0,0,255) = blue RGB(128,128,128) = dark gray The background color shows only when the movie that is playing does not fill the entire frame. For example, if the player is maximized while a 360x240 movie is playing, the background color will show. Examples: CAMPLAY "movie1.avi" - play "movie1.avi" with the default user interface CAMPLAY /E /F "movie2.avi" - play "movie2.avi" full screen and exit after playing CAMPLAY /M "movie3.avi" - open "movie3.avi" without a menu bar (i.e. no File>Open menu option) CAMPLAY /BC RGB(128,128,128) /F "movie4.avi" - play "movie4.avi" full screen and fill the background with dark gray if the movie does not fill the entire screen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. WHAT'S NEW ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 Version history v3.1.1 Camtasia Player now available in Japanese and Korean. v2.1.1 Fixed playback problems with some 256 color AVIs. A default palette was used instead of the actual palette contained in the AVI, causing some colors to appear distorted. v2.1.0 Added drag and drop support to the player. v2.0.5 Camtasia Player now available in German. v2.0.4 Added a warning to inform the user of possible playback problems for AVI files which exceed 1GB. v2.0.3 Changed program logo and icon for consistent branding with Camtasia Studio 2.x. v2.0.2 Changed program logo and icon for consistent branding with Camtasia Studio 1.x. v2.0.1 Internal changes only. No visible changes to the player. v2.0.0 The player can now play AVI files which use the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC) even if the codec is not installed on the system. Added /ST "Stay on last frame" option. When a movie finishes playing, instead of rewinding to the beginning of the movie, the player will stop on the last frame. Added /BC "Background color" option. This command line option requires a parameter of the form RGB(red,green,blue) which specifies the red, green, and blue components that make up the the background color. Valid values for the red, green, and blue components are in the range 0 to 255. The background color only shows when the movie is not big enough to fill the frame. Added volume controls to the player. Improved seeking performance. You can now seek while the movie is playing. You can now click anywhere on the slider to jump to that point in the movie. You can also use the left and right arrow keys for frame by frame navigation. v1.0.4 Added /A "Always on top" option to keep player on top of other windows. The Play>Always on top option only appears if the /A command line option is used. The player can now be moved around the screen by a click-n- drag inside the movie playback area. No dragging is allowed when the player is maximized or when in fullscreen mode. For backward compatibility, the /D option was added to disable this "Dragging" behavior in case it is not desired. Added Exit toolbar button when the player is run with no menu (/M) and with no title bar (/T) to make it easier to close the player. Fixed problem where player would forget its window position due to the sequence: maximize, enter fullscreen, exit full- screen, restore. Fixed problem where player was not positioned correctly in the window z-order when switching out of fullscreen mode. Fixed initial refresh problem on NT4 when /t /mx were used. v1.0.3 Fixed problems with Camtasia Player not exiting or repeating at the the end of a movie (/E and /R command line options). Fixed excessive flashing when playing a clip with palette shifts on a 256 color desktop with Camtasia Player. Fixed problems with the player stopping unexpectedly when dragging the seek bar. Added Play>Repeat menu option. v1.0.2 Change the command line parsing to understand options without spaces. v1.0.1 Added the Space bar as an accelerator key for Play/Pause. v1.0.0 Initial release. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Contact Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TechSmith Corporation 2405 Woodlake Drive Okemos, MI 48864-5910 Voice : +1.517.381.2300 Fax : +1.517.381.2336 Web : http://www.techsmith.com Support : http://support.techsmith.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 2001 - 2006 TechSmith Corporation. All rights reserved. TechSmith and Camtasia Studio are registered trademarks of TechSmith Corporation. Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. ----------------------------------------------------------------------