Creating a Technical Video/Screencast for Connect? Start Here.

Video and screencast recordings are a great way to share information with the rest of the community. Here are some best practices, tips, tricks and guidelines for how to export your video files so that we can get them up on Symantec Connect quickly for you. For those of you who are already creating screencasts, please share your best tips and tricks in the comments below, too.

Start with a Script

• Write out your script in advance, with major demo areas emphasized, as well as and intro and conclusion.
• Practice running through the script several times. Make sure to practice moving the mouse in smooth motions, and not to move it unnecessarily while recording.

Set Up Your Computer for Recording

• Please use a microphone for best audio quality. Don’t turn it all the way up to full volume as you can get reverberation.
• Clean up your computer desktop so that files or personal backgrounds that you may not want to share with the world are removed.
• Adjust your screen resolution size (when you’re capturing) to1024x768.
• Change your screen background to either gray or black solid background color.
• Disable background noises on your computer.
• Turn off Instant Messengers, email, or other applications that could create pop-up windows during your recording.
• In your browser, uncheck your Favorites list and ensure that the only tabs that are open are those being used for your screencast.
• Also in your browser, make sure that you don’t have any text already entered in search engine boxes (Google, Find Text, etc).

Record your Screencast/Demo

• Please let the screencast stand on its own (don’t reference other screencasts, dates, holidays, etc).
• Introduce yourself and what you want to cover, and then start moving through the demo.
• Don’t play with the mouse unnecessarily and try and use smooth movements as you go through menu items and move around the UI.
• Zoom in and out where appropriate.
• At the end of the screencast, please end with “This concludes the xyz screencast.” or some wording that lets people know that the screencast is done.

 Once you’re satisfied with your content, please export to the specifications below prior to submitting to Connect.

Save Your File

Please save your file with a short file name approximately 30 characters in length that is descriptive of your video contents. For example, exporting-camtasia-files.mp4 is much more useful when archiving than video1.mp4. Thanks!

Export Your Video

General Video Export Specifications

Allowed Extensions: mov, mp4, avi, wmv, mp3 -.MP4 or .MOV files preferred
Preferred size: 1024x728
Bitrate – 500-600/sec (if you experience blurring, try a higher bit rate - 800-1000/sec)
Audio: stereo, 128 bit

For Camtasia:

If you're using Camtasia to record your screen recording, after recording through the Camtasia Recorder:

1. Click 'Produce,' then 'Add/Edit Preset' and name your new preset.
2. Choose 'File Format' as 'MP4/FLV/SWF - Flash output' (not Flash, but categorized as such by Camtasia).
3. Deselect 'Additional Output Options' choices if necessary.
4. Ignore 'Appearance.'
5. For Size, select 'Fit In Original'.
6. Skip 'Video Info,' 'Reporting' or 'Watermark'
7. Finish.

 When you 'produce' (as opposed to just save) a new video, and it is output using this new preset, a .mp4 file is saved along with a bunch of Flash components for playback. We only need the .mp4 file.

For ScreenFlow:

We’ve created a series of how-to videos for ScreenFlow users. Please make the following adjustments to your export settings to match our new export specifications:
Preferred size: 1024x728
Bitrate – 500-600/sec
Audio: stereo, 128 bit

• How to Create Screencasts - Add A Recording to ScreenFlow
• Export ScreenFlow Screencast and Submit to Symantec Connect

Submit Your Video on Symantec Connect

1. Log in to Connect: http://www.symantec.com/connect/.
2. Create a new video page.
3. Complete the required page information and attach your video (max size, 250 MB).
4. Please think carefully about your title and description, as this information provides the details for other members to choose whether to watch your video – or not.
5. You’re done! The Connect community manager will coordinate to have your video displayed in the Symantec player and will publish your video as soon as it’s ready.