The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video…from your computer to anywhere.

Excellent post; thanks! I was explaining Jing to a customer of ours today and he was asking the same questions about format & security.

Keep up the good work!

Could you please randomize the filename also? At the moment it is the date in iso-format, and underscore and the time. That is not very secure. Especially, when you want to create a rather confidential screenshot to other people, the URL in Screencast seems much safer.

But one would rather upload the confidential screenshot to his own FTP-Server, wouldn't he?

A randomized filename would solve the problem. Could you please address this issue in one of the next updates?

@Martin
I believe you can type over the file name yourself, if you do not like the default file name. (This is what I do regularly.)

Separately, - On the topic of video format, the .swf choice constantly gets in my way. I do understand your goals of making this fast and easy (and free!) and the real time recording/encoding goal.

However, leaving this in .swf format prevents me from getting the following benefits from any video I create

-No ability to edit the video after it is created. So if I stumble in the first couple seconds of the recording, I'm hosed.

-.swf converters to other formats are extremely tedious (and pricey).-

-to my knowledge, screencast.com does not yet enable users to use the videos they upload there and embed video in a different site from screencast.com (such as the youtube model)- This means that if I include a link to the screencast site from my site to see the video I created, I am losing visitors from my site, making my site less sticky and increasing the chance that the visitor will get lost and not return.

-There has to be another file format out there that is free and enables us to edit the file after the fact.

-Since this is a TechSmith effort, if ScreenCast could enable a better embedding functionality that could help solve part of the problems as well, but doesn't solve the need for editing after the video is created.

@Martin--You can indeed change the name by typing in the preview window. This isn't really what you're asking for, but it is a work around if you want more specific or randomized names. Giving the user more input on the default naming scheme used is a great idea.

@Brett--Screencast.com does support embedding media on your own site; in fact, the Embed button in Jing gives you the code to do so without ever visiting Screencast.com: http://screencast.com/t/TocG3Pbdq

I don't have a good work around for your problems with the SWF format; it has drawbacks as well as benefits. When it comes to quick and simple though, we felt it was hard to beat. We recognize that small mistakes might require you to redo the video, so we tried to make that as easy as possible with the restart button. If you click the restart button during recording, it "reboots" your recording to the initial countdown while keeping the exact same recording area.

I am a computer consultant my job it to find the best products for my clients. I take pride in being the best I can be.

Jing is obviously intended for n00bs, youtube and myspace.

If you want free stuff that that is more tweaky try
http://camstudio.org/
or cheap
http://www.fraps.com/

Their Camtasia Studio 5 is a VERY nice product.

However; is is too expensive for someone that is not profiting from the results made with the product. I have purchased several copies for clients as aids in technical training. It is a product I highly recommend.

But.....if your just a blogger I would question the legality of this product as it can be used to circumvent DRM, by that logic you might as well get yourself a ripped off copy of Camtasia because they are both grey.....

Camtasia Studio is in my opinion is the best of the best like Photoshop, Nod32, Flashfxp, Winrar and PerfectDisk. It is a standard app.

how do I get the url of a video?
I record it, go to history and click on embed or share and get "Capture Shared" "you've shared your capture" Where? what is the url so I can email it to others? I use XP

Thanks
... newbie

pi--I thought I'd chime in and clear up the noob/YouTube misconception. Jing is intended to be quick and simple, but that doesn't mean it's only intended for new users.

Think of it like this: do you need thousands of dollars of audio equipment to leave a voicemail? Instead of editing and producing a video like you would a music video or TV commercial, using Jing is more like calling a friend and leaving a voicemail. It may ramble on a bit and contain quite a few "umms" and "ahhs" but the message gets through.

Jing isn't designed to be a "content creation suite" like Camtasia Studio or some of the other products mentioned. It's a tool for creating quick content that can be shared with the touch of a button.

I'll be sure to let the Camtasia Studio 5 team know you like it. :)

As for DRM grey areas... I'm not a lawyer, but it shouldn't be any more of an issue than using the PrintScreen key is. Is it possible to use Jing to abuse copyrights? I'm sure you could if you tried, but the tool itself doesn't function as anything other than a VCR (I suppose a DVR is a more appropriate metaphor now) for your computer screen.

newbie--When you click Share or Embed, the URL is copied onto your Clipboard. All you need to do to put it into an email is paste it using Ctrl+V.

I have a question:

Where within my computer the captures of Jing are stored? Does it only keep the last capture temporarily in the clipboard or does it store them all somewhere locally on my drive? If Jing do store all the previous captures I could do with it much more then just upload the latest capture to some host sites.

Thanks,

Gideon

Are you planning to release a linux version ?

I'm going to have to agree with the SWF format being the major reason why I couldn't use Jing. I need to be able to watermark the videos that I produce and using the SWF format makes it very difficult to do this and contrary to one of the FAQs here, I resize the video down to aid in file size without any significant loss in visual quality.

As a Mac user I've been looking for a good product and Jing looks like an interesting project, but as it is, it simply won't work. On Windows I use Camtasia, I guess I'll just have to keep hoping that it will be ported one day.

Gideon--The selected output destination is where your file is stored. If you select FTP, then the capture is sent to the FTP server you specified in your settings. If you choose Screencast.com, it goes to your Screencast.com account.

Copies of files are also saved on your local disk. These appear in your History. Once an item is deleted from your History, it is removed from your machine and the output destination (if possible).

Tii--We're not working on a Linux version at the moment. We haven't ruled out working on one in the future though. :)

David--I can certainly see why SWF isn't convenient for you. I didn't mean to imply that you can't scale video and keep it readable; keeping it readable does require the right encoding (which isn't the same in every case). In order to re-encode or do things like add watermarks, we'd need to add a production step after every recording.

Jing isn't meant to be a replacement for Camtasia Studio, but on the Mac I can see why you'd want to use Jing for that reason. The good news is that you won't have to wait forever: TechSmith Mac Development

I'm glad to see the development of Camtasia Studio for the Mac. I hope it won't take too long to get some early releases out to the public. Until then I'll unfortunately have to keep using other alternatives.

Along the lines of what Gideon asked - can you share two items in one email or IM by hitting ctrl+v for the first item, then going into your history to choose a different item to "imbed" on your clipboard, then hitting ctrl+v again? (hope that question makes sense...)
Thank you!

please excuse my ignorance, but where exactly can I find my "Clipboard"

Sorry if this is redundant, but couple of questions:

1) Does the video capture also capture audio playing? ie: I want to caputure a Quictime movie.

2) Once captured I can just save the file to my hardrive and then upload on my own to my server?

I'd like to try and develop a tutorial on using Entourage for my company, this seems like it may be the way to go.

Thanks!

is there any way to get the *image* on the clipboard, rather than the url?

bananapancakes--You can absolutely share two items in the way you just described. Additionally, you can always double-click an item in your History to open it to share it to other destinations.

MrL--For a brief overview of the Clipboard, check out this article on about.com. It's really just a metaphor for where cut and paste data is stored.

Jeff--Jing captures its audio from your recording device. If your recording device is set to be your system audio, then it will pick up system audio. It's almost always set to a microphone though. It's not usually a good idea to try to record other movies (copyright issues aside). Jing doesn't compress live action video very well and the resulting file is almost certainly going to be bigger than the initial video you already have.

You can absolutely save a file and upload it to your own server. If you have FTP access to your server, you can send it directly there with the FTP output as well.

christina--Currently there is no way to send a Jing image directly to the Clipboard.

Once I do a capture how do I convert the capture into a file in which I can save and view later or I can place on a website so that other people not necessarily Jing users can open and view the video. Please help.

Chad--To save a capture, select the file output. This saves the file (either in the PNG or SWF format) to the destination specified in your File output setting. In other words, you select a default place for your saved files to go, and using the File output puts them there.

To view media created with Jing, your viewers do not need to be Jing users themselves. This is true if the media is hosted on Screencast.com, your own Web server, Flickr, or even if you just save the file and email it to someone. SWF files have no default viewer in Windows, so you'll need to open them in a Web browser manually to view a saved SWF.

Matt, you're doing a great job. Some people just don't get what Jing is all about no matter how many times you explain it to them. Jing is free software that does exactly what it's designed to do. If you added all the features that everyone asked you to, someone would still complain that it won't rustproof their car.

hello,

great product - well done. I'm making a series of short videos for a software demo and I can't work out how to save to my work server? Is there any way to do this or save to a hard drive?

Many thanks

How do I do something simple like print what I've captured with Jing?

I have just downloaded Jing and I can not find my clipboard
Please help
Thankyou
Denise

I think this is a pretty simple question. I simply want to "grab" a Flash Video that streams over the Web (in this case a Flash Video on a corporate Web site) and get it as a .SWF file that I can then convert using a different SW program in order to upload to YouTube. I just tried doing this grab. The video worked, but the audio grabbed my laptop microphone instead of grabbing the audio of the Flash. Is this because I muted my audio, but not my microphone? In essence, is this sucker truly RECORDING in every sense of the word? Please advise. Thanks! BTW, interesting approach. I won't tell you that my company has a site license to HyperSnap.....OOOMPH!!!

Denise--Your Clipboard is a metaphor for the place where the stuff you copy is stored. You don't actually ever need to see your Clipboard--just paste and the URL of your content shows up.

Steve--Jing records from your computer's recording input. I'll be posting a longer tutorial on changing this soon, but the quick and dirty explanation is to go to your Control Panel and change your computer's recording input to your sound cards internal mixer. Not all sound cards have one though. (That's assuming you're on a Windows machine; it's much easier on a Mac. Download Soundflower and point your system output and your recording input to Soundflower. Instant internal patch cable.)

I just started using Jing and I like it so far. I am having a problem with the video capture. As soon as I hit the stop recording button Jing crashes. I am using windows vista premium and I think the problem is vista won't allow jing to capture the video. Any suggestion on how to work around this problem? Fred

How do I take the .swf created by Jing and replay at a scaled down size, proportional to the original dimensions? Width and Height don't seem to accomplish that.

Thanks,

Ron

Hi Ron,
Yeah, changing the width and height tags just basically crops the video, and that's not good. Right now there's no way to do what you want without converting the swf to something you might be able to edit. We want to remedy this, but we don't have a timeline as of today. Thanks for adding your voice to those that want to scale the swfs. It bugs us too. :)

Mike Curtis, TechSmith

Hello to members of this site please to have joined your forum.

Pretty nice site, wants to see much more on it! :)

Pretty nice site, wants to see much more on it! :)