Ooh! Does this also do HD uploading to YouTube? (A combo of the first two bullet points.) Any plans to add audio enhancement like how Camtasia has dynamic compression? It's such an essential feature missing from most screencasting apps. Thanx for sharing the news, Tony!

Still limited to 5 minutes or less of recording?

Can't wait to upgrade! It looks great! One question though, if I have Jing on multiple computers is it 14.95 per year per computer or 14.95 per year per person?

Good and elegant improvements!

Only things remaining:

a) removal of the 5-minute limit;
b) easy support for iPhone and Blackberries (to wit; without using the conversion approach;
c) we have many clients who would like to hear our analysis of the market 'on the go' (doctors, lawyers, everyone out and about) as we do several during the day.... support for Smartphones would be an enormous help; as neither RIM nor iPhone support Flash as of yet, and the MPEG 4 isn't necessarily viewable without conversion

thanks and kudo's on all that you do.. you simplified my life and improved our product offerings too!

gene

gene inger
www.ingerletter.com

If you give me a way to do a solid box without a drop shadow (for blocking out confidential information), I'll go Pro!

My Computer has 2.8 gig processor w/3gig ram. System requirement for Pro states 3.0 ghz. processor minimum.

Can I use Pro at all?

Thx
Jeff

Hi--let me try to answer what I can,

@Torley--When you get your YouTube link you can add the &fmt=18 and it'll play in the high-quality format.

@Marshall--Yeah, still 5 minute limit on videos.

@Kathy--It's 14.95 per person, not computer.

@Gene and John--Thank you for this feedback.

@Jeff--This is a tough one to answer, but you could certainly use Jing Pro. Where you might get into trouble and see your video quality drop is if you're trying to record things that are really stressing your machine (like a demanding video game at high resolution) and then fire up Jing.

Thanks for commenting everyone,
Mike Curtis, TechSmith

Tony and crew... good work; but now these added points on 'pro':

a) the MPEG4 recording is NOT a smaller file size; our 5 min. video this time was 24 meg's in MPEG4, vs. 3-4 meg's in Flash/.swf; so no use for the MPEG4 as uploading time to ScreenCast is thus too prohibitively long;

b) the 'translucent' time bar is a bit heavy as it covers time & date on stock charts; and can't be lightened (of course moving cursors off the screen causes it to vanish);

c) the adds for JING (we don't mind them) are not stripped-off; other than the tiny one within the video screen at the video's end;

d) would still love to have a 'fee-based' option for longer times;

e) some way that these can be linked easily without conversion to iPhones and Blackberrys as neither RIM not iPhone support Flash as yet; and the MPEG4 is just too heavy a file format.

Overall continue to love and value JING !

best

gene

gene inger
www.ingerletter.com

Great News!

I'm excited to see that I can import the videos to Camtasia and directly to YouTube.

Two questions,

1. With the pro account, will the sound quality of videos improve

2. Will there ever be the option in Jing or Camtasia to upload directly to a specific folder at screencast.com?

Adria Richards
Organic Technology Consultant
Visit the website http://adennetworks.com

Thank you for the new features Jing has made my blogging experience
much easier since I write a lot of tutorials.

Also Jing came in handy today when a family member needed
to save some pictures that another family member sent to them
in a flash slide show format. (Note they are not tech savvy) So
I suggested to use Jing to capture the Images on the slide show
& save the images to there computer that way. they we're very
impressed with Jing & decided to download Jing to use with
there projects.

Thanks again for the new features & can't wait to see
whats in store next time around.

Hi Mike .. just a bit more feedback after using 'Pro' today:

a) the MPEG4 file size was more than quadruple (for the same length) of the comparable Flash video (5 min; not full screen);

b) a couple of our members had trouble (or 'chop') trying to view in H264; but never have issues with basic .swf or Flash recordings; hence we have had to revert back to Flash only;

c) tried to play the MPEG4 recording as a 'test' on my iPhone 3G which a CNET piece suggested would work; but it didn't. Rather I simply got the usual notice that you have to have a Flash plug-in for it to work; but of course there is no Flash plug-in due to whatever squabbling continues between Apple and Adobe;

d) I think TechSmith has a wonderful little product here in JING; and express appreciation for your efforts (we are loyal users as well as ScreenCast customers from the get-go);

e) I really think all that's needed is for both RIM (Blackberry) and iPhone to support Flash, without any required conversions, which are too time consuming for those of us terribly busy all day;

f) would enjoy seeing you and others press these device makers to support Flash or at least .swf in it's non-royalty form, if that's what this is all about.

This is nothing to blame JING staff about; you've done a great job! But the support from the device makers remains entirely too spotty and self-oriented, which is probably why no Flash support (if they would support Flash all problems would be solved so that investors could get our intraday analysis while out-and-about; I'm sure this would work for anyone carrying an iPhone or Blackberry that doesn't want to haul a laptop around all of the time).

Otherwise, there is slight GUI improvement on the JING & Pro for those of us who have no need for consumer YouTube posts or the impossibly huge file-size of the MPEG4 uploads. Have I missed something such as further compression of the MPEG4?

cheers!

gene inger
www.ingerletter.com

Bump the 5 minute limit to 10 and I'm sold. I do so many tech presentations and support videos and to have a full 10 minutes would easily make life better. 5 minutes is way to fast in my opinion. I've been breaking up longer presentations into multiple videos to get around this problem and 10 minutes would easily be a sweet spot.

I have to agree with Nick and others here.

If you bump the time limit to 10 minutes, I am all over this deal. I find when doing the vid work that I do, that I am averaging about 8 minutes per. It would be so much easier to use JING and script for a 10 min time limit. The 5 minute option just is not enough time.

Hi Gene,

I was looking at a sample video on your site. We think we know what's happening with the file size disparity. As you've kind of alluded to, all these formats are a web of complexity and trade-offs. We'll have to post a topic about the pros and cons of MPEG-4 and SWF and let people chime in.

For the moment...

There's a topic here that may be of interest to readers: http://help.jingproject.com/tips-tricks-and-advanced/video-formats-swf-mpeg-4.html

And the first highlight is what I bet applies to your situation. http://screencast.com/t/Zv47DHr14h

It looks like you're recording static charts with narration. So, for SWF, it kind of sits back and doesn't do much work until anything changes. Since the charts don't change much, SWF is happy. MPEG-4 excels when there is motion on the screen.

I wonder, do you notice a difference in sound quality with the MPEG4?

Thanks for your work and experimentation today!

Was really excited to play with the new version up until...

Jing Warning

Invalid XML data was returned when calling 'Screencast.Admin.Account.GetCountryList'
Could not load the XML data.

D'oh!

Colin, I'd like to direct you to our Tech Support if you'd be willing to send them an email with this problem. http://tinyurl.com/7re7l4

They do the best job of rooting out the stranger issues _and_ tracking them and working with developers to get to the bottom of it.

Sorry for getting your hopes up and then the inconvenience,
Mike Curtis, TechSmith

Jing folks...congrats...definitely moving in the right direction!

I blogged about my experience here:

http://ccblog.typepad.com/weblog/2009/01/testing-jing-pro.html

Some requests (and have been echoed on the discussion board).

1. Definitely remove the 5 minute limit.

2. Include a way to save the file *.m4v format so can be used on an IPOD.

3. I'm not seeing a really fast way to save the file format that it is saved in...I think you have to go into preferences. Would be great if there is a way to change the file format when the file is saved or ftp etc.

4. Does not look like system audio can be recorded....is this correct? Would be nice if that worked.

5. On the YouTube upload - can it be made easier to choose the high-def version...particularly with the embed code upload.

Thanks....Josh

Jing folks...congrats...definitely moving in the right direction!

I blogged about my experience here:

http://ccblog.typepad.com/weblog/2009/01/testing-jing-pro.html

Some requests (and have been echoed on the discussion board).

1. Definitely remove the 5 minute limit.

2. Include a way to save the file *.m4v format so can be used on an IPOD.

3. I'm not seeing a really fast way to save the file format that it is saved in...I think you have to go into preferences. Would be great if there is a way to change the file format when the file is saved or ftp etc.

4. Does not look like system audio can be recorded....is this correct? Would be nice if that worked.

5. On the YouTube upload - can it be made easier to choose the high-def version...particularly with the embed code upload.

Thanks....Josh

Hello, Mike,
Happy New Year! I tried to use Jing to record my online teaching onto my blog. However, the files were too big (24 MB!) and failed to upload. Then I tried use your screencast to embed the video (now 898.4KB) onto my blog and got blank pages. Will Jing Pro solve these problems? Please let me know. Many thanks in advance.

Reagrds,
Hannah

Video quality is not that important to me...

BUT:

1. allow me to have a one page coversheet for the beginning of the videos. A simple blank page (allow me to pick the backcolor and forecolor) where I can type text centered.

2. Give us a thinner arrow and text box.

Then I will go pro immediately.

I will still sign up to support you... but it would be appreciated.

Mike - I popped up fiddler on a hunch - the Baracuda web filter installed here is blocking Screencast.com. You might want to lobby Baracuda to tell them that Screencast.com is not an evil site.

The new non-pro version has incredibly poorer performance with video.
In fact it slows down my entire machine when its recording. Switching applications is terribly slow, as is recording of any sort of movement.

I want the old version.

LMFAO

What happened to being able to embed? Since i upgraded I cant embed onto my blog unless I missed something...

Couple of bugs in the new version:
1. Maximizing the video to full screen does not work during playback. (Mac OS X)
2. During playback, the ability to resize the flash video makes it fuzzy. Is there a way to force it to not resize?

Finally
- Is there a place I can download the previous version?

Couple of bugs in the new version:
1. Maximizing the video to full screen does not work during playback. (Mac OS X)
2. During playback, the ability to resize the flash video makes it fuzzy. Is there a way to force it to not resize?

Finally
- Is there a place I can download the previous version?

Hey there! Nice upgrade, but I experienced a bug (also reported through the feedback button in Jing) after having upgraded. I'm using the freeware version, by the way.

When setting F12 to be my hotkey

"Unable to register Jing Capture Hotkey. Please select a different hotkey."

What gives?

I used Jing to record a presentation with my talking head beside it. However, the web cam footage drops frames and the timing is completely off. Will JingPro resolve this issue. Can it record the web cam footage correctly?

Thank you.

Bought Pro the minute I got the update to the new version.

Another vote from me for removing or increasing the 5 minute time limit -- 5 minutes is not enough.

Mike

Hi,

Tried to buy Pro immediately but couldn't go through on Google Chrome, I need to try again later.

I would like to echo 2 things:

1. Allow me to have a one page coversheet for the beginning of and the end of the videos. A simple blank page (allow me to pick the backcolor and forecolor) where I can type text centered.

2. Remove 5 minutes limit.

Thanks,

Nam Tran

Hi,

Same request here. Bump the 5 minute limit up.

Or...

Hurry up with Camtasia Studio for the Mac. I will be MORE than willing to pay $299 for the real deal.

Colin

My videos are just a black screen with the Pro version. Still shots are okay. I have a Pentium 4 with 3 gb of RAM. Any ideas?
Alton

Add a keyboard shortcut to pause the capture and allow me to insert text annotations into my screencasts - and I'm sold.

Hello,
My videos are just a black screen with the Pro version. Still shots are okay. I have a Pentium 4 with 3 gb of RAM. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Alton

I have found that I get a black playback screen when I try to record in MPEG-4. No problem when I record in SWF format. Anyone have any ideas?
Alton

A huge problem(s) with the new SWF capture (unless I'm doing something wrong) :

I've upgraded to Jing Pro.

Previously, I would save a capture as a .swf file to my Desktop. When I clicked on this file, it would play in a browser window at the same size (pixel dimensions) as my capture. Now it's played back with much larger pixel dimensions that fill the browser window.

What's going on ?

Also, the video would have the black control bar at the bottom allowing one to replay the file or, very importantly for my purposes, allowing one to grab the small white box on the control bar to scroll back and forth manually through the video frames.

What happened to this control bar?

I hope this can be fixed!

Hi,

A follow-up to my comment above:

I've now discovered that a controller bar appears below the .swf video when I embed it in a "document" and when I hover the cursor at the bottom of the video.

But, it's too fat and also overlies/obscures the bottom of the video :-(

Can we please have the slim- profile controller back and have it remain visible below the video so its presence is obvious to the viewer.

Thanks for all your good work!

Howard

I don't understand - are we renting this application? Is that the reason for the yearly charge? Why not just sell it for one-time cost? I can't speak for everyone, but I think you will loose a lot of sales because people are turned off by software rental.

I use Jing every day, and I've been waiting for non-flash movie export. Fantastic app! Off to purchase Pro...

You took a nice simple-to-use product and fumbled around with it and, somehow, made it worse (slow, buggy, inconsistent) and attached a $14.95/yr price tag to it... gotta give you credit for your slick marketing ("How can we break what's working and get 'em to pay us for it?"). Sorry, gotta say goodbye.

I Purchase Jing Pro for the MP4 file format, as this ties in nicely for my own flash player ...

However where as the SWF format is truely of HD quality I find the MP4 to be terrible and full of artifacting.

Is anyone else facing this issue?

Cheers

Buzz

Hiya,

Bill, one of the Jing developers here.

Wow. Lotta comments.

I'll try to address some.

NOTE: bugs and performance problems should be reported to support.techsmith.com

There IS a real person behind it honest.

@Adria
We didn't focus on sound quality so much, but I think it is improved with AAC in the MP4 and I think that's something we'll look at more. If it doesn't bloat the file too much, probably will try to dial it up.

Uploading to different folders on Screencast.com is a good suggestion

@Josh Kim
Could you let me know why you want to save in different formats at different time?

We'd really like to keep Jing simple and have only one format if possible (someday).

Seems like multiple formats is more for advanced video production (Camtasia Studio and its competitors), not quick and simple sharing.

For system audio, see this blog post:
http://help.jingproject.com/tips-tricks-and-advanced/audio-faqs.html
The bottom has links about setting up OS specificly.

@hannah

Definitely contact support.techsmith.com about the embedding onto your blog.

As for smaller videos, it depends on what you are recording.

The swf format is really, really bad at capturing lots of motion. It's quite good at capturing very simple content (as you can see from gene's comment).

I honestly find that generally MP4 (Jing Pro) is about as good or much smaller than swf with the content I record which is simple notes and comments for work and short scenes from videos that I think are funny (those are WAY smaller in MP4).

@Dave F
@Nam Tran
I can see where a title page would be useful.

Though it seems a little less like quick and simple communication to me and more like a professional video.

If the videos are meant to be professional quality, Camtasia Studio and its competitors are definitely better for that then Jing, but I'll definitely record the suggestion!

@Paul Irish

Yikes!

We didn't (intentionally) mess with the swf recording at all. It should be the same as in the previous version.

If it isn't, that's a bug.

Please contact support ( http://support.techsmith.com ) with details if you are seeing slow downs.

Again, it will get to a real person.

@Marguerite

Now you set up a button specifically for uploading and returning embed code.

See this blog post:

http://help.jingproject.com/share/share-save-and-more.html

Hope that helps

@Niklas
- This article says 'F12 is reserved for use by the debugger at all times.'

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms646309.aspx

@Calum
You probably should contact http://support.techsmith.com to get better assistance.

Generally, Jing swf capture is not so great for full motion video.

If you go JingPro with MP4 it should be better as long as your computer is pretty fast.

It'll still drop frames if it can't keep up, but it should stay in sync.

Also, keep in mind that at best Jing only captures 10fps.

@Alton
I haven't heard of that happening before.

Unless you are maybe capturing video of videos? If so, that's because the videos are hardware accelerated and can't be captured without turning that off.

Either way, please contact http://support.techsmith.com

@Mark

Geez! I hope that's not what we did.

First

!!PLEASE!! contact http://support.techsmith.com with any bugs and slowness you are seeing.

We want to fix that crap up as soon as possible.

Second

Jing is still free and not crippled or trial or anything like that.

It should work as well as it did without Pro (again, if it's not, please report that stuff so we can fix it!)

We expect people can be quite successful without purchasing the Pro stuff.

Honestly sorry to lose you.

@5 minute limit

We think Jing is for quick and simple sharing.

Quick capture and send. Bam! Pow!

Anything over around 5 minutes starts to be a tutorial...a demo...a full fledged video recording.

That cries out for editing, adding titles, annotations, transitions, narration and music.

That is where we think Camtasia Studio and its competitors come in, not Jing.

Also, the longer videos become a real bear to upload and download and that is the purpose of Jing. Sharing is what it's all about.

Or at least, this is what we think.

But we are taking your feedback into consideration for sure!

@ iPod/iPhone

Yeah, it'd be nice if those MP4's would play on those devices. We'll keep looking for good ways for this one.

Please, please drop the 5 minute limit from the Pro version! This is the only thing keeping me from getting excited about Jing Pro. And please don't just increase it to 10 minutes or something else -- just drop the limit altogether.

Agree with all the others about lifting the 5-minute restriction to 10 minutes. Now, I would predict that eventually you're going to give in to your users' requests -- so why not do it right away for Jing Pro and delight them?

Please get rid of the 5 minute time limit. I won't pay any money for a program which limits my video length.

I don't understand why you have a 5 minute limit, why do you care how big my files are ?

I'd buy it if there was no 5 minute limit. Actually, 20 minutes minimum would be nice.

I realise Camtasia Studio is more suited to longer videos, but it's pricey and I'm sure many users such as myself don't need any of the extra features. Jing does all I need and works brilliantly, but the time limit is frustrating.

I have used Snagit for years and love techsmith but on this video grabber I defininately need the 10 minutes for the majority of my stuff that I put up on http://www.mlmwatchdog.com on a daily basis. The only output I care about is flv....

Easy and fast is my need $15 no sweat!

Rod Cook

Just bought the Pro and then got the link to the blog :-)

I look forward to giving it a shot and see what happens.

I too would like longer videos - but I also realise Jing is a QUICK sharing solution, not a video editing suite, and for that I'm happy for the low yearly price - thanks Jingfolk, Techsmith!!!

I've used free Jing to make a bunch of quick tutorials to help a client out and he was blown away with the speed at which I could get a response to him - in video format.

Man, this stuff rocks! Love that Jing :D

Teena
http://A-night-in-paris.com
http://AbfabDesigns.com

is it still choppy? Because the free version is really choppy for me.

WOW... a sales lure disguised as a blog!

Thank you everyone for your feedback, both positive and constructive. I'd also like to thank my team for helping to respond to everyone's ideas and feedback, while I am at MacWorld promoting our Jing Pro launch.

In the months that have passed since we first launched Jing, we have engaged with thousands of you working to understand how to evolve Jing into an even more useful communication tool. We are very excited about what you have helped us create with Jing Pro.

The benefit of offering Jing Pro through a subscription model is that it frees us from pooling new features into the next "major" release to be launched some time in the future. Instead, we can listen, react quickly and bring you a great product and user experince as quickly as our little fingers can code.

So, please keep the feedback coming - I promise we are listening and working to understand how each request fits into the future of Jing.

Thanks,
Tony Dunckel
Product Manager, Jing

Have to buy a new computer to use JingPro as Im on a laptop, but Im happy that you've finally got a version that will allow you to upload to YouTube.. :) (must be time to upgrade anyway!)

Also happy that you can "mute" the computer noise for those with non-mics (just noticed that feature)..

As I use a laptop.. just wondering if there's a way to make the resolution smaller after the capture has been made.. when the capture is done on a laptop, the size of the video is too big for a webpage (unless the viewer also has a lappy or high screen resolution).. or is there another program that I can use to achieve this after I've created the Jing vid?

Penny

Hi, since some people from Techsmith are actually reading this I wanted to say hi :D

I think Jing in it's very core is a good application, I really do like it and believe the intial design is very unique. That ball is just perfect for such a tool.

I do have a few comments,

1. To really attract people you must allow users to upload to both screencast or youtube without a yearly fee. This is why it's not taking off, leave the Jing logo in the videos or whatever but stop pretending screencast will replace youtube =P

2. I agree with your concept of a yearly fee, for both costs of development and storage or such. It makes sense.

3. Limit recording to 5 minutes if not paid, otherwise make it unlimited. People willing to pay will be more than capable of actually using it for more than 5 mins.

Generally speaking .mp4 is better than other standards out there, I can't say I love the standard itself as it's just odd having .aac in an .mp4 container along with video encoding :l anyway...

Yea Jing is good, let me sumarize below:

1. remove time limit of 5 mins for yearly subscribers (they don't need it if they pay)

2. Ignore multiple encoding formats, .swf and .mp4 are fine and the best IMO.

3. Allow free version to upload to youtube or screencast but you don't need to remove the 5 min limit just keep Jing's logo in there it will spread like the wind on YouTube.

4. No extra editing software, it's ONLY for making videos not editing. I wouldn't pay more than 25 bucks for it either so watch the price.

Those are my suggestions.

I agree with the previous post:

"The new non-pro version has incredibly poorer performance with video.
In fact it slows down my entire machine when its recording. Switching applications is terribly slow, as is recording of any sort of movement.

I want the old version"

Does the Pro version capture the audio of the video, as well? I haven't seen anywhere where it specifies that it does.

Hi Denny,

Yes Jing Pro will record the audio as well. To be clear Jing by default records the mic and you may or may not be able to capture the system audio, say, if you wanted to record the audio from a movie or something. Check this out: http://help.jingproject.com/tips-tricks-and-advanced/audio-faqs.html

So if you have Jing and you like how the audio is functioning, then Jing Pro will work the same way.

Thanks for the question!
Mike Curtis, TechSmith

I have JingPro on my desk top and lap top and am having trouble with my lap top. It is loading the icon but when I roll over it I just get the hourglass and nothing more.
I did report it to your teck guys.

Also I got a message telling me I am at my max for bandwidth. I have been playing with it a lot but delete everything and delete the history too.
Why am I almost maxed out on bandwidth?

Thank you.

I purchased Pro when I saw that the Jing branding was gone. For my personal use that's OK but my employer will not allow me to use Jing video's for help desk video.(It's a legal issue - nature of our business prohibits us from having any advertising on our website.)

I notice that it is gone from the end of the video but the Jing brand and link still appears in the window the whole time the video plays. Can there be an option in preferences to turn this off? Or is the only option to edit it out on our end? Not the best option for us. Thanks

I was excited when I saw this announcement because the first thing I thought I would get "going pro" was more time!

I'm with the other on this, the Pro version needs to accommodate up to 10 minutes. 5 minutes is way too fast for the instructional videos I do.

I LOVE Jing though. Keep up the great work but I'll have to pass on the Pro version until the video time increases.

P.S. I'd even be willing to pay $19.99 or something around those lines for 8-10 minute video time.

Travis

I enjoy any program you've put out. I've recently bought SnagIt 9.1 and am happy with it. Thanks for making you're products user-friendly.

$14.95 *a year*? I can see $14.95 (even $24.95) for a one-time upgrade to Pro, but not as a year over year expense. I fail to understand the rationale behind making Pro a rentware option.

It never ceases to amaze me how folks want to squeeze blood from a turnip. The intent of Jing Pro was to enhance the great sharing attributes of the free Jing product. If it does not suit your particular needs just walk away. To incessantly hammer that you have no interest in paying 14.95 per year mostly because it has a five minute limitation is absurdity. Jing is not for you if you need more than 5 minutes of multimedia presentation. The project should never consider increasing the timeframe, as it is clear to me that the goal of Jing is to provide a short impressive presentation without having to invest in an expensive video application suite. Gee you would think the people on this blog would be more imaginative...just think of all the things that are impactful in less than five minutes...music videos, ads, announcements(birthday's,weddings,etc), breaking stories, How to/help video's, vacation/event montage, product review, etc. This project has such a fantastic future...to simply brainstorm about next steps with the project costs far more than 14.95 per year. The Jing team has done a stupendous job with Pro! Way to go Jing Team!

Hey

I think this product is Awesome ... WOW!!!

Its been said many a time ... drop the time limit on the Pro version and you will make conversions of people from free version to Pro.

NO TIME LIMIT PRO VERSION !!! [ Please :) ]

Awesome work

Simon

Jing and Jing Pro work great. As someone who used (until I got a Mac) Camtasia every day, having a Mac solution was crutial. However, the 5 minute limit in both versions is crippling. i understand the "purpose" of having a quick solution, but paying for a solution that is not usable for anything other than "quick" recording? Please, Please, remove the limit, or at least allow the user to determine the cuttoff times, based on size, quality, or whatever limitations would apply by doing so?

Due to the 5 minutes limitation, I migrated to Jing Pro. But Surprise.. Jing Pro still have same limitation.. Why go pro then? in order to remove the Jing advertise displayed at the end!!?.. I didn't really care about that.

All that to say.. It would be nice to see that 5 minutes limitation removed.

And for those of you who produce video less than 5 minutes.. you'll still be okay without the limitation... so support our cause :)

So what's the scoop? Why can't the 5 minute restriction be either lifted or upped for us Mac users for the Pro version?

Because of that limit, I'm going to end up using a free web-based solution that "just works" -- even though I prefer Jing and WILL pay for it if there wasn't this 5-minute restriction.

Good piece of software, and could become quite useful. I tried a couple of video tutorials but had issues with text entry. The typed letters looked all blurred with lots of |||||| everywhere. Is this a bug or a "feature" of the free version?

Also, we are using wordpress and swf files are convenient to link to... not sure how it would work with the many MP4 components if we used this.

I second the comment about paying more for 10 minute video, or even longer... BUT I do love jing. so EASY to use!! Wow!

Chris

Love Jing... I would go Pro if you remove the time limit. If there is any time limit at all, I will not pay for a pro. Just does not make sense, when I can buy Snapz Pro for a little more.

on the 5 minute limit..so that we can record our information in series..is there a capability so that once it finishes a 5 minute video it just rolls over and starts a second, third, etc?

I just upgraded to Pro an I have to say I am disappointed.

- Rather than see an decrease in file size, I saw an increase!

- Uploading to screencast is buggy. If there is any lag in my connection, it fails quickly.

- The time limit at 5 minutes just has to go! Look at how many comments there have been on the subject!

- The yearly cost also seems a bit strange.

- Also, the Jing Help page strangely has no tech support contact or forum. If I pay for Pro, shouldn't I have access to something like that? How do I report bugs?

All in all, I feel like I paid $15 for pretty much nothing.

Yes. Remove the 5 minute time limit. I causing me problems!

Up the 5 minute time limit to 10 or 15, and I'd gladly pay $15 bucks a year.....

A "Pro" version with a 5 minute limit is not a Pro version.

NOT BUYING unless limits are raised or eliminated.

Come on, even YouTube let's you do 10 minutes. For $15 and a Pro label, Jing Pro should be able to record at least 10 minutes.

Camtasia is overkill and Jing Pro is not enough.

Looks like many will just stick with the several FREE options already out there.

Come on TechSmith, think. There's space in the middle just waiting to get captured.

I was really impressed by your Pro product, it is everything I need for quick and dirty but also quality video screen capture.

I'm baffled, however, by your imposition of the five minute time limit. My first video was marred by getting unecessarily stressed about the time limit. Ten minutes would work much better and still accomplish what you want in terms of quick and fast posting versus fancier tutorials.

Camstasia is way beyond what I need, just want a few more minutes of time to record. I'd be willing to pay more for this feature in Jing Pro.

As it is, I'm going back to Camstudio so that kind of defeats our purposes here - even though I much prefer Jing. But, since you now have my $15 I hope you will consider my input at least.

Otherwise, it's a stellar product. Thanks for listening.

I was really impressed by your Pro product, it is everything I need for quick and dirty but also quality video screen capture.

I'm baffled, however, by your imposition of the five minute time limit. My first video was marred by getting unecessarily stressed about the time limit. Ten minutes would work much better and still accomplish what you want in terms of quick and fast posting versus fancier tutorials.

Camstasia is way beyond what I need, just want a few more minutes of time to record. I'd be willing to pay more for this feature in Jing Pro.

As it is, I'm going back to Camstudio so that kind of defeats our purposes here - even though I much prefer Jing. But, since you now have my $15 I hope you will consider my input at least.

Otherwise, it's a stellar product. Thanks for listening.

Jon,

I appreciate your honest feedback and your patronage. We discuss this quite a bit around here at TechSmith, so know that it is something we care about quite a bit. To see another side of the discussion, let me give you our perspective on the time limit.

The time limit isn't about the author, its about the viewer. The web is full of long-winded monologues. Consuming video content on a computer is faced with more challenges than typical passive mediums (i.e. television). Here the user has but a click of the mouse and they are off on another browser tab, application, email -- anything but watching "your" video.

Jing's goal was to bring simplicity and conciseness all packaged in an easy to use, quality package. Short, quick videos or images to make your point and move on - no editing, no formats to choose from - just point, shoot and go.

That being said, I've faced the same "stress" of recording a longer Jing video all in fear I'll get cut off w/o making my point or punchline. So, let me ask you (well, anyone who reads this actually)...

??QUESTION??
Are there other ways to relieve the pressure and stress recording quick, time-limited videos, but still provide the gift of brevity to your viewers?

Let me throw one out to get the ball rolling -- what if you could record longer than 5 minutes, but if you go over, Jing would force you to cut content after wards back down to 5 minutes before sharing?

What other ideas have make sense?

Looking forward to your feedack,
Tony Dunckel
Product Manager, Jing

Tony,

As others have pointed out in this discussion, it takes on average 7-8 minutes to set up, go through and then summarize a typical demo or walk through of a procedure or process - unless it is very simple. I realize that the average youtube flick has to be kept short or viewers will simply move on. But I think most Jing users (pro users at least) are in a different situation: They are creating content for people who actually WANT to see it - and will not simply surf onto another clip if it's a little bit too long.

Let's face it, there is nothing really exciting about a screen demo. You are either interested in what's being shown, or you're not. Limiting the length to 5 minutes simply has the effect of limiting the type demo you can do. Forcing the user to cut the clip into two is pointless since it is still one demo - and cutting it up just inconveniences the author (and the viewer).

We're also looking at Camtasia, but it's too big for the average, occasional user, and this is where Jing is an excellent product - but even occasional users need more than 5 minutes for their demos.

Another point I don't understand is the rental model. Why not just sell this the same way you sell e.g. Snagit? The idea of renting software that resides on my computer makes me uneasy...

Thanks for listening and keep up the good work!

So I went Pro, expecting the 5-minute limitation to be lifted. What a disappointment.

@pgmtech. Walk away? Where to? Camstudio? I cannot cost-justify that amount. So, if you are willing to recommend a

So I went Pro, expecting the 5-minute limitation to be lifted. What a disappointment.

@pgmtech. Walk away? Where to? Camstudio? I cannot cost-justify that amount. So, if you are willing to recommend a $50 product, I'm all ears. Otherwise, allow us to continue pushing for the 5-minute limitation to lifted.

Apologies for the sort-of double posting. A 'less-than sign' in front of the $50 lost the rest of the text.

Ahhh I typed a lengthy message but it got lost due to "Text entered was wrong"... didn't see the stupid captcha... damn. Can you do Javascript validation prior to submitting the reply?

I won't retype it again, just wanted to chime in with others who say that 5 minutes limit is not enough. 10 minutes would be _much_ better and I'd buy a Pro version if it had it.

Having said that - amazing job, guys!

Another one for the 5 minute time limit - it is ridiculous for a pay-to-use product.

Camtasia Studio isn't an option for me, I run OS X. That leaves with with some very limited options until Camtasia comes out.

I want to record longer videos, the assumption that it requires the ability to add titles and all of that is a nonsense. We just don't want our videos artificially limited for no other reason than to take market share from Jing's big-bro Camtasia. If I need all of the editing features, I'll gladly upgrade when it's out for Mac.

I agree with everybody else, drop the 5 minute limit and I will run out and buy it. Please do

I understand the goals of the Jing Project is to be concise with users making videos, but putting a time limit of 5 minutes, I believe will not give you what you hoped for. Unless you expect people to sit down and map out exactly what they are going to say before they say it, there will to be lower quality presentations. Most Jing videos will start our relaxed and will end chaotic. I highly recommend lifting the 5 minute limit. After all, we are in web 2.0, why not let us decide how long it takes to get a point across?

On another note, great job with the Jing project. I see that you all care about this topic just as much as us and have communicated alternatives to it. The idea for allowing users to cut down videos to 5 minutes is a good alternative. The problem you may face is losing the beauty of simplicity that Jing offers and still leaves the 5 minute constraint.

Just sent this to support before I remembered this post:

What happens to my Jing pro in month 13 if I do not pay another $15?
In other words do I stay at Jing pro version whatever and lose upgrade ability? Does pro revert to non-pro? Do I lose Hi-def? what is lost when I don't rent again?

Just sent this to support before I remembered this post:

What happens to my Jing pro in month 13 if I do not pay another $15?
In other words do I stay at Jing pro version whatever and lose upgrade ability? Does pro revert to non-pro? Do I lose Hi-def? what is lost when I don't rent again?

I'm in love with Jing for the most part, but the 5 minute limit is a show stopper.

Just yesterday, I wanted to put together a short tutorial for a customer on how to use the program that I built for him. I used an online app that lets me go over 5 minutes. No pressure and was done in about 8 minutes. The problem with the online app was that the audio was 3 seconds behind the video (makes the video confusing).
Then I used Jing. I really tried to squeeze everything into 5 minutes but ended up talking faster than usual (sounded funny) and had to cut out some of the feature descriptions.

Like many people that use Jing, I am trying to relay important information to my viewer about a subject that concerns the viewer. The parts that they don’t want to see they can fast forward anyway. So, please increase the time limit (even up to 10 minutes) and I will gladly go pro.

MESSAGE TO: Tony Dunckel - Product Manager, Jing

Tony I think you and your team at TechSmith have done an awesome job with the product and I have stated previously in feedback...!!

BUT

As you can see from this user group that we are all passionate about Jing and how it helps us in our different ways ... but that is just it, we are all using Jing for different reason and in different ways and for different eventual end users...

In the above "94 Comments" 5 min is mentioned over 50 times ... I think that you should listen to the user group and as I stated before:

"drop the time limit on the Pro version and you will make conversions of people from free version to Pro version, and at the end of the day some $$$"

My final statement is let the users of Jing be the judge of the length of time that an eventual end user will be willing to watch as we hopefully know more about our individual end users and drivers for originally using Jing as a tool.

Best Regards

Simon

In Addition ...

If you for arguments sake had a conversion rate of 50% of the current 500,000 Jing users upgrading to Jing Pro that would be $3,737,500 in yearly revenue.

I would argue that you should be able to target about 80% conversion rate. I would also argue that your subscriber numbers would also increase with the time limit removal.

You may even look at for the users that are using the screencast.com above a certain limit [i.e. heavy users] charging for extra storage space.

just ideas ...

Guys,

You need to up the Jing Pro version recording limit to 10 to 15 minutes. 5 minutes is not enough time for "pro" tech support.

Thanks, George

I just watched the demo version and it's pretty cool how easy it is to make captures from images on the screen. But I didn't understand from the video how you would capture something to post to videos? And do you have to sign up for a screencast account to use it or can you just save the files locally? And congratulations on having the captcha from hell. I guess I need to eat more carrots!

I'm a paying jing pro customer.

There are lots of cases where you might want to have more than 5 minutes of footage. And if they disagree, why not let people hit that stop button at the 5 minute mark? Instead we all suffer and have to buy camtasia to get longer takes. Why should I have to buy camtasia solely to get longer than 5 minute captures?

Look at all the requests for over 5 minute captures?

Surely the jing team can look around and see everyone seems to be asking for longer captures. What more do you want? People are wiling (and have) paid for the full version to get longer captures. Surely the jing team is not that stubborn and dense as to insist on

Pleeease enable longer captures!

A note to everyone who has questions about SOUND QUALITY.

With the pro version, it allows you to select the mpeg-4 format which is superb quality.

I was shooting videos with the free version and the sound was sucking. I upgraded to pro and on the mpeg-4 setting, the sound is great.

Please add me to the growing list of people who simply cannot fit in what I have to say under the 5 minute limit. I was going to purchase to remove the limit but decided to double check whether or not that was a feature in the pro version, I guess it was a good thing I checked or I would have been sorely disappointed. What sort of "Pro" software limits you to 5 minutes? Isn't the whole point of buying or even renting software that you can actually use it without limitations?

I love using Jing and just upgraded to Jing Pro! What I'm really disappointed about is that there is still a 5 min. limit on video. Had I know that, I would have just kept using the Free version.

Unfortunately I'd have to say it looks like the only reason for not removing the 5 minute limitation is to ensure that sales of camtasia are not affected :)

I think (possibly) the techsmith people may think if people had 10+ minutes of recording they would probably be less likely to want to buy camtasia.

Can't say I really blame them either mind you. It's a viable point of view, but I happen to thing it's wrong.

I have a license for camtasia and use screenflow on the mac but for "quick and dirty" video I'd love a 10 minute option in jing. Jing is perfect for my outsourcers videos, it just means I have to create 3-4 files instead of one big one, not the end of the world I guess.

I do appreciate the great package, but 10 mins would really be an awesome way to look after this type of market and not I think really affect camtasia sales.

People who want to do the fancy stuff that camtasia offers will still buy it, and people who use jing for a while will probably upgrade if they start doing a lot of video, so it's win-win.

Why not try it out guys? I'm sure you're sales of camtasia won't suffer, people want to reciprocate when they get access to something of great quality for free (or almost free as the pro version is).

My $0.02c

Cheers

Tim