Squeaks and Gurgles in SWF Audio Tracks
As good citizens of the Internet, we all dutifully update software, but sometimes it introduces unanticipated side effects. If you or your students have upgraded to Flash Player 9, you are probably experiencing problems with the audio track of SWF files produced in Camtasia. The buzz among Camtasia users is all about the invasion of squeaking and gurgling chipmunks.
The cause? The new Flash player will only playback audio tracks encoded at specific bit rate, whereas previous versions of the player were more lenient. The change in expectations for bit rate causes you audio to be distorted and hence the “chipmunk effect.” If you’re interested, you can read more about the problem with Flash Player 9 here: http://www.robertplank.com/remove-chipmunks-from-camtasia-videos/
An Easy Fix!
Don’t worry, you don’t need to republish your existing SWFs. TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia have made an easy fix available. There are two parts:
- The update for Camtasia will prevent the problem when you publish SWFs in the future. It’s free if you have a license for Camtasia Studio 5.
- The SWF Fixer, also free, is really amazing! You don’t even have to open Camtasia. Just drag the folder(s) containing a copy of your SWFs into the utility and it will find the SWFs and fix them all. Then all you have to do is replace the SWFs on your Web site or SPARK course.
You can download the Camtasia update and SWF Fixer from TechSmith: http://techsmith.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/techsmith.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1250. Scroll down the TechSmith page a bit to find the links to the Update and the Fixer.
As always, let us know if you need help with any of this. The friendly consultants in the Instructional Media Lab are always happy to help faculty and TAs with your instructional technology needs.