How to Convert from GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar to Flash

I've been doing some webinars lately. There's a webinar schedule on the Smart Bear web site and I wanted to add replay capability. In other words, if someone missed a webinar they could at their convenience click a link and watch a recording of it. Naturally, folks who choose this option won't be able to ask questions, but at least they'll be able to see and hear the demos of our code review tool.

So I thought: okay, no big deal. I'll just take the recording that I created during the webinar and convert it to Flash. Upload the end result to Amazon S3 (where we store some of our larger files) and then I'll be done.

Wrong.

The "convert it to Flash" part was not trivial. This blog entry chronicles some of what I tried and finally, what actually worked.

GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar Recordings

We use GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar from Citrix. And in general I've been very happy with how both services work. There is an option to record a webinar and you have to choose which format should be used for the recording:

I always choose the second option because otherwise I'd need a (free) codec from Citrix in order to play the resulting recording. The upshot is that after the webinar ends, my system is tied up for a while by some Citrix software that is converting the recording into a "standard" .wmv file.

And sure enough, if I use a recent version of Windows Media Player, I can watch and listen to the resulting .wmv file without any problems.

The problem is that I don't want to publish a .wmv file. I would prefer to provide Flash, since the Flash player is pretty-much available everywhere and Windows Media Player is not.

Initial Attempt: Camtasia Studio

My first attempt was with Camtasia Studio from TechSmith. I had used it quite a bit in a past life and was always impressed with it. Sure enough, it imported the .wmv file with no problems and then I was able to easily drag-and-drop it to the timeline. Unfortunately, when I tried to publish the end result as Flash, Camtasia Studio would hang with 0.6% of the task complete.

Hmmm... maybe try a different tool. This was a big mistake that cost me several hours of frustration - I should have first done more research on the underlying problem.

Other Tools

I charged headlong into the world of the FFmpeg command line utility. It trundled along for a while and then reported a buffer overrun error. As Brandon would say: Fail.

Paul recommended Kino. So I fired up VirtualBox and started an Ubuntu installation that I use for Linux stuff. Kino was able to read the .wmv file and convert it. Unfortunately, the end result was a video that was only 13 minutes long. Since the input was 57 minutes, Kino was clearly not going to work.

Leveraging the Work of Others

At this point the common denominator was that the .wmv file produced by Citrix seemed to be kind of odd. In other words, three very different tools all had some sort of trouble reading/converting it. I'm not a codec guru so I started searching the web for tips.

The first thing I found was this excellent entry from Sam Charrington. I thought: "I have hit gold!" I downloaded the Windows Media Encoder and followed the instructions. Alas, no joy. Camtasia Studio got much further, to 22% complete, but it still locked up when trying to produce Flash output.

Bummer.

I did find an interesting clue on the blog entry from Sam Charrington: "Apparently the WMV files produced by GoToMeeting don’t contain the timing/keyframe information required to be properly rendered by Camtasia."

Hmm.... perhaps that missing information also confuses Kino and FFmpeg.

Searching the TechSmith site, I then found this gem: "The Microsoft Screen Capture codec does not contain time stamps.  These are needed for Camtasia to edit and produce a movie.  This essentially puts gaps in the file that Camtasia cannot read."

The folks at TechSmith recommended two workarounds: re-capture the video with their tool or try re-encoding it with Windows Media Encoder. They specifically state that the Windows Media Encoder approach might not work in all cases, which I had already discovered.

The Solution

The only guaranteed-to-work method I found was to play the .wmv file that Citrix produced in Windows Media Player. Capture that playback with the Camtasia Recorder utility. Yes, this means you have to play the whole recording - in my case, all 57 minutes of it. And during that time, you cannot use the portion of the screen that is displaying the video for anything else.

I did not attempt to capture the sound with Camtasia Recorder. Instead, I set the input option to the microphone and then muted the microphone. So the end result was a video (a .camrec file in Camtasia terminology) that had images but no sound.

Adding the sound from the original .wmv was easy. I used Camtasia Studio's import media option to add the original .wmv file to the Camtasia project I created with the .camrec file. I then right-clicked the .wmv file and chose Add to Track > Audio 2.

That gave me a timeline with video from the .camrec file and audio from the .wmv file. I was then able to publish the end result as Flash.

Epilogue

I saw some complaints from folks who feel like all this hassle is Citrix's fault. But from what I can tell, it is really Microsoft's issue. What Citrix could do that would really help me out would be to partner with TechSmith and offer an option to record in their format. I dream of some day seeing this as my list of options:

Comments

[Dave]

Greg,

I feel your pain! Had a similar issue when attempting to covert those files for editing in movie maker.

No resolution yet but still looking.

David

[Adam]

I actually have been doing the same thing for a while now. Once you get done recording your webinar and you end the meeting, you have to let Citrix convert the file. This can take a decent chunk of time depending on the length of your webinar. Once it's done, just add the completed file to Any Video Converter (the tool I've landed on because it's free and does a great job) and select FLV as your output. It will convert it to FLV and then you can upload to your S3 account and share. It works perfectly for me and maybe it will do the same for you!

[online meeting josh]

I want to suggest you try http://www.showdocument.com - its an alternative tool for gotomeeting that allows document sharing and web meeting in real-time. all the participants in the session see each others' drawing, highlights, etc. It is free and requires no installation.

Josh

[Derak]

Google landed me here first so I wanted to contribute a better solution.

Install both the gotomeeting codec from their site and the 'any video converter'.

The gotomeeting codec installer will place the codec dll files here: C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\366

Copy the DLL files into the codecs folder of the 'any video converter'.

Then load up your video and get to work.
I'm using windows XP pro. Your mileage may vary.

[Gigi]

Greg, God put you in my life today for such a good reason! Thanks for writing this article and for documenting your hours of trial and error for it has answered my questions and truly helped me! From your mouth to God's ear with your wish that there would be a Camtasia option for the GoToMeeting videos!!

You should send your article to Citrix and get the ball rolling!

Have a blessed day!

[Gigi]

Sorry meant to write Gregg... I was typing too fast. Also forgot to mention that I am using a MAC, but am so thankful to have a Dell pc nearby from which to convert. Would be even better to be able to do all this work in a Mac environment, but hey, am counting my blessings today!

Thanks again Gregg!

[Lee Ann]

I have spent countless hours and spoken with techs from both Camtasia and GotoWebinar regarding this issue of not being able to import the Windows Media Files that I save from my webinars to edit in Camtasia.

I have read so many posts on others having this issue and tried them all unsuccessfully that my eyes are bloodshot.

I finally, weeks later, came across the product that finally put an end to my unbelievable frustration and hope this will help others. Not only does it work but it's less expensive then Camtasia should you also want to do your editing.

Yes, this is my affiliate link, but I am only providing it so if you are sick and tired of having the same problems I was running into, this will solve all your problems. If I can help just one person from wanting to pull their hair out, then that is wonderful!

https://secure.avangate.com/affiliate.php?ACCOUNT=ONLMETEC&AFFILIATE=10586&PATH=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.avs4you.com

They do offer a trial run but know that they put their little twist on it so that you will purchase their product. Trust me though, an unlimited version of this at $59.00 is well worth it!!!

[Mike]

Thank you Josh, your way worked perfect for me!

[Doug Hudiburg]

Fantastic. It's so frustrating that GoToWebinar can't easily convert into a Camtasia or simple flash format as a standard process, but your post helped save me a lot of time.