Import GoToMeeting recordings into Camtasia

Ben on Nov 14th 2009

Anyone who has used GoToMeeting to record a webinar will quickly find that the default GoToMeeting format is not a true WMV file (even though the extension is .wmv).  Instead, GTM uses a custom format, most likely because it’s more efficient to record in this format while you are conducting a web meeting.  Whatever the case, this is a real problem when trying to edit the webinar in another program such as Camtasia.  Often it will result in an error like

Error: No codec available to render this file.

or

The requested video codec is not installed on this system

There is an option in GoToMeeting to record in standard .WMV format, but chances are a) you didn’t know about it before you recorded your meeting and b) even if you did enable it, it takes a lot of time to convert the file, so you might not have the time (or patience) to convert it immediately after your meeting is over.

Geek Factor has some interesting solutions, here and here, but they don’t necessarily work.

Fortunately, there is a solution that worked for me — use an application from GoToMeeting called “g2mtranscoder” which allows you to convert the file from GTM format to standard WMV.    Here’s how I did it in Windows 7:

  1. Navigate to your GoToMeeting program files folder.  Typically this will be in C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\320.
  2. Copy your GoToMeeting recording to this directory.
  3. Open the command line.  On Vista / Windows 7, click the Start button and in the search box type: cmd and press Enter; in Windows XP, click the Start button, select Run, and type: cmd and press Enter.
  4. Type: cd C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\320\ and press Enter.  This should take you to the GTM directory.
  5. Type: g2mtranscoder source=GoToMeetingRecording.wmv (replace with the name of your GTM video).

Hint: you can copy and paste into the command line window by clicking the C:\ icon from the command line window and selecting Edit > Paste.

Once the conversion has completed, simply open the file in Camtasia using File > Import Media, or use your favorite video editing software.

Filed in apps | 33 responses so far

33 Responses to “Import GoToMeeting recordings into Camtasia”

  1. Betsy Weber Nov 17th 2009 at 07:25 pm 1

    Great article! Thanks for sharing!

    Would love to hear any Camtasia Studio feedback you might have…

    Betsy Weber, Chief Evangelist
    TechSmith

    Thanks Betsy! I’ll be sure to take you up on that. – Ben

  2. Barbara Langer Nov 23rd 2009 at 12:12 pm 2

    Hello, I had a problem triyng to do what you recommend. I have tried to execute the cmd, but it opens the comand line directly in my Barbara user. I don´t know if this is ok, but the Citrix folder is not in C/Users/Barbara, it is in C:
    Look how it opens:
    http://www.asistencia-virtual.com/blog-asistencia-virtual/wp-content/themes/mimbo2.2/images/screen1.jpg

    And this is the message I get when a write GoToMeeting folder path (my folder is not 320, is 366):
    http://www.asistencia-virtual.com/blog-asistencia-virtual/wp-content/themes/mimbo2.2/images/screen2.jpg

    I would appreciate if you could give some help whith this. Thank you very, very much,

    Barbara Langer

    Barbara – type the following in the command line to get to your program files directory (note that you MUST use the quotes): cd “C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\366″

    Hope this helps. – Ben

  3. Susan Dec 14th 2009 at 03:10 pm 3

    This worked perfectly though I should mention to anyone else out there that it did seem to hurt the sound quality. Anyone have any ideas on how to get around this?

    Unfortunately, I don’t know of a way around this. The GTM codec is not really suited for production quality audio or video, it’s more of a convenience. You may have to re-record the sound on top of the video, which you can do in Camtasia as well as other video capture programs. -Ben

  4. Peter Shih Dec 15th 2009 at 12:22 pm 4

    You are awesome! This is the only solution I’ve found thus far, and it works like a charm! =)

    By the way, if your filename contains underscores (_), you must remove them by renaming the file.

    Thanks for the tip, and glad this helped you! – Ben

  5. Annelise Jan 6th 2010 at 03:07 pm 5

    Thanks- this worked great for importing GTM files into Camtasia v.6 (never had trouble with v. 3, go figure), but now I have a new problem- I can edit and save as camproj files in both v3 and v6, but they won’t produce/render- stuck at 0.3%, in ANY of the formats. Any advice?

    Thanks!

  6. Ben Jan 24th 2010 at 02:06 pm 6

    Annelise – try installing the GTM codec from here and see if it helps: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/codec?Portal=www.gotomeeting.com

  7. Derek Price Jan 24th 2010 at 04:55 pm 7

    I’m a Mac guy, and I’m trying to do this on my wife’s PC. After about an hour, it says the file is “done”, but I can’t find the edited file anywhere. I feel dumb. The file is apparently not done, because the original file (old edit date) is in the G2M folder where I placed it, and a new one can’t be found anywhere.

    I’ve tried several methods, as I need to convert about 100 of these G2M files to Flash video for archiving. I actually spoke w/ someone at G2M to ask what they recommended, and they pretty much told me I was SOL – “Do a Google Search”, they said – weaksauce!

  8. Ben Jan 25th 2010 at 11:50 pm 8

    Derek – on my system, the converted file overwrites the original in whatever folder you had it in. For example, if your original file is called “webinar.wav” and it’s in C:\Program Files\Citrix\GoToMeeting\366, then the converted file will simply overwrite it. If you want to keep a copy of the original — you should probably back it up.

    Hope this helps!

  9. Derek Price Feb 1st 2010 at 02:30 pm 9

    Yeah, not sure what exactly happened there. My wife’s Del has Vista on it (shudder), and I have the hardest time finding anything on there. The files definitely did not overwrite, as I tried to open them in Camtasia, and got the “bad codec” message.

    I actually used the “screen record” utility and converted a file the hard way in real time. I turned off her ‘net connection and antivirus, and I thought, “great, well at least this works”, but a few minutes into the video her computer flashed a message on the screen for 15 seconds or so asking if I wanted to change it’s theme due to low memory or some such – so in the end, it was a bust. I can’t exactly monitor every single one of these files to make sure it’s working right. If you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears.

  10. Rob Schultz Mar 16th 2010 at 12:15 am 10

    I have a bit of a different problem … no matter what technique I use, when I bring the wmv file into camtasia and try to render it out / convert it, it gets to 3.5% and just stops. This happens whether I use this technique or a few of the others I have seen. And its only with a 14MB file. And yes, have restarted my machine. Using latest version of Camtasia 6.0.3.

  11. rkorkie Mar 19th 2010 at 04:23 pm 11

    I’m having a problem with this method. Downloaded gotomeeting, and also manually installed the codec (just in case). I have a WMV saved from gotomeeting’s WMV format “Record to GotoMeeting format” (and not the more universal WMV format). I then run it through the converter as above, then try to import into the latest Camtasia and it imports but video looks blank. I try to add to timeline and it says “Error: no codec available to render this file”. Pardon the language, but wtf?

    I did a MediaInfo on the converted file (by the way, its file size did not change by even one byte after conversion), and it still says the video codec was GotoMeeting3. Any ideas?

  12. rkorkie Mar 19th 2010 at 04:36 pm 12

    aha, I think I found it. I have Windows 7 64-bit, and so I ran the command prompt in Administrator mode, and I even made sure that the file name I was converting was 8 characters or less, just to be safe with naming conventions, and it worked. It’s weird because the previous conversion gave me no errors. It completed the conversion to VC-1 (WMV3). Thought this might help people if they have 64 bit OS’s or odd permissions to folders, etc.

  13. Sonja Foust Mar 30th 2010 at 09:38 am 13

    Thank you! This was driving me nuts, so I’m glad to see the solution.

  14. Making Your GoToWebinar Recording Useful | Sonja Foust, Romance Author Mar 31st 2010 at 11:42 am 14

    [...] Ben’s awesome post details most of it: [...]

  15. Mike Apr 16th 2010 at 09:04 am 15

    Hi Ben,

    It looks like this will finally get me to prevent myself from pulling my hair out, since I’ve tried a number of other solutions, but to no avail. However, when I do this, I get an error message of “Transcoding initialization error.” I see the g2mtranscoder in my GoToMeeting folder (mine is “456″). Any ideas as to what I can do?

    Thanks.

  16. Mike Apr 16th 2010 at 09:40 am 16

    Ah, looks like I found a simply solution that I shouldn’t have overlooked… G2W saved the webinar with a title that had spaces in it. By removing the spaces, I no longer get the transcoding initialization error and it seems to be converting fine now. Thanks for the great post.

  17. Keith Watson Jul 24th 2010 at 06:04 am 17

    Ben,
    I am always so grateful when I find someone has taken the time and trouble to post a really useful solution to a problem. I Googled the problem as I was sat with Camtasia staring me in the face and telling me I couldn’t import – no codec – Aaagghh – my webinar streaming online idea up the spout until I found your solution. Thanks Ben

  18. Eric Nov 30th 2010 at 11:38 pm 18

    I have found 457 build to be more buggy when it comes to g2mtranscoder activities. More often than not, it doesn’t produce results that include video playable in any WMV product. Like others have posted, it will play the audio, but the screen is black. There seems to be significant size differences between the 3xx versions of the files and the 4xx versions, presumably more features included.

    The 456 build will take the 457 output files and chew on them an appropriate amount of time, but still no joy on playing the videos back. There must be something added in the 45x series because when the recording is converted to standard wmv, the video is there. There must be a new flag or something we are not seeing or using.

  19. Awapy May 4th 2011 at 05:17 pm 19

    You just saved my ass. You win. Big time.

  20. ANdy May 9th 2011 at 05:41 am 20

    Thanks dude..I completed the first phase ..now heading to camstasia part.. :)

  21. Brent Nov 23rd 2011 at 11:19 am 21

    Thank you!!!! Works great!

  22. Mike Dec 2nd 2011 at 11:47 am 22

    Thanks for the post! This was very helpful.

  23. Velmurugan Dec 21st 2011 at 08:56 am 23

    Thanks for your post! this was solved my issues.

  24. Susan Jan 10th 2012 at 11:42 am 24

    Thanks for writing this post. I tried this, however, I am still getting the Transcoder Initialization Error.

  25. Kyle S Jan 17th 2012 at 08:22 pm 25

    I am in the same boat as Susan. I have followed every instruction, including the no spaces in file name, but continue to get the Transocder Initialization Error. Any and all help appreciated. In a time crunch here for client.

  26. David L Feb 7th 2012 at 02:41 pm 26

    I found that build 723 saved the file extension .wmv in the filename, so the file showed in explorer as MyWebinar.wmv, but is really MyWebinar.wmv.wmv (.wmv in the file name and .wmv as the extension). To confirm this is happening to you, in the folder with the file, do an Alt+F, Tools -> Folder Options, View, then uncheck ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ Citrix support also has batch file that you can use, where you drag the file onto the .bat file to run, enter your build number and it’ll convert.

  27. SK Feb 21st 2012 at 01:41 pm 27

    Initialization error seems to be caused by any special character that you may have in the title of your webinar (which gets used in the name of the file) including “&” or other characters like it.
    Very useful post. Thank you!

  28. Andrew Feb 21st 2012 at 02:08 pm 28

    Thank you!! Totally worked, and I tried a BUNCH of things. I will pass this along.

  29. Susan Mar 1st 2012 at 02:03 pm 29

    Thank you thank you thank you! This method of transcoding using CMD has saved my butt numerous times!

  30. Tony Mar 1st 2012 at 06:34 pm 30

    Just and FYI I have been dealing with this for the past few weeks and some of the files I have are in G2M4 format and some in G2M3. For some reason a few of the files will not convert using the command “g2mtranscoder.exe” so I went on a search and found that any converter that uses the same codec that Windows Media Player will read the G2M format. Microsoft Expressions 4 works with these codec, as well as LiloScope 2 and Super Media File Convert which is freeware. LiloScope 2 is the only one that was able to convert all the files and has CUDA support.

  31. Ben Mar 1st 2012 at 06:40 pm 31

    Glad to hear that this post has helped some folks. Thanks for the comments as well – sounds like there are a few quirks that my original post doesn’t address. Keep those comments comin’ :)

  32. Wojtek Mar 26th 2012 at 10:27 am 32

    The only annoying thing about the transcoding with the G2M tool is that it doesn’t show any progress and takes ages… Will try Super Media File Convert :)

  33. Wojtek Mar 26th 2012 at 10:58 am 33

    Addendum: Super Media File Convert is a piece of poo. It does not work on Windows 7 32bit, and it does install all kind of crapware with itself. But I am happy to say that Prism Video – http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/index.html – does a perfect job. Good stuff!

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