Camtasia is used to capture video of a computer screen, often to demonstrate how a piece of software works; this file format is how such videos are stored. This file extension is unique to the Windows version of Camtasia. The Mac equivalent uses the .CMREC file extension, and it, too, has been replaced by the TREC format as of version 2.8.0.
How to Open a CAMREC File
CAMREC files can be viewed and edited with the Camtasia application by TechSmith. You can double-click the file to launch the program or browse for the file from the menu, via the File > Import > Media menu. If you don’t have access to Camtasia, you can extract the recorded video from the CAMREC file. Just rename the file, changing the extension to .ZIP. Open that new ZIP file with a tool like 7-Zip or PeaZip. You’ll find several files inside, including Screen_Stream.avi—this is the actual screen recording file in the AVI format. Extract that file and open or convert it however you wish.
How to Convert a CAMREC File
The Camtasia program can convert a CAMREC file to another video format like MP4. The software can also convert the file to TREC by importing the file into the most recent version of the program and then saving it to the newest, default format. To convert a CAMREC file without Camtasia, use one of these free video converter tools. However, you have to first extract the AVI file from the file because it’s that AVI file that you have to put into one of those video converters. Once the AVI has been imported into a video converter tool like Freemake Video Converter, you can convert the video to MP4, FLV, MKV, and several other video formats. You can also convert the CAMREC file online with a website like FileZigZag. After you extract out the AVI file, upload it to FileZigZag and you’ll have the option to convert it to a different video file format like MP4, MOV, WMV, FLV, MKV, and several others.
More Information on Camtasia File Formats
It might be a little confusing to see all the different new and old formats that the Camtasia program uses. Here are some brief explanations to clear things up:
CAMREC is a screen recording file used on Windows. CMREC is a screen recording file used on macOS. TREC is the newest screen recording file format used on both Windows and macOS. CAMPROJ is a Windows XML-based format that stores references to the media files used in the Camtasia project. CMPROJ is a macOS file format that more resembles a folder because it actually holds all the media files, project settings, timeline settings, and other things related to the project.
