new gotowebinar not offering .wmv recording option ?! only g2m /slow conversion

[Ken Cahoun]

that would be great, to just auto-record and save to users' c: drive in mp4 format, without any multi-hour conversion process needed afterwards, like the prior wmv save had, so the instant the webinar is done there's a usable mp4 file (so i can upload to member's area/youtube/etc).  you might want to offer a 4fps vs 15fps choice or other save/encoding choices if feasible for size/quality management. As an option, youtube/vimeo upload integration would be helpful eventually, if saving now to standard mp4 then that would be feasible (in addition to file/save mp4 to c: drive)

[Huda Ela]

Glenn throughout these discussion, you have never for once gave steps to on how to convert it to make it work for us.  I had the same issue as Shuan and I can't get it work. The inconvenience to my clients who are expecting the recording available by Monday morning and now they can't get it because of your changes. Can you provide me with steps on how to do the change to wmv. and train your support staff to help us please since they are not familiar with g2m and all they say that this means that file is corrupted. 

[Huda Ela]

Clicking on propertities and changing it to wmv just makes it run in a high speed and the file cant be used. Please provide with a solution. When i tried to convert the file, it just stops. I need to convert this file and make it available to clients who paid for it. There is financial impact as a result of the change your company made. Everything was fine Sept and before that. 

[MH11]

Glenn,
You keep saying that nothing has changed except the file extension, but this is clearly *not* the case. Something else must have changed. We are seeing the same issue as Huda, and we are stuck just the same.
Can support at least take files from the affected users and convert them? Or give us an old build so that we can view the videos correctly.

[GlennD]

Hi Huda,

What kind of file do you want? Do you want it with the GoToMeeting codec or do you want a Windows Media Player file without the codec? What did you do before we introduced the Recording Manager?

[Hanan Bedri]

The last webinar I did using GoToWebinar was on October 3 and I was able to open the recording using Windows Media Player. On Friday we recorded another webinar and it was saved as g2m and your team was unable to convert it as of last night. 

[I am responding on behalf of Huda Ela]

[GlennD]

The .g2m extension was added so that customers could easily tell which recording files still had the GoToMeeting codec, previously converted and unconverted files were both labeled as .wmv  The unconverted files themselves are still the same as before and should playback in Windows Media Player, as long as you have the GoToMeeting codec installed. When you open a .g2m file with Windows Media Player it will show a warning that it does not recognize the .g2m file extension but it may still be able to play the file, at which point you can play it normally. To avoid the warning simply edit the the files Properties and change .g2m to .wmv 

Because the vast majority of our customers want to be able to edit their recordings, share them without requiring a codec be installed or convert them to another format, we added the Recording manager which allows you to remove the codec from the recording at anytime and produce a regular .wmv file.  

As I've mentioned already, we will be moving away from this in the near future and plan to begin recording directly to MP4 format.

[Hanan Bedri]

I am sorry Glenn, but I am very disappointed by your response throughout this entire communication from top to bottom is not focusing on helping your users. Instead you are focusing on defending your product and I find your responses very disappointing and if this is reflection of your organization and your product, I need to leave it right now. Poor customer service.  You are not the only person, I was on the phone with your customer support and they are like you. People need to be reported to MGT.  I am sorry , but you have cost me money and customers from Friday to today. 

[Shaun H]

Glenn, as should now be even more apparent, this is not an isolated issue.   There is not (currently, and likely ever) a scenario where your end users, who you are interacting with in this thread, would prefer or find any advantage in having a new video file format featuring a larger file size, and addition to a proprietary video codec, in order to play back the video output from your recently updated product, and even with this, there is no way to seek forward or backwards, so if a user is looking for the information 50 minutes into a 60 minute video, they must wait 50 minutes.  There is simply no business case for Citrix where this makes sense.  

The process you outlined for changing the file extension from .g2m to .wmv, again, does not work without the additional codec installed.  Have you tried playing back a .g2m file on a computer without this installed to understand the user experience?  If you do not have access to such a machine, I would recommend finding your local Internet Cafe, library, or other public shared computer and let us know your experience.  After you try installing the codec unsuccessfully, think of the thousands of corporate users without IT Administration permissions allowing installation of this package.  

It would also be helpful if you say there is such a codec, to provide a link within that same thread as where to download said codec.  And instructions to train the thousands of people who would now have this new requirement.  For those now forced to find it, see here:

https://www4.gotomeeting.com/codec

To add further insult, the conversion software built in to your latest product to eliminate the need for the codec installation STILL DOES NOT WORK.  So I am not stuck in a situation outlined in most posts above, and the first paragraph of this post.

Sharing with us what might happen in the future is potentially good news, but meaningless for the current situation where your product is devolving, and you and Citrix are now faced with a situation that needs to be defused.

PLEASE PROVIDE A WORKING SOLUTION IMMEDIATELY.

[GlennD]

Hi Shaun, obviously there is still some confusion here about the use of the GoToMeeting codec and the changes we actually made, so I will try to explain this again.

• The GoToMeeting code is not new, we have always used it when recording on a PC and it was included when you installed the GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar or GoToTraining software to host or Attend (if you have admin rights).
• The recording that was created was called a .wmv but included the codec so you had to have the codec installed to play it back.
• The recording Preferences included an option to automatically convert the recording to a Windows Media Player file, which is a .wmv file with the codec removed (which usually increased the file size).

That has how it has been since we first added the recording feature until the latest release. We have made the following changes:

• We changed the extension of the initial recordings made with the codec to .g2m, so that customers could tell which of their recordings have the codec and which do not.
• We added the Recording Manager so customers could run the same file conversion process to remove the codec as before, but when they wanted to rather than having to do it automatically as soon as their session was over.

This topic was started because Ken wants his recordings with the codec, he does not need to convert his recordings as the people he is sharing them with already have the codec installed. So in Ken's case, changing the file extension from .g2m to .wmv will work for him.  In your case you do not not want the codec left in the recording, so you need to run the Recording Manager. If you are having technical issue with the Recording Manager please work with our phone Support so they can gather details, logs and report it to our developers: http://support.citrixonline.com/en_US/meeting/contact