Black Screen in Camtasia Canvas

Problem

The canvas does not show the media and displays black, shows artifacts, or displays the desktop instead of the media on the timeline. 

Solution

  1. Click Edit > Preferences > Advanced in Camtasia.
  2. Change the dropdown to Microsoft Basic Render Driver under the Hardware Acceleration section and then click OK.
  3. Close and re-open Camtasia and see if that works.

If that still does not work, re-encode your video to an MP4 file that we can work with properly with your computer:

Download link for Handbrake
Video on what settings to choose in Handbrake: