The QuickTime Player app lives a lonely quiet life in the Applications folder of many Mac users. It’s often ignored because folks assume it’s simply a video playback app. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are a few useful things you can do to your videos in QuickTime Player that you can’t do in iPhoto or the new Photos app. Record video and audio Using the built-in camera on your Mac (or even a USB webcam), you can record your own video. You can also record audio using your Mac’s built-in microphone, an external mic, or a musical instrument connected with a USB cable.
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Or perhaps you want to record what’s happening on your screen—say, for a video tutorial. QuickTime Player can do that, too. To do it, choose File New Movie Recording, New Audio Recording, or New Screen Recording. The first two options require you to pick an input source and quality, then just click the red Record button. The last option summons a pane with the record button and a couple of audio options: click once to record your entire screen, or drag to specify a specific area to record. When you’re finished, click the record button again (when recording your screen, a black record button appears in your menu bar). Once you stop the recording, the file opens in QuickTime Player, so be sure to choose File Save to save it.
Present or record your iPhone or iPad screen QuickTime Player can show or record a live view of whatever is happening on your iOS device. If you’re using your Mac for a presentation, this trick lets you show your iOS device’s screen centered within your Mac’s screen. Use the menu shown here to pick your iOS device for display or recording.
To do it, attach your iOS device to your Mac via USB cable, then in QuickTime Player choose File New Movie Recording. Point your cursor at the QuickTime window and the record button appears. From the menu next to it, pick your iPhone or iPad from the list of cameras.
You (and your audience) will then enjoy the biggest version of your iOS device you’ve ever seen! To record the action, click Record. Rotate or flip a clip If your video needs to be flipped or rotated, reach into the Edit menu for the Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip Horizontal, and Flip Vertical commands. Many a Mac user has gone blind trying to locate the same commands in iPhoto or Photos, because while both programs can rotate pictures till the cows come home, they can’t twirl a video.
Split and combine video clips To split a video clip into two (or more) pieces, open a file and choose View Show Clips (or press Command-E), and then drag the QuickTime Player playhead (it’s circled below) to the spot where you want the video to split. Choose Edit Split Clip (or press Command-Y), and you see both clips highlighted in yellow. At this point, you can insert another clip (as described next) or rearrange the clips by dragging them left or right. If you split the clip into three chunks, you can select the middle one (a yellow outline appears around it) and zap it by pressing the Delete key on your keyboard.
Launch QuickTime player (already available on your Mac). Select File, and choose New Movie Recording, to begin working on your video. This will open a “camera window, ” which you will use to record your face.
This playhead marks the spot where the clip will split (top). Now you have two clips; click one clip to deselect the other so you can scoot it around in your video (bottom) To combine clips, open one clip and then choose Edit Add Clip to End. In the Open dialog box, double-click the clip you want to tack on. You can also drag video clips’ icons from the Finder into a video window. QuickTime Player adds them to the end of the existing video. (You can then repeat the process to combine several clips.) If you want the second video to appear somewhere in the middle of the first one (as shown in this example), split the clip and then click the clip that appears just before the spot where the new video will go. Choose Edit Insert Clip After Selection, and in the resulting dialog box, double-click the video file you want to bring in.
You can also drag a video file from the Finder directly into the gap between two video clips. The new footage appears after the clip that’s currently selected (in this example, the first clip).
Export and share When you’re finished editing your video, choose File Export and you get the usual roundup of resolution options (480, 720, and 1080p), settings for iOS devices and Apple TV, and an option to export audio only. The iTunes option gives you these same iOS and Apple TV optimized settings, but sends the video file directly into your iTunes library. For quick exporting and sharing with others, choose File Share.
The resulting menu includes Mail, Messages, AirDrop, and the social media sharing sites Vimeo, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. Pick your poison and QuickTime optimizes your video for that particular program or service. Depending on the size of your movie, all iOS/Apple TV export options may not be available (top).
When you pick Facebook, you can specify privacy and add a description (bottom). To save the changes to your video file, choose File Close and in the resulting dialog box, name your newly edited video and click Save. To see the edited video over in iPhoto or Photos, just import it. (Happily, Photos lets you include videos in saved slideshow projects!) Until next time, may the creative force be with you all!
It’s quite easy to record screen video on a computer, as you can find a handful of free screencasting tools out there. But, what if you want to capture on-screen activities on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch? That can be a different story. Because iOS doesn’t make it easy for you to do so (at least before iOS 11). You’ll have to rely on a computer to capture moving activities on your device. In this article, I’m going to show you a number of quick ways to get the job done, based on the ease of implementation. I’ve explored a dozen solutions while working on an app demo project, and during the process I’ve learned a lot about the solutions and options available.
In this guide, I’ll share with you five main methods on how to record an iPhone or iPad screen video, and I’ll also point out the pros and cons of each method. My goal is simple — saving you the time exploring so you can allocate more time to focus on the video editing part (if required). Note: I’ve opted out those solutions that are either illegal or insecure (which require iOS jailbreaking), or contain vulnerabilities that jeopardize your device security.
An example is Vidyo Screen Recorder, an app that was banned by Apple and pulled from App Store in 2016 due to its violation of Apple’s security policies (more info at ). Here’s a Quick Comparison: 1: Built-in Feature in iOS 11 (Recommended) Now we have the new way to record iPhone screen without a computer or third-party tools. Apple’s iOS team has added a new feature i.e. “Screen Recording” to the latest iOS 11. You can learn how to use this built-in feature from this quick video. 2: QuickTime Player App on Mac Best to use when: You want to make a video tutorial of an app or game on your iPhone or iPad without much editing.
Things to prepare:. A Mac machine (with OS X Yosemite, El Capitan or latest Sierra). Your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (iOS 8 or later). The lightning cable, i.e. The USB cable you use to charge your iPhone or iPad. The QuickTime Player app (installed to Mac by default) How to use (tutorial): Step 1: Connect your iOS device to your Mac via the lightning cable. Hit “Trust” if you see a pop-up window in your device asking you, “Trust This Computer?” Step 2: Open QuickTime player.
Click the SpotlightSearch icon on the top right corner, type “QuickTime,” and double-click the first result you see. Step 3: On the top left corner, Click File New Movie Recording. Step 4: Move your cursor to the movie recording section. See the arrow down icon next to the small red circle?
Under Camera, select your device name (in my case, it’s iPhone). Here, you also have the option to select which Microphone to use to make a voiceover, as well as the Quality of the video ( High or Maximum). Step 5: Click the red circle button to start. Now, you’re good to go. Relax and navigate your iPhone or iPad, doing whatever you want to show to your audience. When you finish, hit the red circle button again to stop the process.
Don’t forget to save the video ( File Save). Pros:. It’s free. Simple to use, no learning curve. Video quality is good.
You can export at up to 1080p. Pretty neat interface. No carrier information is included. Also, you’ll notice the time on your phone or tablet was 9:41 AM, the classic Apple iPhone announcement time.
Cons:. For Mac machines with OS X Yosemite or later. Not available on Windows PCs. Not compatible with devices that use iOS 7 or earlier. Lack editing features e.g.
Add a device frame, gestures, callouts, background, etc. That are essential to make videos look professional. Background noise is hard to eliminate.
3: TechSmith Camtasia (for PC & Mac) Best to use when: you want to capture your iPhone screen as well as edit the videos. Includes tons of advanced editing features that meet almost every of your needs.
It is the tool I used to complete my app demo project, and I’m quite happy with the results I got. Learn more about the program from our review. Things you’ll need:. A personal computer. Macs require OS X Yosemite or later.
If you are on a PC, you’ll need a extra mirroring app (see tutorial below for more). Your iOS device. The lighting cable (optional, if you are on a PC). Camtasia software (paid, $199) How to use (tutorial): If you are on a Mac, recording and editing your iOS video can be done in one place. Simply download and install Camtasia for Mac, connect your device, and open the software to start capturing and edit the video thereafter. Pros:.
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The software itself is extremely easy to use with great UI. The Mac version allows you to insert device frames. You can save time by directly exporting the edited videos to YouTube or Google Drive. Powerful video editing features such as cutting specifics, speed control, and the ability to add touch gestures, callouts, background images, etc.
It allows you to separate screencasting and voiceovers so that you can add separate voiceovers. Cons:. It’s not free — $199 to buy. Extra time and effort is needed to learn how to use the software, especially its advanced editing features. Camtasia Studio (PC version) is not as convenient as Camtasia for Mac. 4: ScreenFlow for Mac My opinion of is pretty much the same as that of Camtasia, with some qualifications. I tried ScreenFlow 5 for a time before switching to Camtasia 2, mainly because at that time I couldn’t add an iPhone frame to the video I took in ScreenFlow.
Read our here. Note: ScreenFlow for PC yet.
Also, I feel Camtasia is more user-friendly. For example, when I clicked the button to start, Screenflow didn’t show me what was going on (though it was working in the background), and I had to press the combination key Command + Shift + 2 to stop recording. How could new users figure that out on their own. However, this is just my personal preference. It’s totally possible that ScreenFlow fans find it hard to use Camtasia.
How to use (tutorial): Step 1: Download and install ScreenFlow on your Mac, then connect your iPhone or iPad. Open the software and select “New Recording”. Then, specify the options you want.
For example, if I only want to capture my iPhone screen, I just make sure I’ve checked “Record Screen from device name” and “Record Audio from (optional)”. Once that’s done, hit the red circle button to get started. Step 2: Now is the tricky part. ScreenFlow will automatically start without you being aware of it. To stop it, simply press “Command + Shift + 2” on your Mac keyboard. Step 3: Edit the video as you desire. You can cut and drag certain pieces, add callouts, adjust transparency, and more.
Pros:. Relatively easy-to-use; no technical skill needed.
Advanced editing features enable you to make professional videos. Directly publish to YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, Facebook, Dropbox, Wistia. Great customer support Cons:. Not free — $129 plus certain upgrade fees. Less user-friendly than Camtasia.
Doesn’t allow to add iOS device frames 5: Reflector 3 App Note: Reflector 3 is a commercial software that offers 7-day free trial, which is what I downloaded for testing. I haven’t purchased the full version by the time I write this article.
Best to use when: You want to record iOS screens on a Windows PC, and don’t have many video editing needs. Reflector 3 also has a Mac version, but personally I feel the Mac version doesn’t offer more value than Quicktime does, except that Reflector can add a device frame. Things you’ll need:. A Windows or Mac computer. The Reflector 3 software. Your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, etc.). How to use (tutorial): Step 1: Download and install the application on your PC or Mac.
Step 2: Make sure your iPhone or iPad is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your computer. Now, on your iOS device’s main interface, swipe up and tap AirPlay. After that, select your computer’s name and tab to enable Mirroring. Step 3: Open the Reflector 3 app, then click the Record button to continue. Once you’re finished, click the Stop button. Save the video to your desired destination. It’s pretty straightforward.
Pros:. Trial version (with a Reflector watermark embedded) detects your iOS device and adds a device frame automatically.
You can customize recordings with several different preferences. Wireless mirror — no lighting cable or third-party software needed Cons:. It’s not free. $14.99 to buy. No video editing features Other Solutions?
Are there any other working alternatives? Actually there are tons of them, some are free of charge while others require to pay. For example, I tested another app called — it’s free, but the process is super complicated and I spent way too much time getting it to work. In general, I don’t recommend AirShou (Plus, the app doesn’t support iOS 10), even if it’s free. Also, I saw another solution called which is quite popular among gaming players.
It’s a hardware-based solution that costs a few hundred dollars. I’m not really a fan of gaming, so haven’t tried that yet. Conclusion When you work on a project involving screen recording like I did, you quickly learn that time is money. Free solutions like QuickTime is pretty good, but it lacks advanced video editing features you probably need such as adding an iPhone or iPad frame, editing voiceovers, inserting touch gestures or call actions, directly publishing to YouTube, etc. Anyway, I’ve shared all what I knew about capturing iPhone screen videos. To recap, now that iOS 11 is available, you should take advantage of the built-in feature immediately as I imagine it makes the recording process a breeze.
But if you also have the needs to edit videos, I also recommend using QuickTime (which is totally free) to achieve the purpose first, then use iMovie for editing. Alternatively, Camtasia and ScreenFlow are great choices though they are not free software and aren’t cheap. Hope you like this guide, a kind share would be appreciated. If you bump into another awesome solution for recording iOS screen videos, feel free to leave a comment below. I’d be happy to test it out. Hi Borel, Thank you for leaving the comment and the question.
I haven’t used the EE app before, so I downloaded it to my iPad and created a few projects just to get a feel of the app — found it really amazing (might buy it once the trial is over). Back to your question, I don’t think there’s such app that allows you to disable the toolboxes, but I found a way that can make the toolbar and control bar disappear while project the iPad to an external screen (if that’s what you want to achieve). To do so, you first tap on the menu icon located on the top left corner of the EE app - Settings - General External screen mode, select “2nd screen” here (by default, it’s Mirror). I hope this helps.
Thanks again for reading this article, and it’s good to know this fantastic app ? – JP. Hi, as an actor, I am super excited about the screen recorder feature with ios 11 so i can FINALLY capture the scenes I am in from a television show, movie, or commercial. BUT what I have found is that with certain formats, the sound doesn’t record. Am I doing something wrong or can I just NOT RECORD sound from certain websites, social media, or television networks?
It won’t let me record the sound from youtube videos, itunes purchased shows (i purchase the shows i am in) and even a commercial that I had shared on facebook. Thanks for taking the time for making this tutorial, really appreciated. This feature is definitely really important for many iOS users, especially Snapchat or Instagram users to record live videos. It’s one of the best additions on iOS 11. Currently, I’m using a desktop app call Acethinker iPhone screen recorder that mirrors my iPhone screen to the computer and use its screen recording function to make videos. It’s not that direct, but it works well.
Share it here as an alternative method.
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