how do you create high quality videos of your apps?
jorkos
Member, PRO Posts: 353
Hey guys, i'm wondering how you create high quality videos of your apps? I'm using Screenflow right now with the GS viewer but the quality ends up being 1024x768 for retina iPad. How do you create high quality videos of your apps? thanks for your suggestions and ideas!! Much appreciated.
Comments
In order of quality / price.
Screen capture software . . .
Screen capture hardware . . .
iPad to HDMI out to HDMI hard disk recorder
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@Socks thanks for the input. So the highest quality would be iPad to HDMI out to hard disk recorder?
Definitely !
Screen capture software . . . average to poor quality, compression artefacts, gamma issues, dropped frames.
Screen capture hardware . . . surprisingly not too much better than the best screen capture software - but to be honest whilst I've probably tried or bought every piece of screen capture software out there, I've only bought the Elgato Game Capture HD when it comes to hardware, not too bad, but not a massive improvement on software.
iPad to HDMI out to HDMI hard disk recorder . . . Atomos Ninja 2 Recorder ~£400 - £500 + iPad to HDMI converter ~£20 - £30, HDMI cable £5-10 - faultless quality, full quality HD, multiple frame rates (zero dropped frames), 10-bit, 4:2:2 Apple ProRes so no visible compression artefacts, but expensive, maybe you could hire one from a Pro camera hire place ? After all you only really need super high quality when you come to making your actual promo video, which only tends to be once ?
Typical hire prices: £30 day / £45 weekend / £100 week.
http://www.hireacamera.com/camcorders/detail.asp?model=857
Very poor quality for gameplay capture.
Ok thanks @socks i went with the Elgato device - appreciate your input
Use a program called reflector. It mirrors your iPad or iPhone on your computer and will capture the screen stream and even put it in a device frame.
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In case anyone is interested there has been some movement in the high-quality-recording-of-my-apps-please market.
Atomos have released the new Ninja Star ProRes recorder, whereas previously the entry price for pro quality recording was around £500 (+ another £100-£200 on recording media) . . . the new Ninja Star retails for around £200 (£140 educational price for students), you'll also need a CFast card to record to, but you get them pretty cheap (~£20+) on ebay.
Also Elgato have the new Game Capture HD60 out, it sits above the previous Elgato Game Capture HD at around £140.
Also if you have iOS 8 and Yosemite and an iDevice with a lightning connector you can now record over that lightning connection, the quality is said to be a little better than screen capture software.
. . . . . . . . .
Quality . . . .
iOS8/ Yosemite / lightning connector - around 16 Mbps to 8 bit H.264.
New Elgato HD60 - 40 Mbps to 8 bit H.264.
New Atomos Ninja Star - 220 Mbps to Apple ProRes 10bit 4:2:2
The Elgato will record 1080p at 60fps (if your computer is up to the task), whereas the maximum frame rate for the Atomos at 1080p is 30fps, although it does do 1080i at 60ps and 720p at 60fps (along with a myriad of other standards).
But without a doubt the quality from the Atomos at 720p will annihilate the Elgato at 1080p given the Elgato will be throwing 40Mbps at that 1080p signal, whereas the Atomos is throwing 220Mbps at its 720p signal, along with the Atomos' 10bit recording and ProRes codec . . . .
I do get dropped frames with my Elgato (not the HD60, but the standard HD), whereas the Atomos simply doesn't drop frames - and with the Atomos you don't need an up-to-date super fast computer like you do with the Elgato as the recording is done on the actual device.
So, if you ever wanted to take perfect very high quality recordings of your mobile device the price has effectively come down by two thirds with the new Atomos.
Has anyone tried the iOS8 and Yosemite video recording? I figure it should be pretty good, as it's an official Apple feature for us devs...
I mentioned iOS8 and Yosemite in my above post . . . .
The quality seemed ok, decent screen capture quality, of course it will all depend on the input signal from the iPad as it uses a (very) lossy codec (H.264), so screens busy with action (lots of movement) will fare less well than graphically simple apps . . . . . unlike a CBR codec where the action on the screen will not effect the bit rate.
Generally speaking people say the results they are getting are better than standard screen capture software or iDevice specific capture software like Reflector - but I couldn't get much better than around 16 Mbps (15.82 Mbps was the best result) and the frame rate was inconsistent, rarely getting 60fps, more often than not it would only manage to do something like 58.39fps or 57.24fps . . . . and so on, but to be fair standard screen capture will usually return an even lower bit rate and also suffer from frame rate inconstancies, and with relatively heavily compression like H.264 there will always be some level of artifacting.
So overall it's not really a significant improvement in quality, I'd say it was more of an improvement in convenience as you can now record straight from your iDevice without having to pay for additional software, which is pretty handy.
I'd place the various methods (at least the one's I've used/seen) in order of quality something like this . . .
Quicktime / Commercial screen recording software around 10Mbps.
iOS / Yosemite around 16Mbps.
Elgato Game Capture HD - Max 30Mbps.
Elgato Game Capture HD60 - Max 40Mbps.
Atomos Ninja Star - Max 220Mbps.
The only one of these I've not actually used or own is the HD60, but Elgato's figures for the Elgato Game Capture HD were pretty accurate, so I guess their 40Mbps claim for the HD60 is going to be is accurate too.
[/nerd]
I own the older elgato game capture hd (not the HD60) as well. I haven't noticed any frame dropping even though I've been using a windows tablet to record with it. The device does the encoding for you, and I believe your computer only displays the video and saves the file while recording. I noticed you can reduce CPU usage by stopping the preview, might reduce frame dropping as well.
Do you have any raw video from the Atomos you could share (preferably a file straight off the device)? Would be nice to see how much better the quality is compared to elgato.
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I use the reflector app http://www.airsquirrels.com/reflector/
You can then use screen recording software.
I just got an elgato hd60 a few days ago, the video quality is decent but not great. Frame rates however are awesome, 60fps looks very nice.
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It may well be my set up, I've taken all the obvious precations (not having 32 applications open and running at the same time
) but it will still drop in the occasional glitch, I've used it on an older i7 iMac, and now I'm using it on one of the latest models and I still get the occasional dropped frame, it's no worse than the dropped frames you occasionally get with screen capture software, who knows maybe I need to do something like disconnect the internet while I capture or some other little trick, but generally speaking the Game Capture does a decent job, the occasional dropped frame is not a deal breaker, the biggest issue for me is the compression. Also I've never managed to get it to record 60fps (@720p), the best it will do is 30 ?
Good idea, I will give that a go, but like I say, even if I eradicate the occasional dropped frame I'm still looking at relatively highly compressed H.264 (although at ~30Mbps still a lot better than the average of 10Mbps for most screen capture software) . . and then, of course, when you upload it to Youtube it's further compressed by Youtube's own system.
In fact, if we are talking about making games trailers and video previews (for the new App Store video preview functionality), the more common route with things like the Elgato would be to record from the iPad, where the Elgato does a fair bit of compression to the signal, then take this into your editing software, where after being edited is then rendered out through further compression, then Youtube compresses it once more.
I've not got anything to hand, but I'll throw together a quick example when I get the chance, both devices recording the same app, I'll post the raw H.264 from the mac and the raw HQ422 ProRes from the Atomos.
I tried reflector but found it very laggy on Mac yosemite. So I went with x mirage which I also found a decent discount for http://x-mirage.com/x-mirage/, then used iMovie to do the editing, although I am still looking for a better, not ridiculously expensive Mac video editor, here is my current finished article from x mirage and iMovie.
Yep! 60fps makes a real difference for apps, recordings at sub-60fps frame rates tend to make apps look (unfairly) sluggish and unresponsive.
Reflector wasn't too bad for me (lag wise), it's just the compression I found a little too much - I also agree that X-Mirage was a little better (as is Snapz Pro X).
I now have, sat right in front of me, an Elgato HD, and Elgato HD60, an Atomos, and a copy of Reflector ! When I get a chance I will get some raw footage (of the same app) from each and post it . . .
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@Armelline Thks for link to Mirage , it works great!!!
Reflector has it's own recorder so you don't need to use it in conjunction with a screen recorder program.
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I'm quite satisfied with the results from X-Mirage using a Retina iPad because my games don't have lots of high speed action, so a high frame rate is not important. It is a cheap solution for things like trivia, puzzles and storybooks.
Installing Yosemite now. Hopefully I'll get better results than screen recording in QT.
I only have a 2k12 Mac Mini but I'm guessing since the Mac doesn't have to render the game as well as record it, I should see much better results.
Woohoo! Recording directly from device to Quicktime in Yosemite works really well! Really happy with the quality and frame rate, even though I only have a 2012 Mac Mini!
Best thing is, it's FREE!!!!
Really great info guys, should made this a sticky.
I did this today using quick time to record (no sound) - imovie template with sound and then edited in final cut pro. However, the sound isn't great.
Any suggestions would be useful
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If you only have an android device, do any of those mirroring apps work for it?
@jigglybean Neat video. Love your opening title too. The game looks like fun.
Suggestions: if you have GameCentre I'd mention it. Can you post your high score on Twitter?
@jigglybean The video is nicely done, the game itself looks like a shameful ripoff, with nothing original at all in this clone version, of the original game made by @BigDave
It was a template I purchased just to trial some of the new features. And to reply to your 'rip off' comment. I actually did a search for that template name and couldn't find anything like it on Google or Amazon. But being a template, I assumed it was a copy of something, so please dismount from your high horse.
Hence why its free. Adding some additional features in an update.
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