Do you want to record videos from your screen in the very best quality? Although there are significantly fewer factors that affect the quality of screen recording videos compared to conventional video footage – there are still several areas that you need to scrutinize.
The good news is that it really is not all that complicated, and all you need is a few simple tips to put you on the right track:
- Record in high resolutions
The resolution of a video is its dimensions in pixels, and in screen recording that is the same as the size of the video frame that you’re recording. In other words if you record a full screen video from a 1080p Full HD display, your video resolution will be 1080p.
To record high quality videos, you will want the resolution to be as high as possible – which normally means it is best to record in full screen. If you happen to be using a display higher than 1080p Full HD, you could opt to record a 1080p frame instead however.
By recording in HD resolutions, you can avoid black bars from appearing around your video during playback, which is good for its quality as well. If you use other resolutions, you should make sure you use a 16:9 aspect ratio regardless to avoid black bars.
- Set the frame rate to 60
Increasing the number of frames per second that are in your video will make it look more fluid. Any movement in your video frame (including and especially the mouse cursor) will be clearer and look much smoother.
Technically a frame rate of 30 or higher is considered acceptable, but if you want the quality to be excellent you should try to push it up to 60. That will require more processing power and result in a larger file size, but impact of a high frame rate on the video quality will be significant.
- Encode in the right settings
The settings that you use to encode your video are important as well, and the wrong settings could adversely affect the video quality. As a rule, you should always encode videos in the same resolution and frame rate that they were recorded in – as altering, either will affect the quality and may cause other issues.
The video bitrate that you use when encoding is important as well, and should be based on the format, resolution, and frame rate. If it is not high enough, various compression artifacts may appear that will definitely reduce the video quality.
Learning how to record your screen on a Mac or PC and set up the parameters described above should be easy enough – but will depend on the software that you use. For example, you could try Movavi Screen Capture Studio for Mac if you want full control over the recording parameters.
On top of the tips listed above, keep in mind that recording videos can require a lot of system resources – and your computer will need to be able to cope with it. If it does not it could perform sluggishly, which may affect your video quality as well.