What tools can I use to create iPhone Screencasts?

Question

I need to create demo videos for my iPhone app ... I mean, like this one for the iPhone Reddit app (one on the right, not a YouTube video).

I guess the best way to do this is to record a simulator using a screen recording utility, does anyone have any other methods? What tools have you used successfully?

Answer 1

For my screencast here , I launched the application in iPhone Simulator and recorded it all with ScreenFlow . I cannot recommend ScreenFlow highly enough, as it really simplifies the whole process. ScreenFlow captures the entire screen, but it provides excellent editing options for cropping the video in the corresponding section 320 x 480 (or 480 x 320), as well as fading and deleting the graphics of the title or label. I also used SimFinger to provide a good cursor, but I can see that the latest version of ScreenFlow now has a built-in function.

For the microphone, I actually used a Rock Band USB stick. This is a surprisingly good Logitech microphone that is recognized as soon as you connect it to your Mac.

I needed a bit of post-processing of the MP4 output to make sure that the video can be played natively on the iPhone. I used both VisualHub and iMovie to create MP4 videos with all the correct settings for playback on the device. Both have simple iPhone export profiles.

Answer 2

I am surprised that no one mentioned QuickTime's built-in screencasting feature. Here's a little guide on how to make a “decent” screencast on Mac OS without any additional tool .

You will have better results if you use it with SIMBL , which many people have mentioned. This is not a screencasting application, but a tool to make your iOS screencast better.

Answer 3

Recently, the author of Tweetie wrote a post about what he is doing, and the tool he wrote is called SimFinger . Yes, he is recording a simulator. If I were producing iPhone screencast, then where would I start.

Answer 4

SimFinger and ScreenFlow are great if you can shoot the simulator.

If you need to shoot on a device (for example, when using an accelerometer, GPS, camera, etc.), you currently have to resort to the world of jailbreaking. The Recorder Display app, available for $ 5 at the Cydia Store, lets you create an AVI movie with iPhone screen contents. This works in all applications. A YouTube video is displayed there. Then the movie files can be uploaded to YouTube or pulled out iPhone via the built-in web server.

Answer 5

You can try one of those few integrated solutions. I know that one is called "capsim", and there is a new one called "sound stage"

Answer 6

Screen capture applications such as ScreenFlow and "Snapz Pro X" work great if you don't need to record multi-touch or accelerometer. However, if you do, you must choose a different solution. Either a movie with a camcorder, or iSimulator, and then record the simulator using applications such as ScreenFlow and "Snapz Pro X". For information on how to install iSimulator, see http://bobueland.com/cocos2d/?p=358

Another solution (which I have not tested yet) is to use screen shielding. That is, if you have an iPad2 or iPhone4S. You need to buy the Apple Digital AV Adapter ($ 39 as of November 2011), and then you can display the iPad or iPhone on an external screen.

Answer 7

For free recording on Mac OS X with iPhone search results, you can use the Screenium demo app to record a flawless 30-second video of your iPhone simulator without restrictions or overlays. Once you start making money from your application, the complete product is cheap. IPhone encoding format provides a good easy result. Turn off the mouse for SimFinger. You can watch an example video at 3k Top Chinese Characters . Definitely use SimFinger to add this realistic sparkle and expectation to iPhone users.

In the longer term, I will buy the iSimulate iPhone app to see if interacting with the iPhone touchscreen instead of a mouse can control the screencast, can give smoother, more realistic results (this also has advantages if you use an accelerometer or multi-touch).

Answer 8

The solution I'm going with is SimFinger to provide finger and SnapZ Pro X for recording. I read a great excerpt from an upcoming book on HTML 5 , which convinced me that I had to take an extra step to transcode .mov output from SnapZ Pro for Ogg to view in browsers that do not support .mov files. Get the Quicktime XiphQT component (I would contact it, but I’m currently not allowed to post multiple links - go to xiph.org) and QuickTime Player 7 will transcode for you - there is no need for QuickTime Pro!

ScreenFlow looks great, but I already have SnapZ Pro and currently can't justify $ 99 when I can do it as good as I have plus some free downloads.

Answer 9

I used this free solution here for the iPhone Simulator Capture, which is SIMBL , which works by capturing the screen from the iPhone simulator. This is a little rude, but good for the price.

Answer 10

There are two ways to do this that I know of for those who want to create screencasts using the available tools:

One : you can use CamTwist and Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder to create FLV files. Details here on my blog .

Two . You can use Jing to create swf files. Here is one of the screencasts on my blog . Also note that I am not showing the full screen of the iPhone on my blog, but you can easily do this.