Mac users! How to record my live shows!

[Violethayes]

I'm really interested in being able to hit a record button while I cam so I can take my content and use it for photos, gifs, promos and vids.

I see a lot of stuff for PC but I'm having a hrd time finding something to work for Mac. I use the flash media encoder sometimes to record, but for live shows it's just choppy and laggy so that doesn't work for live shows.

I'd really appreciate any input!

Vi.

 

[Nachos]

You might be able to use PhotoBooth to record your live streams. Launch the app, select the video icon on the bottom left, and then select the record button.

Hope it works out for you!

 

[NataliaGrey]

If you buy ManyCam there's a record option. I believe you can also use photobooth, but you would need a different source than the one you would use for MFC, so two webcams.

 

[UncleThursday]

The cheapest, but best software that might suit your needs is ScreenFlick by Ariellum.

http://www.araelium.com/screenflick

$29. Basically, you'd set your recording area around what you want to record, hit record and within 5 seconds it starts recording. It will also record sound.

I used to use it to record my game reviews off of my SlingBox as it streamed to my iMac, until I got a Haupague HDPVR and EyeTV.

I will warn you, however, if you are recording your own shows or something similar, the RAW movie files can get VERY LARGE. At least a GB/hour at a smallish-medium resolution. At the resolutions I used to record my games at (1280x720 720p) it was more like 3 GB/45 mins or so.

It is updated fairly frequently, and the program now shows a little green bar when opened if there is an update ready to be installed.

Hitting 'start recording' gives you the movie-style 5 second countdown then it begins recording. To stop recording hit shift+command+2. You can also pre-set the maximum frames per second to record at before recording.

After recording, just hit the export button and it will export to a small variety of file formats. You can also preview the recorded movies before you export them. However, to delete the RAW files, you have to hit the delete key in the lower left of the movies panel while highlighting the RAW movie to delete (the delete button looks like a - ). After that, you will have to quit (fully quit, command+Q while in the program, or right click/control click the icon in your dock and select quit) the program before you can actually empty it from the trash (otherwise OS X will say it is still in use by ScreenFlick).

Exporting can actually take longer than it took to record, so be aware of that. Also, before deleting the RAW file, play it when it appears in QuickTime Player, to ensure the sound and such stayed synced (normally only an issue for longer files).

 

[SweetTea]

Based on what you said I wonder actually if your Mac is actually powerful enough to be able to stream and record at the same time. Flash Media Encoder isn't optimized as well as a lot of other recorders are, but if your Mac was powerful enough it *should* be able to do both. Do you know what the specs of your Mac are?

The three thing's I would look at are how powerful your processor is, how much RAM you have, and how powerful your graphics card is. Also, what type your graphics card is, is it a dedicated or integrated one. Preferably you would have a dedicated graphics card because a dedicated one means that it uses it's own RAM, instead of as with an integrated one, where it relies on the RAM on the motherboard, making your available system RAM actually smaller.

I have seen models be able to use Photobooth while they're streaming... so it could very well be a problem with the Mac version of Flash Media Encoder, and it being too resource heavy. Hopefully Photobooth works out!

 

[UncleThursday]

Based on what you said I wonder actually if your Mac is actually powerful enough to be able to stream and record at the same time. Flash Media Encoder isn't optimized as well as a lot of other recorders are, but if your Mac was powerful enough it *should* be able to do both. Do you know what the specs of your Mac are?

The three thing's I would look at are how powerful your processor is, how much RAM you have, and how powerful your graphics card is. Also, what type your graphics card is, is it a dedicated or integrated one. Preferably you would have a dedicated graphics card because a dedicated one means that it uses it's own RAM, instead of as with an integrated one, where it relies on the RAM on the motherboard, making your available system RAM actually smaller.

I have seen models be able to use Photobooth while they're streaming... so it could very well be a problem with the Mac version of Flash Media Encoder, and it being too resource heavy. Hopefully Photobooth works out!

Most Flash stuff has issues on Macs, because Apple and Adobe haven't been getting along on the Flash thing since Apple blocked it on the iPhone. If a browser crashes on OS X, 99.9999999% of the time its Flash related. Streaming to things like Justin.TV, Ustream or Twitch from a Mac also has issues that less powerful Windows computers (hardware wise, CPU/GPU/RAM) can do fine... Including using a separate mic so you can talk while streaming a game and such. I used to use Araelium's WireTap Anywhere to get around that, but Apple changed things in 10.7 and later, and since it was a free program, Araelium has decided it isn't worth updating yet as opposed to their software they charge for. I even stayed on OS X 10.6 for a long time just because of this issue.

In fact, Twitch pretty much recommends Wirecast by Telestream if you want to enjoy the same functionality on a Mac that Windows users can get with XSplit, which can be used for free or bought starting at $15. A $495 minimum purchase program for Mac users to get the same features as a freemium program on Windows. :naughty: :snooty:

And people wonder why I am dropping OS X with my next computer purchase...