I have a possible job next week recording a remote deposition.

I have 3 options:
1. Use my camera to record the screen of my laptop. Might use this as a backup it also has the advantage to put a time/date stamp, although it’s a crude method.

2. Record to the Atomos. The audio won’t record via hdmi, I can use an analog in from headphone jack but it’s a bit out of sync.

3. Use a screen recording software. Looked at bunch OBS Studio seems the best. Its a fast laptop but hope streaming and recording doesn’t overload it.

I've had excellent results out of OBS Studio, and it's the only one I use. OBS Studio also has options for hardware encoding (not taxing the CPU) which the more modern chip set in your laptop will most likely take advantage of.

Andrew

Looked at bunch OBS Studio seems the best. Its a fast laptop

I haven't used it a lot but OBS Studio worked well for me.

Andrew, Anthony: Thats good to hear. I’ll download OBS and give it a try.

I’ve had some issues with capturing system sound on my Mac in newer OSX versions. This helped a lot: https://existential.audio/blackhole/

Also you can create a multi audio output via the MIDI utility to send sound out via HDMI and internal speakers simultaneously. Helpful in this day and age.

Uniconverter from Wondershare has a screen recording facility which has worked fine for me.

Is there a simpler way to screen record on a laptop?

If you are running Windows 10 you can use the Game Bar to record on-screen video. It is designed to record gaming sessions but I've used it a lot to capture mobile phone footage in standard 1080p from Facebook and WhatsApp for a few lockdown choir videos I did.

Quicktime Player will screen, audio or video record on any Mac.

Camtasia. I use XSplit and OBS but for screen record and output options I find Camtasia hard to beat. Many codec option for output including HTML5. Maybe worth having a look.

https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html

Get Started with Camtasia [Webinar] - YouTube

Chris Young

Thanks everyone for the info. Unfortunately I didn't get the job because the person who did the last recording had a problem and they didn't want a repeat and lose the client.

On the positive side I'm now comfortable using OBS for remote screen recording. I still had to work through a number of issues.

1. Recording a backup: I wanted to use my Atomos Ninja Blade/Flame to record a backup. Unfortunately they will not record audio through the HDMI from my laptop. I discovered a work around, using analog audio from the headphone jack of the laptop. Although there are two drawbacks it doesn't record my voice and there is no time date/stamp.

2. Time/Date Stamp: Depositions need a time and date burned in and I discovered a way to do this in OBS.

3. Monitoring the recording: By running a second monitor I'm able to view the capture program in one screen while I record the video conference in the other.

4. Recording your voice: In video conferencing software when you talk your voice is muted to prevent you from hearing yourself and getting that feedback echo. But what that means you need to add the laptop mic to the recording. OBS does this but the backup wouldn't so you need a separate recorder for the backup.

The last thing that I need to do is setup Zoom meeting next week with a colleague and make sure there are no hidden issues.

Camtasia. I use XSplit and OBS but for screen record and output options I find Camtasia hard to beat. Many codec option for output including HTML5

Chris Young
I just watched that Camtasia tutorial. I'm really impressed especially with the editor. A lot of traditional video editors have such bad interfaces and make commonly used tasks like key framing a difficult task.

That's what I like about Camtasia the fact that you can do a simple but accurate edit on location and pump out and HTML5 MP4 with player for a quick embed to a clients or your own delivery site.

Chris Young