I've been wanting to make some more videos of Onslaught! Arena (and other prototypes we've got cooking) so I wanted to get a really good screen video recording app for Mac OSX. But before buying utility software I like to do a little research to make sure I get the one best taylored to my needs.

Desired features

Since I'll primarily be recording gameplay from our games, I have particular needs in screen recording software, including:

Easily capture video -- with a really simple and noninvasive interface.

-- with a really simple and noninvasive interface. No noticeable CPU hit -- I had issues with Snapz Pro slowing down my computer when I was recording the How to beat the Green Dragon video, so I didn't include it in this research.

-- I had issues with Snapz Pro slowing down my computer when I was recording the How to beat the Green Dragon video, so I didn't include it in this research. Ability to record audio as well as video -- ideally from the built-in computer's microphone and what's coming out of the speakers.

Which applications did I review?

These are just some quick reviews (one of them very quick!), but in most of them I've included screenshots and actual video recorded with the application. Here they are in the order I reviewed them:

Camtasia

First I looked at the free trial of Camtasia (full version: $99.00 USD) and had the following thoughts:

Nice that it's available for PC and Mac.

Had to install something called Soundflower to record audio from the built-in microphone. That's irritating; I'd much rather it be bundled with the software I already had to install. (Note: looks like most of these apps also require SoundFlower , so not a huge ding against Camtasia .)

to record audio from the built-in microphone. That's irritating; I'd much rather it be bundled with the software I already had to install. (Note: looks like most of these apps also require , so not a huge ding against .) Confusing interface. Had to start recording to tell how to set the recording region.

I don't dig the interface. I'd rather see native OSX checkboxes and other widgets than a bunch of custom graphics.

Here's a quick video I recorded with Camtasia. You can hear both the game's audio and my voice clearly:

Overall seems pretty solid and I was happy with the video I recorded. I couldn't find a good way to switch between the microphone VS. speaker audio recordings in the editing software it came with. But I guess that would mostly be done in something else like iMovie anyway. I'm not sure that Camtasia is the best bang for the buck considering that its price is up to three times that of some of its competitors.

CaptureIt!

Next I tried CaptureIt! (full version: $29.95 USD) and I was immediately confused. The moment I ran the application my entire screen faded a bit and a toolbar appeared in the bottom-left corner of my desktop. (You can see what I mean on the product page.)

I quit, then reopened the application to give it another shot. This time I figured out how to record video (which took some digging), but I couldn't for the life of me find where it put the movie file. Since it clearly wasn't as intuitive and easy to learn as I wanted, I wrote it off as a failure and moved on to the next application.

iShowU HD Pro

iShowU HD Pro's full version is $59.95 USD with a fewer-features version available for $29.95 USD. I downloaded the demo, gave it a go, and had the following thoughts:

An update was required the moment I started the application. While it's nice that it has an automated update flow, I'd rather they had included the update in the file I had just downloaded!

flow, I'd rather they had included the update in the file I had just downloaded! I liked the option to show or hide the mouse icon during recording. (Turns out this is a pretty common feature.)

Would be nice to see meta data when selecting the region to record (such as width/height and X/Y coordinates). This is epecially important since my most common use-case will be wanting to record the exact gameplay region (eg, 1024x768 pixels).

The interface (see screenshot above) felt too large and clunky for my needs. I don't really want to spend much time with whatever screen-capturing software I end up purchasing; I want it to be largely invisible and just quickly/easily record videos then disappear.

It was really easy to record a test video:

iShowU HD Pro is not bad but I think the choice in price might hurt its ability to sell copies. I definitely knew I'd need the "Pro" version since (if I understood correctly) the limited version for 50% less doesn't record audio. So that kind of made me feel like I wouldn't be getting as good a deal (it's funny how pricing works, isn't it?)

Screen Mimic

Screen Mimic ($65 USD) was next on my list and I had the following thoughts when using it:

Simple and noninvasive interface.

I like how it displays the selection resolution (eg, 640x480 pixels).

Very useful that you can export as .swf ! Last time I checked I couldn't find anything to easily convert a movie file to flash on a Mac, so I found this feature extra appealing.

The recording quality is pretty good too, as you can see in this video I made using the demo:

My favorite feature of Screen Mimic is that it does a great job of staying out of your face. At first it's just an icon in your menu bar. Click it, and the only options displayed are "New Recording" and "Pause Recording" (disabled). Very minimal and definitely appreciated. On the downside, its has fewer options than the competitors in its price range. Based on the other software with similar features I'd say it should be priced about half of what it is.

Screenium

Next up I tried Screenium ($29 USD) and immediately liked it. The demo is fully-featured except it limits recordings to 30 seconds. Other software in its category might remove features and/or add watermarks to exported videos. Giving me full access to all normal features allowed me to see exactly what I'd be paying for without any uncertainty. Good stuff.

Recording and exporting this video was a breeze:

I have almost nothing but good things to say about Screenium:

Really nice interface.

Love the ability to select which audio to record (system audio and/or built-in microphone).

Really cool that you can include your built-in camera to the screen capture (see lower-left-hand corner in the video)!

Tons of options regarding Hotkeys.

Love the simplicity of the export feature; you can just press "OK" to export immediately, or dig in and get pretty advanced.

So cool that you can type in exact width/height and X/Y coordinates! As an anal programmer this optional granular control is wonderful.

It's difficult to say why, but I also felt that Screenium had excellent usability. All the options were easy to find and in the right place. No task was a chore.

ScreenFlow

After trying ScreenFlow ($99 USD), I had the following thoughts:

Immediately got a translucent window with some recording options. Didn't see any opacity settings; wasn't digging the pre-recording window.

Upon clicking "Record Computer Audio," was disappointed to be prompted to "Install Audio Driver."

The first test video I recorded only captured video from my laptop screen and I couldn't find a way to record from the external monitor instead.

Can also include built-in camera recording in your capture, with many more features like sizing, rotation and position. Very cool, but realistically would probably never get used.

Has tons of advanced post-capture editing features such as screen stretching and rotating (but I'd rather handle these effects in a different application like iMovie).

Videos (from both the screen and built-in camera) are easy to record:

I found ScreenFlow's pre-recording interface to be too minimal and its post-recording interface way too involved. The quality feels pretty good, and even at almost $100 the value might be there for some users. But I'm in the market for a simple screen recording app, so as long as it does what I need, the fewer options the better.

Bonus: QuickTime

Edit 1/2/2011: I gave QuickTime (v10.0) a try after reading that it was available for OSX10.6+. While the price tag (free!) is obviously great, I noticed a CPU hit making my gameplay recording sluggish. I also saw no options for recording only a selected region of the screen. These reasons made it a dealbreaker, but it might be a great free solution for you!

Summary

Overall I was the most impressed with Screenium. It has a wonderful interface, is easy to use and powerful enough for my purposes (and being the least expensive is a nice coincidence!). If Screenium wasn't on the plate, I guess my second choice would have been Screen Mimic. It does very little but has pleasant controls and is also simple to use.

Do you have your own experiences with screen recording software on Mac OSX? Is there any great software out there that I missed?

Follow author @richtaur