iShowU HD - capture that video easily

Have you ever wanted to capture video that you see online? Say for example you want to capture a highlight play on NFL.COM—which has some very high quality video clips online—integrating the results into your own video. I was looking for just such a solution the other day and found iShowU HD, a nice little application that can capture virtually any video you can view on your Mac, including Flash based videos from YouTube, etc.

Using the application is pretty straightforward - just set the video capture area, the quality of the output video, click the Record button and off you go:


iShowU HD also provides a way to put together basic screencasts, capturing either the entire screen or just a portion of it while scrolling the viewport with the mouse movement. It can display mouse clicks with a radar-like circle animation and audible click.

The only problem I've had with it was that recording audio (narrating my video capture) had a technical problem with my USB based microphone; it only recorded to the left channel. Shiny White Box—the manufacturers of the software—assured me that a fix would be coming for that within the next month. Fortunately the built in mic on my MacBook Pro doesn't have the problem so I can work around it for now.

For $30 it's a nice little piece of software. I haven't done too much research on the topic so if you're aware of a good piece of video capture technology—including something for making screencasts—please drop a note in the comments.

Comments

Anonymous said…
There's also ScreenFlow (Leopard only):

http://www.flip4mac.com/screenflow.htm

-- Alan.
November 10, 2008 at 8:45 AM
David Alison said…
@Alan: Thanks. I actually downloaded the demo version but had a difficult time getting it to work properly. Granted, I didn't give it a lot of time but it was not nearly as easy as iShowU HD was for some reason. The editing controls in it look fantastic though.
November 10, 2008 at 9:01 AM
Anonymous said…
+1 for ScreenFlow. I've actually only made one screencast with it, but I found it incredibly intuitive and powerful... I'll be looking into iShowU HD though.
November 10, 2008 at 9:15 AM
Anonymous said…
Also Snapz Pro 10 from Ambrosia software which integrates recording video and screen grabs with more control than the native Mac screen grabs.

Eric
November 10, 2008 at 9:24 AM
ratporchrico said…
+1 for Snapz Pro which I've used for capturing stuff from BBC iPlayer - files sizes enormous though. Not tried to do much more than that but it works pretty well

ratporchrico
November 10, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Anonymous said…
TubeTV opens web pages and downloads the video, then will convert the file to AppleTV or iPhone all with one click.
November 10, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Anonymous said…
I bought this about a month ago. By far the easiest to use, offers the most capture formats, and works exactly as advertised. Much better than Snapz or other apps.
November 10, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Anonymous said…
Bart Simpson

Not so sure about screencasts but for grabbing video off YouTube or other websites

1. Load page in safari
2. Window menu choose activity
3. Drilll down until you see video file listed(it's almost always the largest file)
4. Option+ double click on it ( you may have to add . Flv extension)
5. Use MPEG streamclip/QuickTime pro+perian to convert to any format
November 10, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Anonymous said…
Snapz Pro. Have had it since day one. Haven't found one better. But am still looking.

DanielM
November 11, 2008 at 4:47 PM
Don said…
Hey David, I've been "out of town" for a couple of week s so missed responding to your blog post.

I'd also give two thumbs up for Screenflow as probably the best screencast recording app for the Mac at present.

I've used most if not all the most popular mac video screen capture apps since starting my pro screencast service: http://www.screencastsonline.com over three years ago and I've found screenflow to be the most reliable and feature rich. It also has tons of extra features not found anywhere else including post production editing using a linear timeline and comprehensive export presets. Some of the effects and post production tweaks you can do are truly groundbreaking!

I still use Final Cut Pro for my final production editing to allow me to incorporate Motion graphics and other effects but for most people, Screenflow is the ideal app for screencasting.

Just my 2p!
November 15, 2008 at 5:53 PM
dh99136751 said…
Does IShowU HD output files in flv format? SWF if not desirable and I can't find anything in the online documentation to verify that (and don't want to purchase without verification).

Thanks.
January 12, 2010 at 5:59 PM
David Alison said…
@dh99136751: No, I don't believe it does support flv. You may want to try asking them directly though: sales@shinywhitebox.com. Good luck!
January 12, 2010 at 6:16 PM
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