---
title: Screen casting
url: https://www.grahambrooks.com/post/2010-01-31-screen-casting/
date: 2010-01-31T00:00:00+00:00
author: Graham Brooks
tags:
- Writing
---

# Screen casting

There have been a number of threads recently talking about screen/podcasting and the software required to do a decent job so I thought I would blog about the setup I am using.

After trying a few applications I eventually settled on <a href="http://www.shinywhitebox.com/ishowuhd/main.html">IShowU HD</a>. It handles screen capture well and supports a wide range of formats.

![Samson microphone]({{ site.url }}/images/0F73A0E6-AE9E-440A-9593-D4D6B19E1F25.jpg)

I tried a couple of microphones (including the built in mic on my MBP)
before settling on the <a
href="http://www.samsontech.com/images/productimages/C01U-web.jpg">Samson
C10U</a>. The mic works well but I have not found it to be that
sensitive so have to position it between the laptop and me which
sometimes makes it difficult to type. Perhaps I will have to invest in
a boom to bring the mike over the top - although that may make it more
difficult to see the screen.

I also use headphones so I can hear the audio as I speak but there is
a slight delay as the sound is processed which can be a little
distracting at times.

I find that it is difficult to maintain momentum for a long time so I
capture a scene in iShowU and then stitch them together in iMovie
before burning a completed screen-cast.

Once complete I have tried using <a
href="http://heywatch.com/page/home">HeyWatch!</a> to convert the MP4
into flash but there is quite a degradation in quality during the
conversion. This would probably not be a problem for normal video but
the text of the screen-cast becomes almost unreadable. This may be
because of the settings I have used so far so I will probably give
that another go when I get around to recording the next episode.