Considering screen recording quite literally captures video footage from a screen – people tend to assume that the quality will be identical to what they see on their screen. Unfortunately that isn’t exactly true, and in fact the quality of videos captured using screen recording is determined by several factors.

Video Resolution

The resolution of the video is the factor that is heavily influenced by your display, as it is basically the same as the resolution of the frame that you’re recording. That means that the maximum resolution that you can record in is the full-screen resolution of your display.

Needless to say a higher resolution is always better and will result in a video that looks crisp and has better definition. That is why as a rule it is best to record in full screen (to benefit from the maximum resolution) and then crop the video later if necessary.

Frame Rate

Unlike the resolution, the frame rate that you record in will be based on the settings in the screen recorder that you’re using. A higher frame rate is better, as it will make your video look smoother – especially when there is any movement taking place in the frame.

In many cases if your video quality looks inferior to what you see on your screen it could be because of the frame rate. The majority of displays operate at a refresh rate of 60Hz, which essentially allows them to display 60 frames per second. If you want your recording to mirror that, you should record at a frame rate of 60.

System Performance

Simply put capturing video footage using screen recording is processor-intensive, and it can impact your system performance. That in turn could cause it to act up and run more slowly or lag and stutter at various points – which will be recorded as part of the video.

Unfortunately this is one of the more difficult factors to deal with, but as a start you should get into the habit of closing any unnecessary apps or background processes before you record the video. Ultimately however you may need to record at a lower frame rate or resolution, or upgrade your computer.

Audio Quality

Poor quality audio that is indistinct and sounds fuzzy can drag down the perceived quality of the entire video. However if you aren’t recording audio via a microphone (or other external device), you don’t need to worry as much as the system audio quality shouldn’t be affected by other factors.

To record better quality audio, you should start by using a decent microphone. Additionally you may want to try to minimize any background noise that is present.

Encoding Settings

Although the quality of the video that you capture using screen recording may be good it won’t amount to much if it is encoded using the wrong settings when you save it. Basically the resolution and frame rate that you encode the video in should be the same as the settings that were used to record the video.

Similarly the bitrate should be high enough to avoid compression artifacts.

Conclusion

The factors listed above will affect the quality of any screen recording video that you capture, and should be taken into account. For example if you capture streaming video Mac using Movavi Screen Recorder for Mac, you should try to optimize the settings accordingly.

It should be noted that aside from the video quality there may be other factors that affect how impressive your videos look. That being said improving the video quality is a good start, and should be relatively straightforward now that you know the factors to look at.