screen capture

Recently I've been spending a bit of time producing video content of both browser windows and Terminal windows for screen recordings and livestreams on my YouTube channel.

One common issue I have to deal with is trying to optimize the aspect ratio of the window for the video dimensions. In 99% of all cases, I need the window to be 16:9. And ideally, I want the window to be recorded at 1280x720 at 2x 'retina' resolution, so when I capture the window, it will be nice and sharp at 1080p, which is my typical output resolution.

In the past, I'd open up a 1280x720 image at 2x resolution, then drag the Terminal window over it. However, getting that to be pixel perfect is sometimes frustrating, and it's always annoying since it takes me an extra 10-20 seconds per recording.

In my searching, I found this handy article from way back in 2013: How to Resize Windows on your Mac to Specific Sizes.

At this year's php[tek] conference, I decided to record my own sessions (one on a cluster of Raspberry Pis, and another on tips for successfully working from home). Over the years, I've tried a bunch of different methods of recording my own presentations, and I've settled on a pretty good method to get very clear audio and visuals, so I figured I'd document my method here in case you want to do the same.

Update: More recent versions of QuickTime Player have the ability to copy frames of the video by using 'Command + C'. In recent versions, to grab a frame, do the following:

1. In QuickTime Player: Pause on the frame you want to capture (use arrow keys to go forward/backward by 1 frame).
2. Press 'Command-C' (or select Edit > 'Copy').
3. In Preview: Press 'Command-N' (or select File > 'New from Clipboard')
4. Save the new file where you'd like.

There are many things to like about QuickTime X, and many improvements were included over QuickTime Pro 7... but there were also a ton of features removed (like being able to set advanced export options, save a movie as images, and do some other more advanced edits/exports.

However, I'm glad I finally figured out how I can grab one frame from a movie in QuickTime Player X. The problem I was having is this: If you pause the video and use the left/right arrow keys to move the playhead exactly to the frame you want, the player controls are still showing over the video (in addition to the video title bar/window chrome.