3 Features to Look For in a Screen Recorder

As you start to look at the many screen recorders that are out there, one thing that will become clear almost immediately is how different they are. The features present in screen recorders can be very diverse, with some offering just the bare essentials while others go above and beyond expectations.

While the scope of the features that you will need in a screen recorder will vary depending on how you want to use it, there are a few in particular that you should keep an eye out for:

Encoding formats and options

Although often overlooked, the formats that you can choose to encode your video in are an important factor. The majority of screen recorders will encode videos in MP4 with H.264, and as it is the most popular and widely-supported format currently that may suffice in most cases.

Finding a screen recording with more versatile encoding formats and options can be helpful however. For example being able to encode in H.265 will reduce the file size of your videos. Similarly being able to customize other encoding settings such as the bitrate may help as well.

Tools to automate the recording

One of the most useful features in a screen recorder are tools that will let you automate the recording. Typically these come in two variants: Timers or scheduling features.

Normally a timer will let you set the duration that you want to record for, and automatically stop recording once it has elapsed. Conversely scheduling features will let you set the specific time to both start and stop recording.

Having such features will ensure that you don’t have to manually ‘babysit’ the recording, which can be especially useful if you’re recording long videos. For example if you were to use Movavi Screen Recorder as a live stream recorder, you could completely automate it and need not even be present to start recording.

Trim function

While some screen recorders are paired with more comprehensive video editors – the most essential editing feature that you should try to look for is the trim function.

Regardless of how careful you may be, it is safe to say that you may inadvertently record footage that you don’t need. That is especially the case at the start or end of the recording, when you may capture footage of what you did right after the recording commenced or footage showing you stopping the recording.

Being able to trim out unwanted parts of video can be very useful, so that you don’t save footage that you really don’t want.

Make no mistake there are lots of other helpful features that are present in some screen recorders such as webcam video capture and overlays, a crop function, audio controls, and more. In fact it is all these features that set such software apart from the built-in versions present in iOS, Windows 10, and MacOS.

The features listed above have the biggest impact and are the most universally applicable. Other features may be useful on a case by case basis depending on the type of video that you’re recording.