Today, live video broadcasts are everywhere - from major entertainment platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video to social media such as Facebook Live, YouTube or Periscope. Real-time broadcast technology enables content creators, businesses, publishers, and entertainment companies to reach their target audience and develop their brand like never before.


In most cases, these publications only exist at the most real time. The broadcast in Twitch appears only for viewing while the tape drive is running. Other platforms, such as YouTube, automatically convert streaming video to optional video (VOD) format. However, in any case, these publishers still have legal rights to the content of the video, and at their discretion have the right to add or delete broadcast records. Fortunately, modern hardware and software makes it easier to stream the video file for later use.


Although this article is devoted to how to record a live feed that you create yourself, the techniques described here can be used to record other people's publications.


Why record your live broadcasts?

Even if some platforms automatically convert the finished stream to VOD format (such as YouTube), the idea of ​​writing a personal copy of your publication still applies. To get started, you can edit your record - not for creative or advertising purposes. You'll also be able to use fragments of these publications to create some other materials.


You can edit your recordings using professional-quality video editors like Adobe Premiere Pro, and for simpler cases we can offer our own video editor included in our AV Studio package (shameless ad: AV Studio has a free 90-day trial!).




Professional recording tools let you record each video source as an ISO file in full resolution. This is a good idea if you use many video sources in your publication at one time (for example, "picture in picture"). Many streamers prefer to use such video files to achieve the maximum quality result in post-processing operations.


Programs for "Recording screen"

Screen capture utilities, "screen recorders" are often the first tool that comes to mind for people who decide to record live broadcasts. If the streaming video stream is displayed in full resolution on your screen, such a tool may save the video content as a saved file. These programs are both paid and free.


TechSmith Camtasia and Fraps offers more features to edit: graphic overlays and basic editing capabilities as compared to paid free tools screen recorders.




Free screen recorders don't pay you any fees, but their functionality is limited by saving what's happening on your screen and that's it. An example of such programs is CamStudio - an open source screen recorder.


Many people don't know that Windows 10 comes with an application preinstalled for the Xbox, which lets users record what's happening on the screen. Theoretically, this utility is primarily designed to record the game process, but it can also be used to record any video content, including live broadcasts. To use this function, just press Windows + G to display a pop-up panel where you can watch the recording and configure the capture settings.


The disadvantage of using screen capture tools for real-time recording is that video quality will suffer severely. When recording a live broadcast, you will record (ie re-encode) the video content previously encoded by the original publisher. The recorder screen operation, especially if you are recording at a high resolution, can use the computer's central and graphics processors to a large extent when you use the computer for other tasks. This can lead to a poorly encoded media file with jittery video and skipped frames. Therefore, if you do not have a strong computer, then you should get special equipment to record digital video.


Recording and broadcasting programs in real time

There are many software tools that allow users to publish their own video content while recording their own streams. These programs can only be used to record video content from your screen.


Both free open source programs such as OBS Studio as well as XSplit are more advanced paid tools like Broadcaster and vMix. For an overview, see our article "Best Flow Programs for 2018".




These programs have great capabilities, but as with screen recorders, especially if you plan to broadcast and record at the same time, you will need a fairly powerful central and graphics processor. This is especially true if you plan to record with a high resolution and frame rate, such as a dynamic game. computer