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Quicktime screen recording unacceptably choppy

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Forkjulle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 1, 2012
211
1
I have a rMBP with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM, and Mountain Lion.

I've tried using Quicktime to record my screen, using a selection on either high or medium quality, and the interface slows down to unacceptable levels.

Let's say I want to record myself drawing in Photoshop, it's not possible because of the choppy response.

Is this normal?
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
31
located
Somehow QT X uses to much CPU power to record a screen, even a small one with 1280 x 800 pixel. Thus 2880 x 1800 might be pushing it.

Take a look at ScreenFlow, which uses much much less CPU power to record a screen.
 
F

Forkjulle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 1, 2012
211
1
I find it upsetting that a multi-billion-dollar company releases products that don't work properly. The rMBP, as it is, is pricey and doesn't perform all that well. Then its native software, like QT, doesn't work properly.

Disappointing.
 
K

kgs

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2012
102
1
Forkjulle said:
I find it upsetting that a multi-billion-dollar company releases products that don't work properly. The rMBP, as it is, is pricey and doesn't perform all that well. Then its native software, like QT, doesn't work properly.

Disappointing.
Click to expand...

Your expectations aren't in line with reality.

QT is free. It also works great when you have a non-retina display.

Retina displays have a lot more pixels to record than a non-retina display. With more pixels means more data and more data means more processing power.

Something to remember is that recording the screen with quicktime also requires compressing the video to make it smaller, this is a processor intensive process. It's very difficult to compress HD quality video real time. Now, imagine trying to compress video that is higher than HD quality in real time... yea, not really easy.

Sometimes, you have to understand the way things work in order to set your expectations properly.

Other applications likely write to a scratch file that is uncompressed and then compress it. Compressing in real time is very very processor intensive.

QT is free. Remember that.

Also remember that a rMBP is the first of its kind. You expect too much if you expect it to be as good or better than what we had before. The rMBP pushes its hardware pretty hard to do what it does. Now try pushing it further and it'll show you the limits. Which is what you're seeing.
 
F

Forkjulle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 1, 2012
211
1
kgs said:
Your expectations aren't in line with reality.

QT is free. It also works great when you have a non-retina display.

Retina displays have a lot more pixels to record than a non-retina display. With more pixels means more data and more data means more processing power.

Something to remember is that recording the screen with quicktime also requires compressing the video to make it smaller, this is a processor intensive process. It's very difficult to compress HD quality video real time. Now, imagine trying to compress video that is higher than HD quality in real time... yea, not really easy.

Sometimes, you have to understand the way things work in order to set your expectations properly.

Other applications likely write to a scratch file that is uncompressed and then compress it. Compressing in real time is very very processor intensive.

QT is free. Remember that.

Also remember that a rMBP is the first of its kind. You expect too much if you expect it to be as good or better than what we had before. The rMBP pushes its hardware pretty hard to do what it does. Now try pushing it further and it'll show you the limits. Which is what you're seeing.
Click to expand...

So what you're saying is that I must accept the most expensive laptop on the market, made by the world's wealthiest company, to perform worse than previous and cheaper models.

Got it.

Quicktime is not free. Its cost is built into the product. Using your logic, everything that came with my laptop is free, and all I bought was a physical casing with hardware stuck to it, thus making all my expectations unrealistic.

Do Apple employees not work on rMBPs? Do they not bother recording their desktop with Quicktime just to see how it works?

My expectations, in fact, are absolutely realistic.
 
K

kgs

macrumors regular
Jul 29, 2012
102
1
Forkjulle said:
So what you're saying is that I must accept the most expensive laptop on the market, made by the world's wealthiest company, to perform worse than previous and cheaper models.

Got it.

Quicktime is not free. Its cost is built into the product. Using your logic, everything that came with my laptop is free, and all I bought was a physical casing with hardware stuck to it, thus making all my expectations unrealistic.

Do Apple employees not work on rMBPs? Do they not bother recording their desktop with Quicktime just to see how it works?

My expectations, in fact, are absolutely realistic.
Click to expand...

I realize you're upset and frustrated. But you need to give it a few days, then try to understand how difficult it is to push the bleeding edge.

Normal MacBook Pro
1440x900 = 1,296,000 pixels

Retina MacBook Pro
2880x1800= 5,184,000 pixels

That is a lot of extra pixels. That's 4 times as many pixels.

Have you ever seen a video card or processor that is 400% more powerful than the previous version? Last I seen, many times they range between 10-30% more powerful.

That's a far cry from 400%.

Apple is pushing limits and boundaries with the Retina MacBook Pro. It will get better as video cards become more powerful for laptops. But Apple doesn't make those, that's nVidia and ATI that are in control of that.

So, if you want to complain, perhaps you should complain about them.

QuickTime is free. Just look at how often it gets updates, it's only there because it powers the video related parts of OS X, including iTunes.

You can argue all you want. But you need to look into the technical reasons why you're having trouble. Then it really doesn't seem so realistic to expect the same performance as the normal macbook pro. The retina display is a trade off in some ways. Performance is one of them. You trade performance for a great looking display.

You can trade the great looking display for faster performance by going to a normal macbook pro.
 
F

Forkjulle

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 1, 2012
211
1
kgs said:
I realize you're upset and frustrated. But you need to give it a few days, then try to understand how difficult it is to push the bleeding edge.

Normal MacBook Pro
1440x900 = 1,296,000 pixels

Retina MacBook Pro
2880x1800= 5,184,000 pixels

That is a lot of extra pixels. That's 4 times as many pixels.

Have you ever seen a video card or processor that is 400% more powerful than the previous version? Last I seen, many times they range between 10-30% more powerful.

That's a far cry from 400%.

Apple is pushing limits and boundaries with the Retina MacBook Pro. It will get better as video cards become more powerful for laptops. But Apple doesn't make those, that's nVidia and ATI that are in control of that.

So, if you want to complain, perhaps you should complain about them.

QuickTime is free. Just look at how often it gets updates, it's only there because it powers the video related parts of OS X, including iTunes.

You can argue all you want. But you need to look into the technical reasons why you're having trouble. Then it really doesn't seem so realistic to expect the same performance as the normal macbook pro. The retina display is a trade off in some ways. Performance is one of them. You trade performance for a great looking display.

You can trade the great looking display for faster performance by going to a normal macbook pro.
Click to expand...

I'm not frustrated. I'm simply downloading an open source recorder that performs better. Which is free. And performs better. On all these extra pixels.

Quicktime is not free. It is not developed by volunteers. It is developed by Apple developers, just like the other included apps such as Mail, iPhoto, etc.

There is no reason why you should be apologetic for the most hyped and most expensive laptop on the market. And then suggesting that I settle for mediocrity by trading in my rMBP is amusing.

"No, but you see, you must understand that it's bleeding edge, and it has all these extra pixels, so you must feel sorry for Apple because they can't help it that their software doesn't perform properly, and you're being unreasonable by expecting things to work because, you see, there are all these pixels and..."

Mediocrity for the win!
 
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