Best way to record myself/my laptop screen & upload to youtube for mom?

February 19, 2018 1:05 PM

Doesn anyone have any recommendations about how to best record my screen? Basically, my mom's got some memory issues, and I need to explain some daily tasks step by step, on a medium that she can play again and again (like youtube) - think, remind her how to put on her cpap machine, how to turn down the volume on alexa show, etc, and I want to do three things...

Doesn anyone have any recommendations about how to best record my screen? Basically, I need to explain things step by step to my mom, in a medium that she can play again and again - think, remind her how to put on her cpap machine, use alexa show, etc, and I want to do three things:

1. Show my screen showing a quick 2 minute powerpoint (because my mom really likes to read things with bullets), or something on the web. .
2. Show myself at the same time, in the corner, so she can see it's me speaking to her
3. Upload it to youtube.

I used to use ilosvideo, but it got a bit too expensive ($250 a month). Anyone else have anything else they really like, or is there some way to make this happen? I have a macbook air, if it matters.

Thanks!

posted by anitanita to Technology (6 answers total)

The screencastify add-on for chrome is free for recordings up to 10 minutes. I use it to narrate PowerPoint or google slide presentations. From the options I see it looks like you can record the whole desktop, just a tab or browser, and you can add a webcam video. You can save the recordings locally and later upload, or go directly to YouTube.
posted by chr1sb0y at 1:42 PM on February 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seconding Screencastify! If you don't use Google Chrome, you can also use Screencastomatic. This site will automatically upload your screencast to Youtube if you link your account.
posted by orangesky4 at 3:01 PM on February 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seconding Quicktime Player + iMovie for a free option. Although I think you would have to record the screen and yourself separately.

For an all-in-one experience that will record the screen and you all at once, and automatically do the picture-in-picture, I recommend Screenflow ($129, one time purchase).
posted by 2ghouls at 3:08 PM on February 19, 2018

I haven't used it, but I remembered Loom has the option to have a video of yourself talking superimposed over another screen as part of its native functioning. It's free as far as I can tell, so maybe worth a try?
posted by jouir at 5:42 PM on February 19, 2018

How about Wistia Soapbox? Looks like the free account lets you host 3 videos at a time, and paid plans allow more videos (plus easy downloads of videos, e.g. to host elsewhere).
posted by reeddavid at 6:16 PM on February 19, 2018

I use Camtasia for this and love it. It's $199. It does connect directly to YouTube but I would rather export the mp4 and upload separately because I don't dig giving my password to the software.
posted by beyond_pink at 11:08 PM on February 19, 2018