How do I record a screen cap video of the iPad?

Question

I'm looking for a method to record the video without actually filming the device. Does such a method exist?

Answer 1

Reflection (US$15) turns a (Lion or above) Mac into an AirPlay receiver that can handle mirroring. Once you've got the mirrored display on a Mac, all you need is to capture that video, which is easy.

For example:

1. Start Reflection on the Mac.
2. Turn mirroring on (requires iPad 2 or newer or iPhone 4S or newer), selecting the Mac as the target.
3. Use a video screen capture program (Quicktime Player can do this, but there are lots of more advanced ones if you need more) to record the Reflection window.

No jailbreaking is required.

AirServer (also US$15) is another application that offers essentially the same functionality as Reflection (and was released slightly afterwards), but is also available for Windows, if you don't have a Mac to do the recording on.

Answer 2

If you are willing to jailbreak your iPad, both DisplayRecorder and ScreenRecorder do what you want.

Answer 3

If you have an extra Windows PC with a spare PCI-express slot (and the Windows PC should be moderately fast, anything with multiple cores and a video card should do), then this is a VERY cheap method (should cost less than $150 all said and done).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vho_GVXd5xs

Hopefully that's helpful for someone!

Answer 4

In general, no. You can buy the Apple iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter, but it will only work with applications designed to support it. Most don't.

If there is a particular application you want to record, contact the developer of that app or check the documentation (if any) to see whether it supports video output.