xrecord - Capture video on OS X from the command line (including iOS devices)

System Requirements

To record from iOS it requires an iOS 8.x+ device connected with a lightning connector and OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later.

Getting started

brew install coming soon.  In the meantime, use the xrecord binary from the /bin directory

Command line

Help

$ xrecord --help

Options

• -l, --list: List available capture devices.
• -n, --name: Device Name.
• -i, --id: Device ID.
• -o, --out: Output File.
• -f, --force: Overwrite existing files.
• -q, --quicktime: Start QuickTime in the background (necessary for iOS recording).
• -t, --time: Recording time in seconds (records until stopped if not specified).
• -u, --quality: Recoding quality (low, medium, high, photo - defaults to high).
• -d, --debug: Display debugging info to stderr.
• -h, --help: Prints a help message.

Examples

List available capture devices

$ xrecord --quicktime --list
Available capture devices:
AppleHDAEngineInput:1B,0,1,0:1: Built-in Microphone
5f355a5b183b2d2d7ba91dcfadd4c14b98504642: iPhone
CC2437519T1F6VVDH: FaceTime HD Camera

Record video from iPhone

$ xrecord --quicktime --name="iPhone" --out="/Users/blah/video/iphone.mp4" --force
Recording started.  Hit ctrl-C to stop.
Done

Known Issues

• Start of actual recording can lag by up to 3 seconds and may truncate at the end. Leave some time on either end of the activity being recorded for capture lag.
• Screen orientation changes stops video capture