Customize video settings

Screencastify makes it easy to customize your video recording settings. By default, Screencastify records at the maximum possible resolution based on your device's screen and up to 30 frames per second (this depends on your device's available resources). However, you can adjust both your recording resolution and maximum frame rate if you'd like. 😺

NOTE: Screen recording inherently requires significant processing power. If your frame rate is very low or your video appears choppy, try closing out extra browser tabs and applications. This will free up some memory for screen recording.

When customizing your video recording settings, you can: 

• limit your recording's resolution
• set a maximum frame rate for your recording
• automatically resize your browser tab, and
• choose to prioritize quality vs. file size

Limit your recording's resolution

This option applies to both tab and desktop recordings and is a good idea if you want to limit your video's file size.

1. Open up the extension's Recording Control Panel by clicking on the extension icon 
2. Click the gear icon   to open up the Advanced Settings menu
3. Set your maximum resolution by clicking on the numbers shown next to Limit Resolution. Alternatively, you can turn this to OFF completely.
4. Click on the arrow next to Advanced Settings to close the Advanced Settings or press 'esc' to return to the Recording Control Panel 🥳

Set a maximum frame rate for your recording

This option also applies to both tab and desktop recordings and is a good idea if you want to limit your video's file size.

1. Open up the extension's Recording Control Panel by clicking on the extension icon 
2. Click the gear icon   to open up the Advanced Settings menu
3. Click on the number shown next to Maximum Frame Rate to select your maximum frame rate. The lower the frame rate, the smaller the video file size will be (and the choppier the playback will be).
4. Click on the arrow next to Advanced Settings to close the the Advanced Settings or press 'esc' to return to the Recording Control Panel 

Automatically resize your browser tab

You can also resize your browser tab so that it matches common video aspect ratios. This is helpful if you want your video to be the exact same dimensions as other videos that you will be editing together with your recording. It's also recommended if you're planning to upload your video to YouTube.

Note that this will only change your final video's aspect ratio if you record your browser tab (not your entire desktop). 

1. Open up the extension's Recording Control Panel by clicking on the extension icon 
2. Click the gear icon   to open up the Advanced Settings menu
3. Click the dimensions next to Tab Size to change them. Your browser tab will automatically resize to the selected dimensions.
4. Click on the arrow next to Advanced Settings to close the the Advanced Settings or press 'esc' to return to the Recording Control Panel 

Choose to prioritize quality vs. file size

In your Advanced Options, you can choose a lower setting if a small file size is more important to you than quality, or a higher setting if the quality is more important than file size. 

1. Open up the extension's Recording Control Panel by clicking on the extension icon 
2. Click on the 3 line hamburger menu in the upper left hand corner
3. Scroll to the Options icon to open up your Screencastify Options in a new browser tab
4. Scroll to the Advanced section, and click on Quality vs. file size 
5. Choose highest quality (which creates a large file size), medium quality, or lowest quality (which creates a small file size)

NOTE: To free up the largest amount of resources and create the highest possible quality recordings, we suggest recording your Browser Tab only and not embedding your webcam.

What's Next?

Now that you have customized your video settings, here are a few other topics to check out: 

• Navigate the Record extension
• Can I set a screen recording limit?
• Master keyboard shortcuts