Black screen recording is a common problem that many frequent screen recorder users may come across, and the machine could be a desktop/laptop computer running Windows or macOS, an Android based phone, or an iPhone.
Screen recording is now feasible on all of the mainstream smart devices in our daily life, desktop computer, laptop,mobile phones, just to name a few. But due to this or that reason, the screen may turn into a black one when the screencasting task is undergoing, or one just got a normal capture while receiving a black screen video afterwards. In view of this, there are piles of related questions concentrating on xx records black screen, for example OBS, Shawdowplay, Camtasia, Bandicam, Filmora Scrn, AZ/DU Screen Recorder, Xiaomi Black Sharek.
So what’s the main cause of this matter and how to work this “black screen recording” problem out? Keep reading this post to get more details.
Possible Reasons of Black Screen Recording
When pulling out the HDMI cable from a Mac Mini, the TeamViewer session on another computer gets a completely black (or white screen). When inserting the HDMI cable again into the Mac Mini, the desktop is shown properly. This problem was confirmed by the TeamViewer support, which is very good by the way. When screen sharing is enabled on your Mac, your Mac desktop can be viewed from another Mac on your network. While your screen is being shared, the user of the other Mac sees what’s on your screen and can open, move, and close files and windows, open apps, and even restart your Mac.
● You don’t have the right to do screen capture: From system, software, to target recording content, you may be forbidden to do screen grabbing by either of them. Most probably, it’s the piracy protection or say DRM that matters.
● System bug: The minor unknown bug of machine system, especially the Android OS, may get certain users get involved in this black error. Surly it may be an occasional one which you can get rid of by yourself or a serious bug that needs further system update.
● Screen Recorder’s bug: Same as the last reason, any screen recorder app may sneak off and get a performance bug, on account of its internal mechanism or recording settings.
● Improper recording environment: Your recording happens to become black because of you have overburdened your PC or gadget. Also, when your screen recorder doesn’t work on the same GPU with recording app, screen gets black too.
● Outdated GPU driver: An old graphics driver may arise the abnormal display issue, of course including the display during screencasting.
How to Fix Black Screen Recording on Computer and Mobile?
You can follow the steps below one by one or pick the one(s) as you like to troubleshoot the no image error of screen recording at will. As the black screen recording often happens as a result of unsuccessful playback or recording, the related fixing ideas are all involved in the the following part.
1. Play the recorded file with another media player
No matter you are taking advantage of the default system-bundled player or third-party player app like VLC, first and farmost, you’d better try several other players to rule out the possibility of such problem is created by player app itself.
2. Re-render the black screen video with video processing software
If the video is unplayable anyway, you can try to reprocess it with the help of VLC’s Convert feature or dedicated video transcoder like HandBrake (for PC only). There’re such video converter for mobile, too. However, since video reprocessing is a little bit source-intensive, initiating it on more powerful computer is highly recommended.
3. Restart the screen recorder, reboot the phone or computer.
Reopen software or machine is the top solution for various unusual phenomena including black screen during recording period.
4. Ensure software, system and driver (for PC only) are all up to date.
If either of them is not upgraded to the latest version, especially the PC’s graphics driver, you may run into this black screen recording snag.
5. IMPORTANT! You must be permitted to record screen.
If the target app or streaming content has restriction on screen recording, black screen will appear for sure. That’s why many people find they only get black screen issue when recording certain apps or saving videos from Amazon Prime, Netflix and alike platforms. Besides, your antivirus app might also protect you against unwanted screen capture, so do confirm your screen recorder app is to among the white list. If you have TeamViewer, uncheck Show black screen option.
6. Change recording settings
Basically, you are suggested to alter the in-app recording settings like resolution, frame rate, quality and so forth. As to desktop screen recorders like OBS, Bandicam and filmora scrn, they are usually preloaded with more recording parameter options and even the recording priority to guarantee a higher performance. The parameters’ range also varies from programs, the more advanced of which often give users a full control on video & audio quality with their down-to-earth choices e.g. format, size, quality, codec, fps, frame rate, sample rate, channels and more.
You should make a change of capture settings on application depending on the real situation to see if it helps, for instance do lower the quality level and parameter value if your PC is a low-end one; disable the GPU hardware acceleration (specifically hardware encoder) for video processing; and apply another different parameter combination for the same capture.
See also: >> Best OBS Settings for Recording 1080p/720p
If your PC has more than one GPUs and the recorder software and the target recording content run on different cards, black screen also takes place. At this time, you must take action to have them run on the same graphic card.
7. Use another screen recorder
Although many screen recorders seem to have the same or similar recording features, their actual capabilities and efficiency differ from one to another. So when you are bumped into the black screen difficulty, why not seek for some other alternative(s) to repeat the video grabbing.
Some Best Screen Recorders for Your Reference:
- For Android: Android’s internal screen recorder, AZ Screen Recorder, Screen Recorder, Du Recorder, Google Play Games, Mobizen Screen Recorder…
- For iPhone: iOS’s internal screen recorder, DU Recorder, Apowersoft iPhone Recorder…
- For Windows: Bandicam, Filmora Scrn, OBS Studio, Game Bar, VLC, Snagit, RecMaster…
- For Mac: QuickTime, SoundFlow, Filmora Scrn, Snagit, RecMaster…
RecMaster is an easy computer screen recorder with our recommendation here. If you are willing to give another tool a try to see if it’s your recorder’s problem, free download this simple, lightweight and feature-rich software here to conduct a recording immediately.
RecMaster, available for both Windows and Mac, is able to record any screen activity with high quality, including but not limited to gameplay, PPT presentation, software how-to, online course/meeting/interview, and bug report. If you have mobile capture needs, you can still free mirror your mobile to computer and then record their screen movements on computer with RecMaster.
8. Record on another smartphone or computer
If you are not good at troubleshooting computing error, especially the beginner-unfriendly system settings, you can transmit your recorder to another gadget or monitor for the same capture.
9. Contact the screen recorder’s online support
All commercial screen recorder developers offer pro-level support service, therefore, visit their help centers to find the black screen recording’s fixing guides or contact their human support via real-time chatting or email. Even the free open sourced screen recorders like OBS have their own forums and communities, where you can access and ask help from the fellows freely.
More Error Fixes:
How to Fix OBS Black Screen Error
How to Fix Screen Recording is Black with RecMaster
Fix Screen Recording with No sound on iPhone, Mac, Windows
[SOLVED] Black screen in TeamViewer on Mac Mini
Monday, December 9th, 2013, 14:53 by Martin Andersson. Posted in Cloud, Uncategorized |When pulling out the HDMI cable from a Mac Mini, the TeamViewer session on another computer gets a completely black (or white screen). When inserting the HDMI cable again into the Mac Mini, the desktop is shown properly. This problem was confirmed by the TeamViewer support, which is very good by the way. They explained that “you need a monitor to run TeamViewer on a Mac Mini”. It seemed like waste of energy because the Mac Mini location is rarely visited. Anyway, with a screen I could work remotely.
One day I had to change so that the Mac Mini would use a smaller scree. (The larger one would be used for another purpose). I had a smaller screen of older model with a 15 pin VGA interface.
To make the smaller screen connect to the Mac Mini, I went to an electronics store to get an “HDMI to VGA (15 pin) adapter”. It turned out that such a cable or adapter does not exist. A “box converter” was available but it was too expensive, basically same price as a new monitor.
Teamviewer Black Screen Fix Mac
Then the guy in the electronics stor asked me if I had a thunderbolt connection on it, that is, f the Mac Mini was from this or last year (2012). Yes, it was, so I had a thunderbolt connection on the back of the Mac Mini.
With this, it turned out that with thunderbolt there was a lower cost alternative than buying an HDMI-15pin VGA converter box or a new display. I bough a white adapter from Apple but there are other brands that are cheaper.
This solved my problem of connecting a VGA display to the Mac Mini and at the same time, it also solved the TeamViewer black (or white) screen problems. Once the VGA screen was set up with the thunderbolt-VGA adapter, the display could even be turned of and TeamViewer would still work, unlike in the case when using HDMI.
Conclusion
Using a Thunderbolt-VGA adapter solved the problem of using TeamViewer with a Mac Mini not connected to a display in the HDMI port. No more black screen or white screen in the TeamViewer window. And no need to leave the monitor on anymore. Great, isn’t it?