How to capture a screen on an iPad and iPhone

Matt Egan looks at how to record the action on an iPad

On a Mac

This method is the simplest, but the video quality 
isn’t great, and you’ll need a MacBook, iMac, Mac 
mini or Mac Pro. You need to turn your Mac into an 
AirPlay receiver. Download and install Reflector from 
tinyurl.com/n955s77. It costs $12, which is about £8
Start Reflector. Switch on your iOS device, and 
connect it to the same wireless network as the 
Mac. Now bring up the Control Centre by swiping 
upwards from the bottom of the screen. The AirPlay 
icon should appear, next to the AirDrop option. Click 
the AirPlay button and select the Mac as your output, 
and the screen of the iPad or iPhone will be mirrored 
on the Mac. Now simply record your Mac’s screen to 
capture what is happening on the iPhone or iPad. To 
do so, start up QuickTime Player then choose File, 
New Screen Recording, and hit record.
In later versions of QuickTime Player it will give 
you the option of dragging across the area of the 
screen you want to record, whereas earlier versions 
can only record the Mac’s screen as a whole.

Use game capture hardware

If you don’t have a Mac you are going to have to 
spend some money. We tested the Elgato Game 

Capture HD, which you can pick up for £149.95 from 
the Apple Store. It’s designed for recording video
from games consoles. It works fine with the iPad, but
you’ll need the £40 Apple AV Adaptor.
Plug the iPad into the Game Capture HD device
using the adaptor and the bundled HDMI cable, and
plug the Game Capture HD into your Mac using its
mini-USB to USB cable. Download the (free) Game
Capture HD software from Elgato’s website and start
it up. Then it’s just a case of adjusting the settings,
hitting record and playing the game.

Jailbreak

If you don’t have a Mac, and you’re not happy
spending £200 on capturing your iPad or iPhone’s
screen, we can’t blame you. But beyond that you
have only one, radical option: jailbreak. If you don’t
fully understand what is meant by ‘jailbreaking’, you
probably shouldn’t do it. For more information look
at issue 79 of iPad & iPhone User. We accept no
responsibility for your decision to jailbreak.
Once you’ve jailbroken your iPad or iPhone you
can access the Cydia app store, where you can find
and buy apps that haven’t been authorised by Apple.
One app you could try is called Display Recorder,
although this has the downside
of not recording

audio.