Unusual recording challenges

[markoram]

Hello Zoom Community — I've been having unusual recording challenges with my paid Zoom account.

First, in January I hosted a call for my podcast where I enabled screen sharing for my guest. That call only recorded my guest's feed and camera, and didn't record mine. Very frustrating to discover after the fact. It had worked fine prior to that call.

Since then, I haven't been able to get Zoom on that computer (Laptop A: MBP 2019) to record my camera at all. The camera works fine and will display to my guest, but it won't record. I have also recorded my camera feed without issue using other services (Zencastr). It's exclusively on Zoom, and exclusively on Laptop A. This problem persisted even after I uninstalled and reinstalled the software, including the prefs file.

Fortunately, I have another laptop (Laptop B: MBP 2020) and I installed Zoom on that computer using the same login credentials. Laptop B records my camera. But no matter what I do, I can't get it to record in resolution above 360p. HD is switched on. Optimize is switched on. Group HD is switched on. I've read all the support articles, and it maxes out at 360.

I've done two full nights of talking to myself across laptops simultaneously logged into 2 different accounts (paid, free)  and not been able to resolve these issues. Help!

Thanks so much.

Markoram

[RobertS]

Whow @markoram - that is a lot to unpack in one post 😉

First of all, without knowing what license you have, I am going to comment assuimg that you have a ZOOM PRO meeting license.  I am also going to assume that you are recording locally and not to the cloud. If this is not the case, just give me a shout out please. 

1.  Only recorded my guest's feed and camera - The thing about local recording, is that it will record the view on the screen of the computer that you are recording on. SO here are the limitations:
   

   Limitations for local recording

   Local recordings don't support the following features:

   • Record Active Speaker, Gallery View and shared screen separately
   • Audio transcription
   • Shared screen recording layout with active speaker thumbnail or without any thumbnails (local recordings will always show a thumbnail gallery view with the shared screen)
   • Record using the iOS or Android app
     Note: If you require these features, use cloud recording.

   Local recordings also do not capture nonverbal feedback or meeting reactions. 

   
   As described here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Enabling-and-starting-local-recordings
   
   
2. Laptop A: MBP 2019 - not recording at all
   If you setup a meeting without any other participants and you are the only person on the screen and you can see your self, try recording locally and see wht the effect is. DO you see your name or just a black screen? The other thing is do you have dual monitors set up? If so Zoom will record the main screen locally and not the second monitor. 
3. Laptop B: MBP 2020 - recording in 360p
   For local recording, you should see yourself in the same resolution that your camera is delivering it as it is a direct recording from your camera (no zoom limitations). The best way to check is to look at the stats of what you are sending via video during a zoom meeting. This will tell you what your camera resolution being sent to the zoom meeting is as opposed to what is being recorded locally. 

NOTE: if you do not have a second user that is asking zoom to send him your feed in 720 or 1080p, then Zoom we default to the lowest resoltion to save band width.  So in order for you to send HD, some other user needs to ask for HD. He does this by pinning you to his screen on full screen view. If the other user is in gallery vew, then ALL video blocks will be in 360p

[markoram]

Hi Robert - Thanks for your reply. I'll be brief:

1. Yes Zoom Pro.

2. Yes recording locally.

3. Only getting 360p recordings, even when using both MBPs that have HD cameras.

4. Only doing 1-to-1 calls, no gallery.

5. I recorded a meeting with no participants, and saw my video feed. Video was in 720p.

#5 is confusing. Why would it record my video in a meeting without participants, and not record it in meeting WITH participants?