Zoom recordings - changing how much is shown of the camera view

[PatrickW]

Dear All,

We use a Zoom Pro account for our church and record our services.

We use PowerPoint which is shared to those on Zoom.

That works well; however, what doesn't is the resulting recording: as you'll see in the attached screenshot, the PowerPoint slide is taking up 95% of the screen, and the camera view is a tiny % at the top right of the screen.

Is it possible to fix this? In an ideal world, I'd have the PPT slide and the camera view about the same size.

Having tried - and failed - with lots of tests, I'd be grateful for any suggestions. The simpler you can describe it, the better!

Many thanks in advance,

Patrick

[DashboardLover]

Hmmm. not familiar with zoom recording, but we use cloud recording and you have the option to record gallery view and speaker view.

Worse case, what we do, we have obs recording setup on the machine so you have an actual machine view recording.

[PatrickW]

Hi,

Many thanks for the reply.

I probably wasn't clear enough - we use Zoom Cloud recording.

I know it's possible to get separate files, but I need to get one with the PowerPoint (i.e. the file which is being shared) as well as speaker view - but with decent proportions of each!

Hopefully there IS a way...

Patrick

[PatrickW]

I'm really hoping that someone may have another suggestion on how to fix this issue. We've now reached the decision that we're going to have to look at another solution for our recorded services.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I'm missing something!

Patrick

[Bort · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, there is no way to control the proportions of shared content and video in a single cloud recording. You can record multiple separate views with the  Record active speaker, gallery view and shared screen separately option, which will result in a recording that can be adjusted, similar to side-by-side mode. The only limitations are this view is only accessible when viewing the cloud recordings through Zoom's website and the proportions cannot be set by the host, but rather can be adjusted by the viewer. 

[PatrickW]

Bort,

Huge thanks for the reply. So, if I selected the Record active speaker and shared screen separately option (I don't need the gallery view), I could at least share a link to the Zoom cloud recording and you think that'll give me better proportions? If so, fantastic! I'm not bothered by the fact that I can't set the absolute size.

Of course, this can only be a short-term solution: we'll run out of space on the Zoom servers, so I'll also need the usual recording which will be the long-term recording.

Bort, thanks again - I'm off to play!

Patrick

[PatrickW]

Back again!

You were (of course) absolutely right - on-screen I can watch the recording with decent-sized proportions, and I can also select to have my usual recording. So, once I've finished recording, I'll share a link to that Zoom page; however, at some point I'll need to delete my older Zoom recordings (so as to make more room), at which time I'll need to share the link to the 95/5% version!

If only I could download the same view that I can see on the Zoom page, I'd be happy. I wonder why it's not an option?

Thanks again, Bort.

Patrick

[BevABQ]

You are correct.  However, I have come up with the following alternatives, each with its own problem:

1.  Make your power point images take up only half of each slide, save them as jpgs and upload them as zoom backgrounds.  Then, instead of loading a power point presentation, change your backgrounds.  This takes practice, but you are as big as your slide.  I haven't gotten a clicker to change the backgrounds, however.  Check out a recording I made from Zoom that I posted to Youtube: https://youtu.be/016KomFHVqo (start 3:10).
2. In the advanced  sharing options, there is a beta "share slides as virtual background".  You load your pptx and play them as you would normally, but you appear ON THE SLIDE and you can RESIZE YOUR IMAGE to be as big as you like.  Disadvantage:  your image is not mirrored.  I make so many gestures, I can't do this because I can't point to anything without a lot of practice.  Because of this, I have never recorded it.

Beverly F. Williams, DTM

District 23 Division Central Director, Region 3

  Past D23 Youth Program Coordinator

   Immediate Past President, Leadership23 Toastmasters

   Past Area 14 Director

   Member: Taylor Ranch TM, Cherry Hills TM, Champions Forge TM

Albuquerque, New Mexico

617-512-4801

[lauravolpintest]

I HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM AND ITS such a bummer!

[PatrickW]

Beverly,

Many thanks for the suggestions. I'll have a play with them; however, I suspect that nobody will be willing to create individual jpgs from the slides, especially if we need to make sure that they really only take up about half the width, so allowing space for the camera shot.

I don't think I'm completely stupid, but I'm obviously missing something, and don't understand why if I view the recording on the Zoom website, I can get a view which I think works really well (see Zoom recording 1.png), whereas if I download the recording, I see the camera picture as a tiny image stuck in the corner (see ~2).

Many thanks again for the suggestions.

Patrick

[BevABQ]

Patrick,

You are not stupid.  Anyone who has ever tried recording with a power point deck has encountered this problem.

Blessings!  And may this issue be solved by Zoom!

[lauravolpintest]

agreed, agreed, agreed. For me this drastically reduces the value of zoom  for me.

[Jones5]

It is absolutely ridiculous that we are still here in 2024 and this problem does not seem to be resolved?!