So, you've got the right Samsung phone and you're sitting patiently for your new Gear VR—currently available for pre-order from Best Buy—which is bound to come any day now, right? There's loads of fun virtual reality apps to download once you get it, but how are you going share your virtual experiences with the world? Following these instructions (and putting in a little elbow grease) you'll be able to capture near perfect videos—720p resolution at 60 frames per second—headache free and with minimal investment. Things You'll Need Samsung's Gear VR headset and compatible phone. There's three generations of the headset released so far, each with different phone compatibility. Recordable – a screen recording app available on Google Play for $3.50. There is also a free version with an unsightly watermark. No root is required to use either app. USB to micro USB cable – If you're like me, you have at least three in your immediate vicinity 3.5mm 'male to male' stereo cable (like these) for capturing in-game audio – at least a meter in length A PC to record audio and process video Audacity – or any other audio mixing software you're comfortable using. Audacity is free and easy to use. Windows Movie Maker – or any video editing software you have lying around. Movie Maker is also free and easy to use. Getting the Right Settings The list above may sound daunting, but that's only because there's no official Gear VR app yet for easily recording in-game video and audio. All screen recording apps (without root) record audio directly from the microphone, which is good for commentary and making audible sighs of frustration, but not so ideal for capturing system audio itself. Our workaround is one of the best methods we know for getting a good capture of both. Recordable is the best screen recording app currently on Google Play for capturing in-game video simply because of the number of toggles you can use to dial in on a relatively judder free recording session. Below is a quick guide, thanks to Dee from eVRyday VR, of what settings you'll need to get an optimal recording with Recordable. Start: Immediately Countdown: None Stop: On return to Recordable app Stealth: Hide notifications (checked) Frame rate limit: No limit Scale: Half screen width and height Quality: High definition (6400kbits/s) Use Hardware: Hardware accelerated encoding Hardware Mode: RGB (fast) Limit resolution: Use display size (1440x2560) (unchecked) Swap red and blue: Not swapped (unchecked) Audio: Record: unchecked if you don't want to record your voice Gestures: Draw: unchecked Some phones require that you download a companion app for PC/Mac/Linux to 'activate' Recordable via USB cable. Click here to download the companion app. Recording Audio from Gear VR You have Recordable set up, and you're ready to jump into a brand new world of VR apps, but what about audio? Technically you can check the 'Audio: Record' setting and crank up the volume on your speaker so that your microphone can pick up the sound and be on your merry way, but everyone will hate you forever. Really. It sounds bad and you should feel bad for doing it. [caption id="attachment_37213" align="alignright" width="350"] Recording with Audacity[/caption] To get a quality audio capture you'll need to plug the 3.5mm 'male to male' cable into a computer (or portable recording device like a Zoom H4N) while you play. Recording audio with Audacity is relatively pain free, but if you're in need of some quick hints, head over to the official Audacity help guide for tutorials and in depth explanations. Depending upon your PC's audio card, you may end up with some buzz on the recording. Toying with the phone's own volume level as well as any line-in amplification on the PC's end may help reduce this. Audacity also has a useful tool for noise reduction. Be sure to export and save your recording. We'll need to merge it later with the video capture. Recording Audio Commentary on Gear VR If you want to comment during your video, you can easily check the 'Record' box in Recordable's audio settings. This will record your phone's microphone audio into the video file while the game and system sounds from the phone will be captured through Audacity To hear in-game audio while you record, just plug in a pair of headphones to your computer and check the 'Listen to this device' box: [gallery type="rectangular" size="large" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="37210,37208,37209"] We'll come back to audio in the 'Post Processing' section of the article in a bit. Continue Reading on Next Page – Making Your First Recording & Post Processing Making Your First Recording Recordable can be fickle at times, but I found that if you start the recording in landscape mode it removes any problem of the app potentially not recognizing the phone's screen when it snaps into the Gear VR itself. It's happened a million times, and I can't quite figure out why, but there's nothing more infuriating than going through a 20 minute gaming session and finding out the app switched off right as you inserted the phone into the headset. So your cable is attached, you have your phone in landscape, you've hit the record button on both Audacity and Recordable, and you clip the phone into your Gear VR headset. Recording the screen will add additional demand on the phone, which may cause some stuttering while you play. Performance may vary for different phone models. Your first recording should look something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeoOCiGmtAc If you aren't happy with the stutter you can try reducing the Recording settings in Recordable. Try changing the Scale and Quality settings until you're happy. Again, a big thanks to Dee of eVRday VR for being a VR pioneer and exploring this process. Post Processing After recording you'll need to transfer the mp4 file, preferably via USB, directly from the 'Recordable' folder on your phone to your computer for post processing. Windows Movie Maker is the obvious choice for first-time movie editing because it's free and easy, and allows you to drop your processed audio directly on top of the video without hassle. You'll of course need to trim the audio to fit the video once you've determined the length, because if you're like me you'll want to cut out the beginning and end of the raw video recording to make it a cleaner experience. Once you've imported the audio clip into the timeline, you can trim it the same way your trim video clips: Position the cursor over the beginning or end of the audio clip until you see a double arrow. Drag in to adjust the duration of the audio clip. To adjust the audio level, click on the Set Audio Levels button above the timeline. Microsoft has a simple guide for Movie Maker first-timers should you need a helping hand. As a quick sidenote, video will always come out showing the same stereoscopic view with barrel distortion. It's a fact of life with current VR headsets, and we haven't come across an easy way of removing distortion. We're personally integrating all of these methods into our Gear VR recordings from now on. We've mucked around with lesser quality screen/audio recording methods in the past, and can say from experience that they aren't worth the dropped frames, judder, or questionable audio. It's safe to say that this method is the easiest, most reliable for getting the best quality audio and video possible. And there you have it—HD video and audio of your experience in virtual reality with Samsung Gear VR. Now go forth and share your experiences with the world!