UPDATE 2008-12-16: Mac OS 10.5.6 is out and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3194 says that it “Includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.” It does appear that thousands of colors now displays properly.
UPDATE 2008-10-25: Working with the good folk at ScreenFlow, it does seem that the problem is pretty clearly with the Mac OS. If you switch to thousands of colors the title bar for other applications gets stripes in the title bar–even without ScreenFlow running.
UPDATE 2008-10-05: Further investigation suggests that the problem occurs when the display colors is set to Thousands. The problem does not occur when the colors is set to Millions.
According to Apple, the latest update to Leopard (10.5.5) “[i]ncludes extensive graphics enhancements.” Unfortunately, these “enhancements” do not play well with ScreenFlow.
I have been using ScreenFlow for a couple weeks, and have been generally quite pleased with it. (Randal Schwartz, who had recommended ScreenFlow, described my recent work as “a well produced video” and was surprised when I told him it had been done with ScreenFlow!)
A couple days ago my MacBook Pro offered to install the latest OS X update that promised better security and stability. I’m generally a “bleeding-edge” sort of guy, so willingly take anything offered.
Yesterday, when trying to do a screen capture, I found a problem. By way of background, when I do a screen capture, I usually set the resolution to 800×600 since that is as big as the resulting movie is likely to be and I generally want people to be able to read the screen. Well, I set the screen resolution down, started the recording, and then looked at the result:
ScreenFlow after Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update
It has taken me half the day to recover back to 10.5.4. At first I tried to use Time Machine to simply restore my System folder. This ended up corrupting things badly enough so the computer would not boot. I then did a full disk restore to the latest backup (which went quite smoothly). Then, I copied the /System directory out of the backup disk (using the Finder, not using the Time Machine user interface) to a temp folder. From there, I use the Terminal to move the current /System/Library to a backup, and move in the old one as the current one. When I rebooted, I was on 10.5.4 and ScreenFlow works fine.
I’ve no idea of the cause of the problem, but I’ve put in a support request for ScreenFlow to address the problem. I’m glad to be back in business with ScreenFlow and hope I can upgrade to 10.5.5 soon!
Programming Gems (on GemStone) 
9 comments
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October 16, 2008 at 4:59 am
Matt F
Weird. I am on 10.5.5 with the latest version of Screenflow and I have had no video problems at different resolutions. However, recently I have had issues with importing audio recordings that I make simultaneously (not recorded in Screenflow) and halfway through the imported file, the audio just cuts out.
Strange stuff
November 22, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Robert
Hello. I saw your post, as a result of looking for an answer to making Screenflow work on my MacBook Pro. I just bought Screenflow a few days ago and it gives me the following error when trying to record, regardless of being on 1.2.1 or 1.2.2, which configuration settings I have, and after removing a bunch of apps that might have conflicted, as well as turning off my virus scanner to see if that affected it.
Error text:
“Due to an internal error, the recording has unexpectedly terminated. Please try making your recording again, and if problems persist, contact us for technical support”
I also recently updated Leopard to 10.5.5 a day or so before getting Screenflow. You’re at least getting Screenflow to capture something. I’ve tried everything Varasoft’s support department has suggested, which is looking into anything, but Screenflow itself. I would be curious to know if you get anywhere with any of this.
November 22, 2008 at 11:08 pm
James Foster
Hi Robert,
I don’t know why you are getting this problem. I’ve got a MacBook Pro with the following details from “About this Mac”
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro3,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP31.0070.B07
SMC Version: 1.16f10
I’m up-to-date on Leopard updates. I’ve also run ScreenFlow successfully on a new MacBook (the 13″ Aluminum).
Do you have an external monitor connected? What are your display settings? It turned out that my problem was when colors was set to thousands rather than millions (and it is an Apple problem independent of ScreenFlow).
November 23, 2008 at 8:33 am
Robert
James,
Thank you for responding. Mine shows this:
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP41.00C1.B03
SMC Version: 1.27f1
Serial Number: W88182RNYJX
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
No external monitor is connected. My display settings are millions of colors at 1400 x 900. I tried using thousands of colors and it still doesn’t work. Oh well, I’ll keep plugging…although I am strongly leaning towards a refund from Varasoft.
January 17, 2009 at 10:06 am
Elmar Bertschinger
I have had problems to register with 10.5.6 and ScreenFlow 1.2.1.
Then I downloaded the previous version from the Apple site and I have had success.
Perhaps, this hint helps anybody else.
July 2, 2010 at 4:21 pm
markus
ScreenFlow is great,but sometimes I can’t record the sound with external mic thru my MBOX sound card.I have a MAC PRO.
I would be very grateful if you could tell me why
Thank you very much!!
markusziman@gmail.com
July 2, 2010 at 6:59 pm
James Foster
Markus, I’m sorry but I don’t know anything about the MBOX sound card for a Mac Pro. Maybe someone else will comment. –James
July 13, 2010 at 1:57 pm
Jordan
I have had Screenflow working for a while now, but today I was editing something I recorded yesterday. I opened the file, edited it and tried to save. It then said:
The document “name of my document” could not be saved as “name of my document”. volume is too small.
I tried saving it under a different name, but that didn’t work. If anybody can help me, please do.
Thanks
July 13, 2010 at 2:31 pm
James Foster
Jordan,
Is it possible that the error message is correct? What is the size of the document before you edit it? How much free space is there on the volume? As I recall, earlier versions of ScreenFlow saved pointers to external movies while the newer versions copy the movie into its own file so that the external file can be deleted or moved without harming your ScreenFlow document. Thus, when I have a 4 GB movie that I import into ScreenFlow, when I save the ScreenFlow document it grows by 4 GB!
James