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The exact phrase I would like to translate is

Duration for video recording is required

This would show up as a warning of a user on software to remind them to select an amount of time to record video.

The problem that I am running into is how the grammar will translate best into Japanese.

The translation that I was able to compile was

ビデオを録画する期間が必要です

But if I paste that into something like Google translate, it shows that it comes back as "I need video recording time". Which makes me question if the Japanese grammar was bad, also why the Japanese word seems possessive as it says "I need".

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期間 is probably inappropriate because it refers to a period spanning more than a few days (e.g. 夏休み期間). Unless this is for controlling a fixed camera that records something for many days, you should use 時間 instead. How about:

  • ビデオ録画時間は選択必須です (or 入力必須です)
  • ビデオ録画時間を選択してください (or 入力してください)

選択 is appropriate for a select box, 入力 is for a text box.

Words like を and する can be safely omitted, and omitting them makes the sentence more "professional".

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  • Can you confirm whether the を that can be safely omitted is only from ビデオを録画 or if omitting it from 時間を選択してください is also okay? I don't think the latter is okay but I could be wrong and that's what I understand from the explanation.
    – yushi
    Commented Oct 10, 2018 at 3:00
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    ビデオ録画時間 forms a simple and easy noun compound "video recording time", while ビデオを録画する時間 is "time to record the video", which is correct but unnecessarily lengthy. You should not drop を after 時間 because it's not part of a longer compound.
    – naruto
    Commented Oct 10, 2018 at 3:14

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