[TriLUG] Screen Recording Software

[Justis Peters]

On 05/11/2012 10:19 AM, Tarus Balog wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a way to record the screen on a Linux Desktop
> (specifically Ubuntu). I need to make some presentations where I
> navigate through a number of windows and combine it with external video
> into one file.
>
> -T
Tarus,

I recommend ffmpeg, which can capture from X11 and can also combine 
multiple videos into one. The command line wrapper has a dizzying number 
of options, but it is truly powerful. Here are some links to get you 
started with screen capture:
   http://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html#X11-grabbing
   http://wiki.oz9aec.net/index.php/High_quality_screen_capture_with_Ffmpeg
   
http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/view/5230/capture-screen-and-mic-input-using-ffmpeg-and-alsa

When you get into combining videos, take a look at the -vf option 
(filtergraph). There are many ways to slice and dice video with a 
filtergraph. Here's an example of one I used in order to place two 
movies side-by-side on top of a background:

    ffmpeg -y -i webcam.mpg -vf "movie=viewport.mpg [vp];
    movie=webcam.mpg [wc];
    movie=/usr/share/backgrounds/Darkening_Clockwork_by_Matt_Katzenberger.jpg
    [bg]; [bg] scale=1024:768 [bg]; [vp] scale=512:384 [vp]; [wc]
    scale=512:384 [wc]; [in][bg] overlay=0:0 [out0]; [out0][wc]
    overlay=512:0 [out1]; [out1][vp] overlay=0:0 [out]" side-by-side.mpg

Kind regards,
Justis