pAVrecord Video/webcam recorder (mpeg4, Theora, x264)

[Pelo]

zone now is delimited on the screen, bravo mcewanw !
Videos posted in You Tube are shown as HD,
i am wondering is Puppy nowadays is not only to be used by puppy builders, without any utility elsewhere. A training distro for pupils aiming to become great programmers.

[Pelo]

pAVrecord or SSR Simple Screen Recorder.
Zone to be screencasted now can be selected with mouse , it was diificult enough to use Xwininfo.

[mcewanw]

SSR is very good, if like TahrPup you don't mind having qt libs. In trying to make smaller systems more versatile, I prefer ffmpeg or libav(avconv). But pAVrecord was never designed with screencast as its focus - some simple screencast functionality was just added to it as a bonus but with lots of limitations.

In my house at least, both SSR, pAVrecord, Precord and even original scrot screenshot application, are now obsoleted, to a large extent, by ddogxcap (with scrotx, which is a fork of scrot that provided window/screen geometry info as well as all original scrot functions:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 276#914276

However...

The most I am likely to do with pAVrecord developments now is to simply update the underlying ffmpeg commandlines to reflect some improved options available in newer ffmpeg/avconv. If a copy of my new ddogxcap never materialises for public use (I'm undecided about that), then another screencast app is in any case being developed (by step and SFR) for FatDog, which should be easily modified for Puppy use.

Once an app is given a public release there inevitably then comes the burden of maintaining it, a 'responsibility' that can go on for years! And there are plenty apps out there nowadays for those who don't mind larger programs, which may require more memory and faster machines (most machines being fast and with tons of RAM nowadays anyway).

Precord was itself first released in Dec 2009, though 'wreckedleg' was my first mp3 audio recorder (released Oct 2007). pAVrecord was created in a major quick burst of round the clock programming, out of underlying Precord code, and released in Oct 2012 - so both Precord and pAVrecord have had relatively long lives in terms of maintenance/development, but technology is an ongoing moving target so I'm moving on too.

William

Note that Precord (audio recorder/player) nevertheless still remains useful on systems which don't have ffmpeg or avconv since it can record mp3 or wav audio without ffmpeg being installed.

[Pelo]

my first tests with pAVrecord
Two years ago.
pAVrecord is the defaut screencast tool in so many Puppies.
Excepted for Puppies with QT included, there is not yet a Puppy tool to replace it (try Easycast by Argolance)

[Pelo]

audio plus video
I am remasterizing a Puppy (Slegopen) to keep only Windows themes. So i decided to record existing containts with pAVrecord. It's really hard to choose window to record
pAVrecord 0.9.6. I install a newer version. i feed back
"Once an app is given a public release there inevitably then comes the burden of maintaining it, a 'responsibility' that can go on for years!" the boomerang of success, pAVrecord is the default screencast in most Puppies.
Yes I got it. Even Professionnals have to take scene several times to get what they want !

[mcewanw]

audio plus video
I am remasterizing a Puppy (Slegopen) to keep only Windows themes. So i decided to record existing containts with pAVrecord. It's really hard to choose window to record :)
pAVrecord 0.9.6. I install a newer version. i feed back
"Once an app is given a public release there inevitably then comes the burden of maintaining it, a 'responsibility' that can go on for years!" the boomerang of success, pAVrecord is the default screencast in most Puppies.
Yes :!: I got it. Even Professionnals have to take scene several times to get what they want !

But I don't understand why you are still using pAVrecord when weX will work fine in XenialPup or XenialDog (and recent FatDog) for screencasts and with area/window selection, follow mouse capability all with SSR quality.

William

[Pelo]

I try to do with default applications included in Puppy Linux, and learn how to use them.
pAVrecord and Simple Screen Recorder are the choice of our Puppy Devs.They need some practice. When your settings are Ok, these tools are easy to use.
Testing new apps is my project, to renew the menu. I have tutorials to do, i will check yours soon, promised.
I was one who practice with video tools. I like very much DebianPUP, I shall post my feed back about weX there, in DebianPup forum.

[Robert123]

I try to do with default applications included in Puppy Linux, and learn how to use them.
pAVrecord and Simple Screen Recorder are the choice of our Puppy Devs.They need some practice. When your settings are Ok, these tools are easy to use.
Testing new apps is my project, to renew the menu. I have tutorials to do, i will check yours soon, promised.
I was one who practice with video tools. I like very much DebianPUP, I shall post my feed back about weX there, in DebianPup forum.

Why run out of old ones from Noah's Ark - filling old threads with useless rantings.

[mcewanw]

Ok, let me know should you have trouble installing the various dotpets (including scrox) and extra lib (giblib) needed for weX to work fully (also needs ffmpeg of course).

XenialDog or FatDog64-710b might be best place to test weX since I've tested it as working particularly well on both of these (though version uploaded for FatDog has only been tested very quickly).

William

[Sailor Enceladus]

But I don't understand why you are still using pAVrecord when weX will work fine in XenialPup or XenialDog (and recent FatDog) for screencasts and with area/window selection, follow mouse capability all with SSR quality.

Why run out of old ones from Noah's Ark - filling old threads with useless rantings.

Slacko comes with pavRecord, even the newest Slacko 6.9.5.

[Pelo]

We run included apps to keep speedy our puppy. Try what is offered before searching elsewhere. The only missing tool in pAVrecord was to draw the zone to screencast with your mouse, as xVidcap.
I agree that Slacko can now include SSR in its menu. SSR works perfectly

[Pelo]

But I don't understand why you are still using pAVrecord when weX will work fine in XenialPup or XenialDog (and recent FatDog) for screencasts and with area/window selection, follow mouse capability all with SSR quality.

Why run out of old ones from Noah's Ark - filling old threads with useless rantings.

Slacko comes with pavRecord, even the newest Slacko 6.9.5.

Newest versions of pAVrecord have been improved. Does this one fit your needs ?

[mcewanw]

@Pelo (or anyone really...):

If you are using a newish Puppy (which may have a newer ffmpeg installed) you could try out the following 'hijack plugin' for X11screencast. If it works for your system ffmpeg then you will get far better X11 screencast video quality. Just remove the dummy tar and put the attached file in your /root/.pavrecord folder. Then start pavrecord and try making a screencast. Let me know if it worked for you...

EDIT: If the ffmpeg on your system won't work with X11GRAB.hijack.tar, it may means it is an older ffmpeg which doesn't understand the -thread_queue_size option in there. If so, try the alternative X11GRAB.hijack.olderffmpeg.tar instead, which I have also now uploaded to this post. Note you must place this in /root/.pavrecord AND remove the dummy .olderffmpeg.tar end part of the name (the filename should always end up as X11GRAB.hijack for it to be recognised by pavrecord.

pAVrecord will then recognise the file and use the command inside it instead of that inside its own internal code for screencast encoding. If it works on your system it will give same screencast encoding quality as SSR, though you would be advised to later use the newer weX program instead since that also includes mouse selection of capture area or window, plus the option to embed webcam video in your screencast.

William

[Pelo]

Bookmarked.

Aparte :
Puprescue Puppy (Lucid) tries to repair my Pendrive, right now.
This morning my video about Ptheme was good quality (technically),

[mcewanw]

I've uploaded a second possible X11GRAB.hijack, to my post immediately above, should you find the first one doesn't work with the ffmpeg on your system.

This alternative, X11GRAB.hijack.olderffmpeg.tar, is for systems with older ffmpeg. For such older systems you again need to place this in /root/.pavrecord and remove the dummy .olderffmpeg.tar from the filename such that it is named only X11GRAB.hijack.

pAVrecord will then recognise the file and use the command inside it instead of that inside its own internal code for screencast encoding. If it works on your system it will give same screencast encoding quality as SSR, though you would be advised to later use the newer weX program instead since that also includes mouse selection of capture area or window.

William

[Pelo]

Test with Fluxbox 160 Oldyellers (Kernel 3.9.11) released july 2013.
OldFFMPEG successfull
This alternative, X11GRAB.hijack.olderffmpeg.tar, is for systems with older ffmpeg. For such older systems you again need to place this in /root/.pavrecord and remove the dummy .olderffmpeg.tar from the filename such that it is named only X11GRAB.hijack.
I will do a short video loaded Youtube. I will give you Link.
How to judge Quality ? I only make screencasts to remember process how to do some Linux settings. Generally quality is very high because pixels are not moving a lot on the screen.
it's a very long time to do. Not yet tested tools.

[mcewanw]

Thanks for your report Pelo. Good to hear the addon worked with the ffmpeg on Fluxbox 160.

I feel that Puppy app development will cease or end up not being shared if sharing doesn't even result in any feedback. You are currently the only person giving any feedback of any sort, on any of my apps anyway, so much appreciated.

William

[greengeek]

... you could try out the following 'hijack plugin' for X11screencast. If it works for your system ffmpeg then you will get far better X11 screencast video quality.

Hi William - how do I use pavrecord for screencast? It seems to record only the webcam.
cheers

[mcewanw]

First of all greengeek, I strongly suggest you try one of the addons to pavrecord I uploaded a few post above - you have to choose the one to suit your ffmpeg (if it works it works...). These addons should help give you good screencast quality (prior to them results weren't so good with pavrecord, but, if lucky, quality could prove to be very good now).

Then open config GUI of pavrecord and you simply need to fill in the SCREENCAST details starting with clicking checkbox 'select' (which means select screencast rather than video recording). Only real disadvantage of pavrecord for screencasting is that you can't select capture area with mouse, you have to enter the coordinates (X and Y offset from top left screen corner, and Width x Height manually). Try say, WxH = 1200 x 760 (or whatever your full screen resolution is) - best to make both W and H divisible by 16, but doesn't really matter. And Display 0.0: and Xoffset=0 and Yoffset=0. I'd go for mkv or avi container and maybe audio mp3 (whatever bitrate for that you want - or use default selection for that). The above 'hijack plugin addon' forces use of libx264, but that is normally the best choice anyway cos gives great quality (chosen to be same as Simple Screen Recorder default).

Then just press Record button and it should work... Good thing about pavrecord on older systems is that it has setting to allow you to adjust audio sync until the seconds delay suits your particular system.

Hope that helps,

William

[Pelo]

pAVrecord version 0.9.0.6 is available in PPM
français, voir ici.
About no return from people making videos screen casts, don't worry.
I hope our puppy users shall began to show how to do, better than writing it. It's so easier, even for foreigners, to understand with a video.
Many people write here to ask help to install their Puppy Linux. That is true that we don't know what they do with it later.
Non registered passengers, join us ! (no need to be a programmer, just be user !)
Of course devs can use pAVrecord too, always in their multimedia menu.
Argolance provides an improved version of drec for ToOpPy, his baby Puppy (Precise 5.7.1).
One tool is not better than another, they have differences that get them powerful for a situation, or for user knowledge
Don't forget to toggle grab, as i did just now