https://github.com/alexey-pelykh/puppeteer-capture
A Puppeteer plugin for capturing page as a video.
https://github.com/alexey-pelykh/puppeteer-capture
capture chromium ffmpeg headless-chrome puppeteer recorder screenshots
Last synced: 20 days ago
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A Puppeteer plugin for capturing page as a video.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/alexey-pelykh/puppeteer-capture
- Owner: alexey-pelykh
- License: mit
- Created: 2022-05-20T01:43:51.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2025-04-01T16:57:47.000Z (about 1 month ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-04T18:22:14.383Z (29 days ago)
- Topics: capture, chromium, ffmpeg, headless-chrome, puppeteer, recorder, screenshots
- Language: TypeScript
- Homepage:
- Size: 290 KB
- Stars: 14
- Watchers: 3
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 1
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# puppeteer-capture
[](https://github.com/alexey-pelykh/puppeteer-capture)
[](https://github.com/alexey-pelykh/puppeteer-capture/blob/main/LICENSE)
[](https://www.npmjs.com/package/puppeteer-capture)
A Puppeteer plugin for capturing page as a video with ultimate quality.
This project is brought to you by [Alexey Pelykh](https://github.com/alexey-pelykh).
## Under The Hood
[`HeadlessExperimental`](https://chromedevtools.github.io/devtools-protocol/tot/HeadlessExperimental/) is used to
capture frames in a deterministic way. This approach allows to achieve better quality than using screencast.
## Getting Started
```js
const { capture, launch } = require('puppeteer-capture')
(async () => {
const browser = await launch()
const page = await browser.newPage()
const recorder = await capture(page)
await page.goto('https://google.com', {
waitUntil: 'networkidle0',
})
await recorder.start('capture.mp4')
await recorder.waitForTimeout(1000)
await recorder.stop()
await recorder.detach()
await browser.close()
})()
```
## Time flow
The browser is running in a deterministic mode, thus the time flow is not real time. To wait for a certain amount of
time within the page's timeline, `PuppeteerCapture.waitForTimeout()` must be used:
```js
await recorder.waitForTimeout(1000)
```
## Known Issues
### `--headless=new` is not supported
Sadly, [it is so](https://issues.chromium.org/issues/361863270#comment2). For Puppeteer v23+, the plugin enforces use
of the `chrome-headless-shell` binary.
### Bad Chrome versions
- `117.0.5938.88` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.3.0` ): reacts with `targetCrashed`
- `117.0.5938.92` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.3.2`…`21.3.6`): reacts with `targetCrashed`
- `117.0.5938.149` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.3.7`…`21.3.8`): reacts with `targetCrashed`
- `118.0.5993.70` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.4.0`…`21.4.1`): reacts with `targetCrashed`
- `119.0.6045.105` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.5.0`…`21.7.0`): reacts with `targetCrashed`
- `120.0.6099.109` (default for `puppeteer` version(s) `21.8.0`): reacts with `targetCrashed`
### MacOS is not supported
Unfortunately, [it is so](https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:headless/lib/browser/protocol/target_handler.cc;drc=5811aa08e60ba5ac7622f029163213cfbdb682f7;l=32).
### No capturing == Nothing happens
This relates to timers, animations, clicks, etc. To process interaction with the page, frame requests have to be
submitted and thus capturing have to be active.
### Setting `defaultViewport` causes rendering to freeze
The exact origin of the issue is not yet known, yet it's likely to be related to the deterministic mode.
Calling `page.setViewport()` before starting the capture behaves the same, yet calling it _after_ starting the capture
works yet not always. Thus it's safe to assume that there's some sort of race condition, since adding
`recorder.waitForTimeout(100)` just before setting the viewport workarounds the issue.
Also it should be taken into account that since frame size is going to change over the time of the recording, frame size
autodetection will fail. To workaround this issue, frame size have to be specified:
```js
const recorder = await capture(page, {
size: `${viewportWidth}x${viewportHeight}`,
})
await recorder.start('capture.mp4', { waitForFirstFrame: false })
await recorder.waitForTimeout(100)
await page.setViewport({
width: viewportWidth,
height: viewportHeight,
deviceScaleFactor: 1.0,
})
```
A friendlier workaround is enabled by default: `recorder.start()` automatically waits for the first frame to be
captured. This approach seems to allow bypassing the alleged race condition:
```js
const recorder = await capture(page, {
size: `${viewportWidth}x${viewportHeight}`,
})
await recorder.start('capture.mp4')
await page.setViewport({
width: viewportWidth,
height: viewportHeight,
deviceScaleFactor: 1.0,
})
```
### Multiple `start()`/`stop()` fail
It's unclear why, yet after disabling and re-enabling the capture, callbacks from browser stop arriving.
### Time-related functions are affected
The following functions have to be overriden with injected versions:
- `setTimeout` & `clearTimeout`
- `setInterval` & `clearInterval`
- `requestAnimationFrame` & `cancelAnimationFrame`
- `Date()` & `Date.now()`
- `performance.now()`
The injection should happen before page content loads:
```js
const recorder = await capture(page) // Injection happens here during attach()
await page.goto('https://google.com') // Possible capture would happen here, thus injected versions would be captured
```
## Events
`PuppeteerCapture` supports following events:
- `captureStarted`: capture was successfully started
- `frameCaptured`: frame was captured
- `frameCaptureFailed`: frame capture failed
- `frameRecorded`: frame has been submitted to `ffmpeg`
- `captureStopped`: capture was stopped
## Dependencies
### `ffmpeg`
It is resolved in the following order:
1. `FFMPEG` environment variable, should point to the executable
2. The executable that's available via the `PATH` environment variable
3. Via `@ffmpeg-installer/ffmpeg`, if it's installed as dependency