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https://github.com/jnvsor/screencap

Blazing fast screencapture script for linux
https://github.com/jnvsor/screencap

Last synced: 3 months ago
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Blazing fast screencapture script for linux

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README 

        
# Screencap

* It can record and encode 1080p 30fps video realtime with a single CPU core and supports as many threads as you want (default 2)

* It records audio and allows you to save different audio sources to different audio tracks. This lets you edit microphone commentary separately from system audio.

* With multiple config files you can have drastically different recording settings for different purposes.

* Complex filters allow anything from rescaling to overlaying webcam in realtime.

* Pass `--` as an option and the following options will be sent to the end of the FFmpeg command, for instance in order to stream to twitch.



### Installation

#### Prerequisites

* FFmpeg  

  **Note:** FFmpeg must be compiled with certain options depending on what you want to use.  

  Support for x11grab, libx264, filters, pthreads, pulseaudio. Give or take a few depending on your config  

  So if yours doesn't work, [try compiling one yourself](#compiling-ffmpeg).

* Bash

* By default it uses the Pulseaudio sound server but there's nothing stopping you from using something else.

* Compositing window managers tend to remove tearing.



#### Setup

1. Place the script somewhere in `$PATH` (I use `~/bin`)

2. Place the `screencap-rc` folder wherever you want it (I use `~/.sc-rc`)

3. Open the script, scroll down to line 58 and set `config_folder` to the location of your `screencap-rc` folder (In my case that would be `config_folder="$HOME/.sr-rc"`. Don't leave a trailing slash.

4. Run the script with: `screencap [preset] [options] filename`

5. Press `q` to stop recording.

6. Create your own config files. The files in `screencap-rc` are heavily commented to show a few use cases.



### Syntax

    usage: screencap [preset] [options] filename



    PRESET:

      Name of a file in the folder:

        screencap-rc

      or absolute path to equivalent file. Default is:

        screencap-rc/default



    OPTIONS:



      -h, --help

        Show this message



      -r, --fps

        Framerate in FPS



      -i, --input

        Input size in WxH or "window" to pick one with xwininfo



      -o, --output

        Output size.-1 is wildcard to maintain aspect ratio eg: `w=-1:h=720`

        or `default` for no scaling



      --blind

        Disable video recording



      --mute

        Disable audio recording



      -t, --threads

        Number of threads to use



      --

        Stop screencap receiving input and pass all following parameters to command



### Other tips

#### Editors

In my opinion [blender](http://www.blender.org/) with [gimp](http://www.gimp.org/) and [audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) outperforms all other linux video editing software.



#### Sound not synchronizing

Pulseaudio has a weird tendency to mix up 48khz and 44.1khz, in such a way that FFmpeg flags can't even un-screw it up. To fix this problem, you can edit `/etc/pulse/daemon.conf` and change or uncomment the  `default-sample-rate` and/or `alternate-sample-rate` lines to get the sound back in sync.



Avconv's x11grab device is broken and doesn't support the `-framerate` option - this means that any dropped frames will result in the output being shifted by a small amount of time and eventually desync from the sound. This is why this script no longer supports avconv.



#### Compiling FFmpeg

Compiling a custom FFmpeg if your package manager doesn't have a good one is not the hardest thing in the world. That said I'm not going to offer a massive instruction manual here, but instead the basic steps I use to get the git repo, configure it, and build it on my system (debian sid).



    apt-get update

    apt-get install git build-essential yasm libcdio-paranoia-dev libx264-dev libvpx-dev libvorbis-dev libtheora-dev libspeex-dev libschroedinger-dev librtmp-dev libpulse-dev libopus-dev libopenjpeg-dev libopencv-dev libmp3lame-dev libgsm1-dev libgnutls-dev libfrei0r-ocaml-dev

    git clone https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg.git

    cd FFmpeg

    ./configure --arch=amd64 --enable-pthreads --enable-libopencv --enable-librtmp --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-vaapi --enable-runtime-cpudetect --enable-libvorbis --enable-zlib --enable-swscale --enable-libcdio --enable-bzlib --enable-libdc1394 --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libpulse --enable-vdpau --enable-libvpx --enable-gpl --enable-x11grab --enable-libx264 --enable-filters --enable-libzmq

    make -j4



The binary can now be found at `FFmpeg/ffmpeg`