Ask TWIL: How to Make a Screencast on Ubuntu / Linux

[Ograws]

Is Kazaam good?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Ograws it was, then it was abandoned. I think Alan Pope has picked it up recently, so it should start to get more support over the coming months. I think it even works in 11.10 now, as well.

It's basically just ffmpeg with a pretty GUI wrapper around it.

[Ograws]

@thisweekinlinux yeah and it has a compatible media file format and a direct-to-youtube upload feature

[resplendence2012]

I love kdenlive but my machine isn't really powerful enough being an acer 8920g :$

So I tend to use Openshot for now, it hasn't anywhere near the features of kdenlive but I am content with this at the moment. Maybe santa will bring me a quad i7 :o()

[luckyglasspig]

It's already been said(probably, I haven't looked at all 131 comments) but if you're more comfortable with a program than the terminal use arista or transmaggedon to re-encode your video into something openshot or kdenlive likes. Great video, thanks ^__^

[volkerbradley]

If you are frequently asked how to make a screencast, then it must be important to a lot of people. Remember, there are always many people who want to do this for the first time. Since it is so important, I would you suggest that you not rush through tutorials even if the subject matter is elementary to you. Listen to this video again and see if you can understand the name of the application which you demonstrated.

That being said, thanks for making this tutorial.

[ladera2100]

could you make a music video on ubuntu 10.04????

[thisweekinlinux]

@ladera2100 Are you asking if I could, or if it's possible to do? Either way, yes.

[ladera2100]

@thisweekinlinux if you could??

[thisweekinlinux]

@ladera2100 a music video for what song? I'm working on some music of my own, and i"ll be producing everything (audio/video) using Linux, but probably not Ubuntu, since my systems are all Arch Linux at this point.

[ladera2100]

@thisweekinlinux ooooh ok ......

[TheSniperofDeath]

Would it better to have the KDE Launcher installed with another environment, any difference in performance?

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheSniperofDeath The KDE launcher? Not sure what you're asking exactly, sorry.

[TheSniperofDeath]

@thisweekinlinux Oh sorry,I had mistaken "KDE Launcher" for the KDE runtime.

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheSniperofDeath ah, I understand. I've heard it might help keep Kdenlive from crashing if you run it natively in KDE, but with version 0.7.8, I haven't had it crash on me at all! *knock on wood*

[briandickson1965]

The video response: 'ogv problem', looks like it was recorded using gtkrecordmydesktop then have ffmpeg render it. This I believe was a known bug converting ogv to flv using the std ffmpeg version that comes with Ubuntu 10.04. Latest version of ffmpeg includes bug fix

[briandickson1965]

You said you had a problem with gtk-recordmydesktop in another video and so you used ffmpeg for the screencast - how did you get on with ffmpeg? I hear it produces really high quality

[thisweekinlinux]

@briandickson1965 gtk-recordmydesktop can be finicky, but it's very easy to get into using. However, Kazam is an extremely easy to use screencaster, and it uses ffmpeg as its backend, so I highly recommend it at the moment.

[Blondyman1305]

problem...

i got the .ogv file...then when i use ther terminal code the output video is only 2 seconds long no matter how long the original one is...

[thisweekinlinux]

@Blondyman1305 when you run the terminal command, does it give you any sort of error message?

[Blondyman1305]

@thisweekinlinux nope.

[thisweekinlinux]

@Blondyman1305 well that's really odd. There's a way you can do it with ffmpeg instead of mencoder, or you can bring it into PiTiVi and render it there, or install and use DeVeDe to convert it.

[unlokia]

You NEED to remake this video, slow down a little, and explain how & when you recorded yourself... this is VERY vague and confusing, seriously!. Thanks for trying, but it is not very thorough.

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux Thank you!. Pardon my ignorance, but were you actually performing the Desktop part of the screencast at the SAME time as your composite overlay, or did you do it separately? Rather confused - would you mind telling me, did you record Desktop FIRST, and then the video? :S

[thisweekinlinux]

@unlokia Sorry for the confusion.

I recorded them at the same time, using recordmydesktop to capture the screen, and my Flip Ultra HD camcorder to record the video of myself.

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux Phew! :-P finally! :D thx

[unlokia]

All very well matey, but you neglected to inform us HOW you got the webcam video overlay on top of your screencast! How do you do this? thx

[thisweekinlinux]

@unlokia at about 2:45 I mentioned that while you're screencasting, you can open Cheese or Guvcview and it will display your webcam in your screencast. Also, at 4:45 or so I mentioned the idea of compositing video from an external camera on top of the video (like I did to actually make this one)

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux Okay, but how do you composite the video on top - that's what I am asking :) thx

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux So HOW do you add the LIVE video using kdenlive and compositing? would you mind explaining, as you are rather brief :) thank you :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@unlokia my apologies. For the live video, you don't have to use compositing. just open up Cheese or Guvcview while recordmydesktop is running. That will show your webcam within a window, and you can move it around on your own.

For compositing prerecorded video (like I did to put video from my camcorder over this video) it's probably easier to watch my video on the subject than to explain in 500chars: youtube.com/watch?v=c4vXxRgMiL­A

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux Thank you!. Pardon my ignorance, but were you actually performing the Desktop part of the screencast at the SAME time as your composite overlay, or did you do it separately? Rather confused - would you mind telling me, did you record Desktop FIRST, and then the video? :S

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux HOW do you overlay, is what I am asking - you really do rush a lot in your video - and you talk sooooooo fast!!! :(

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux @thisweekinlinux HOW do you overlay, is what I am asking - you really do rush a lot in your video - and you talk sooooooo fast!!! :(

[unlokia]

@thisweekinlinux You didn't tell me HOW to put the video overlay on top, in a thorough way. Wasn't that the whole point of this video?...

[thisweekinlinux]

@unlokia No, the main point was to discuss how to make a screencast. A secondary topic was putting video on top of it. Compositing using Kdenlive is a relatively involved topic, that's why I have a separate video discussing it.

To put it simply though, put your screencast video in the 2nd video track. Put your camcorder video in the 1st video track. Right click the camcorder video -> add transition -> Composite. Click the new transition, go to the Transition window, and resize/move it around.

[say3er]

thx man

[NerdCasting]

hey i liked your video very nice editing btw

question- on ubuntu with kdenlive every time i try to play a video the program thinks its fun to just show a transparent screen while sound runs good looked every were and cant find a solution =/ i got 10.04

any suggestions?

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting Are you trying to import the .ogv file into Kdenlive?

[NerdCasting]

@thisweekinlinux

no it does it with any/all types of files mp4 avi ect ect =/

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting hmm. Are you running Compiz? Just thinking out loud.

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting perhaps this will help?

Run kdenlive from the terminal this way:

env XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 kdenlive

[NerdCasting]

@thisweekinlinux wow that worked :O? thanks dude your genius XD how did you figure it out lol?

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting :) I <3 google.

Actually, I went to google, typed in "kdenlive transparent video ubuntu", and that was the 3rd result. hehe

[NerdCasting]

@thisweekinlinux =/ i feel dumb now

i wonder if i can use the same commands for skype because i was having the same problem on it aswell haha well thanks mate r

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting nah, don't feel dumb. I've just gotten semi-decent at finding the right words to put into google. I do it a LOT. :P

it's possible it might work. surely can't hurt to give it a shot.

[NerdCasting]

@thisweekinlinux yup it worked on skype to  XD thanks again bud i subbed btw great videos

[thisweekinlinux]

@NerdCasting I'm glad that worked, and thanks for subscribing! :)

[che0763]

I tried mencoder and it keeps telling me it can't find the file, I have the name and location right. winFF doesn't have the right codec as the video comes out all messed up. So I have my .ogv file and can play it in movie player but I can't do anything with it? Any help would be appreciated. :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@che0763 I probably wasn't specific enough. when you go to the terminal you have to move to wherever the file is before you run mencoder on it.

It might be easier to use something like DeVeDe, as it has the option to convert to .mp4. UbuntuHelpGuy made a video on the subject a while back if you want to check it out.

[davidsfc9]

amazing tutorial ! i like linux more and more everyday

[thisweekinlinux]

@davidsfc9 thanks a lot. :)

[qcjn]

hi, i ve got a pentium 4, 2.5 ghz 1 Go of ram, running 9.10 I've tried a couple of different settings, but the sound is alway's laggy. Would you have an idea. Is it cause i don't have enough cpu and ram ? Thanks !

[thisweekinlinux]

@qcjn That could be a number of things. 1. What sort of video card do you have, and do you have the appropriate drivers installed for it?, 2. That CPU/RAM could be causing the problem, but most likely it's not, 3. How do you have the settings configured? about 15fps with no "Encode on the fly"?

One thing I'd mention though. I tried to do audio capture using 9.10 and it was always laggy. Once I installed 10.04, it hasn't been laggy at all since. You might try upgrading or Ubuntu Studio.

[hibbijo]

How did you make your intro with the blue lines and penguin? I've just set up a dualboot with the 10.04 RC and it's much better than when I tried it years before. Once I get it set up nice I'm going to see how long I can go without booting into windows ;p

[thisweekinlinux]

@hibbijo Check out my video titled "Ask TWIL: Why I Use Fedora & Creating a Video Intro". I go through all the steps I used.

If it's been years since you tried Linux last, there are going to be a ton of differences. I look at the changes that have happened since I went to Linux full-time (Feb. 2007) and I'm just amazed.

[hibbijo]

@thisweekinlinux Lol hey my name's Jordan too! haha anyways I tried ubuntu on a VM and loved it, free software is great(led to a full install on half my hard drive ;p. Thanks for pointing me to that website, but is there a program that would be good for creating visuals like the one you downloaded and used in your intro? Thanks!

[thisweekinlinux]

@hibbijo I haven't found a linux-based program to do that yet. There is a project called Jahshaka that has been renamed to CineFX that is supposed to be able to, but it appears to be a dead project (just google for CineFX).

[21StuB]

Thanks, you make it all look so easy...

[thisweekinlinux]

@21StuB Thanks! After you do it quite a few times, it feels a lot easier than it used to be.

[luckydev89]

great video... thanks a loooott

[thisweekinlinux]

@luckydev89 Thanks! Glad I could help.

[kaddy01980]

dude... have you got guvcview on fedora? its not int he repo and I can't find an rpm for it...... too lazy to build it...

[thisweekinlinux]

@kaddy01980 sadly, I haven't gotten it working on Fedora yet... I'm still working on trying to compile it from source. There are a bunch of dependencies I don't have yet.

[jaapaurelio]

Thank you for showing the guvcview. Cheese for some reason with 640x480 resolution does not work correctly with my Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000. But in lower resolutions work just fine.

guvcview work wonderfully in all resolutions :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@jaapaurelio awesome! I'm glad guvcview is helpful. Once I can figure out the right settings to make it work well with Kdenlive (or any other editing program) I will probably start using it more often.

[nolanhester1]

cool :) i wondered how you did your screencasts :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@nolanhester1 :) thanks. I've had quite a few people ask, so I figured I'd just go through it quickly.

[alexandr1us]

Are you using 64 ir 32 bit system?

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us On the system I'm screencasting from, I'm using 32-bit, but just because the ISO I had downloaded was the 32-bit version (I had downloaded it to put in a virtual machine, and decided to put it on my desktop afterward). When the final release of 10.04 or Fedora 13 (not sure which I'll end up on) comes out, I'll move it to 64-bit. Everything else I have already is.

Thanks for asking!

[alexandr1us]

@thisweekinlinux

You are welcome :) but if i install 32bit PAE enabled kernel (Which would be installed automatically with 10.04 cd if it detect more then 3gb ram) what will be difference between PAE enabled 32 bit system and 64 bit system? 32 bit system will be even better! amn't i right?

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us In some ways, it makes more sense to install 32-bit because there are still applications that don't support 64-bit natively, but Phoronix did a benchmark on Ubuntu 32-bit vs 32-bit PAE vs 64-bit, and the 64-bit kernel was immensely faster on most tests, never slower.

[alexandr1us]

@thisweekinlinux

I really don't care much about some milliseconds for starting apps and SQL server requests, cause i do prefer more compatible system than faster, so i'll install the PAE enabled system, thanks very much for the complete answer :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us well, good luck either way. Have a great day!

[H4x0r18]

Omg..I think thats what my problem was with Kdenlive. I always tried using the ogv file and if that didn't work I just renamed it to avi without using that command you used. I wonder if that was my problem. I will check it out and let you know. I'm terribly sorry if I missed your live show this evening I was worn out and feel asleep on my laptop lol..

[thisweekinlinux]

@H4x0r18 Awesome! Definitely update us here if it works for you. I tried the ffmpeg solution librano mentioned earlier but I don't know the exact settings. I'll have to do some reading.

No problem missing the live show. There's always the next one! (Sunday at 9pm)

[ThingsontheWeb]

Oh nooo, Tim might get mad for you making this video. lol J/K

[thisweekinlinux]

@ThingsontheWeb heh.

[ThingsontheWeb]

@thisweekinlinux He thinks he invented screencasts that has your cam on the video .... I guess I'm harping on an old topic

[thisweekinlinux]

@ThingsontheWeb yeah, I was hoping to avoid it. :)

[ConMahaff]

Excellent video, if I ever switch to a Linux desktop I'll need to know this

[thisweekinlinux]

@ConMahaff Awesome, thanks so much!

[AndresBarrios1990]

is there a way to auto update everything in ubuntu and not just security updates?

[thisweekinlinux]

@AndresBarrios1990 you mean to automatically install all updates without prompting? I don't believe there is a way, just for the sake of keeping the system safe. it's almost certainly possible to do it with a cron job, but it's definitely not advisable.

[SKUNKBALLScom]

how do you specify an exact amount of Pixels x pixels , so I can do 720P perfectly?

There's nothing that shows the exact pixels, I just have to drag a box and cross my fingers.. Good vid!

[thisweekinlinux]

@SKUNKBALLScom There's not a way to specify it through gtk-recordmydesktop or qt-recordmydesktop, but you can do it if you use the command-line version. Type "man recordmydesktop" in the terminal to go through all the available options there.

[tad1073]

If kdenlive supported gtk2.x themes it would be awesome.

[thisweekinlinux]

@tad1073 It definitely would. A friend mentioned that there's a way to change the File Open dialog out for the GTK one, and it looks like it might be possible to change the theme using the "qt4 gtkstyle engine" (looking at the Kdenlive forum)

[shasantv]

this is really helpful, thanks a million

[thisweekinlinux]

@shasantv Awesome, thanks!

[EdgyRootStudios]

Haha awesome J, you finally made this vid. ;-)

[thisweekinlinux]

@EdgyRootStudios :) I'd been meaning to for a while, just had other things going on. Haven't had many questions lately, so this was a great filler.

[abir12919]

come on....everybody knows these

[thisweekinlinux]

@abir12919 ok.

[virtualdefense]

decreasing the sound quality to 40 % , which correspond to 128 bit/s , reduces the size of ogv file , and saves some processing time and power .

[thisweekinlinux]

@virtualdefense Hm, that sounds like a good option. I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheLinuxWizKid I'm not sure why it matters, but I guess it does.

[leodamascus]

gtk-recordMyDesktop corrupts my videos if I don't record on the fly.

[thisweekinlinux]

@leodamascus Really? That's part of the problem I see with it. it corrupts mine if I use it. I can't remember exactly what. I think the audio speed is increased

[thisweekinlinux]

@Motosuna1982 Sorry about that. I tried to be thorough but also quick. Where did I lose you?

[dekaband]

I just checked out the guvcViewer and I love it, I have a logtiech pro 9000 webcam and with cheese it never really worked that well but with this new app it rocks! thank you for passing that on! Great screencast btw, very informative as usual!

[thisweekinlinux]

@dekaband Not a problem. I've personally got the Microsoft Lifecam Cinema HD, and it works beautifully with it. (yeah, I know, but MS actually makes some halfway decent hardware.... they're still evil though).

Thanks!

[librano]

Some comments: In this process you re-encode in mencoder using lossy codecs. That is not good especially since you are using the resulting video to do your actual video editing. This is important if you are looking for max quality. But then again, this is Youtube.

I have had no luck with recordmydesktop. I get like 1 frame per 10 secs. xvidcap is better. But the best FPS I get from ffmpeg but I can't figure out how to get the sound captured by ffmpeg. Maybe my laptop is just crappy :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@librano I see your point about the lossy codecs. I haven't taken the time to try out higher quality ones yet, but I know TheLinuxWizKid mentioned in his screencasting video that he uses a program to encode with h.264. It should be a small matter to use something else. If I can find a better solution (or if you have one yourself) I'll be glad to stick it in the show notes.

What sort of video card do you have? That makes a huge difference with recordmydesktop.

[librano]

@thisweekinlinux With ffmpeg it would be something like

ffmpeg -i input.ogv -vcodec h264 -qscale 0 -s 1280x800 -acodec pcm output.mp4

H.264 with quantizer set to 0 and pcm are both lossless. Or you could just use -vcodec copy -acodec copy to not re-encode but I think Kdenlive will still give problems with plain copying.

I have an Integrated Intel Graphics 4500M and a Pentium Dual Core processor. It is strange that ffmpeg does surprisingly well for screen capture vs recordmyDT.. but no audio.

[thisweekinlinux]

@librano Thanks for the ffmpeg command. I'll add that to the show notes and give it a test tonight.

I tried the vcodec and acodec copy. The vcodec is really the problem, if I remember correctly.

If ffmpeg won't work with your mic you might try recording the stream separately and syncing in your video editor (@TheLinuxWizKid mentioned this in his newest video)

[librano]

@thisweekinlinux I say test it out first then add it... I just wrote that command after glancing over the man page... So it might need some tweaking.

Yeah I figured I could record the audio separately... but it's too much trouble to let people watch me make a fool of myself :D You guys are handling the Linux videos pretty well as it is :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@librano Ohh, sorry. I thought you had tested it yourself. I'll definitely give it a shot before adding it back then.

Recording separately is always an option, but it makes editing take that much longer (sync it once, then every time you cut, you have to cut both places).

Thanks!

[thisweekinlinux]

@librano I ended up testing it, and it didn't work for me, giving 2 errors:

ffmpeg: unrecognized option '-qscale'

I removed the -qscale, then I got

Unknown encoder 'h264'

I don't know the other encoder options off the top of my head, but I'll keep trying it.

[gotbletu]

@librano for mic try ffmpeg -f alsa -ac 2 -i hw:0,0 ..etc Or ffmpeg -f alsa -i pulse ..etc

[alexandr1us]

What are your PC specs?

[thisweekinlinux]

@alexandr1us AMD Phenom II x4 945, 8Gb RAM, ATI Radeon HD 3450. I think that's probably all that's really relevant. I went into full detail in my earlier video reviewing the Dell Inspiron 546 (that's what I use)

[alexandr1us]

@thisweekinlinux

Wow Nice :)

[scouser73ubuntu]

Good video, I'd wondered how you do the screencasts, thanks for sharing.

[thisweekinlinux]

@scouser73ubuntu Thanks! Glad it was useful in some way.

I was really surprised that the "capture within a capture" worked. Pleasantly surprised, though.

[TheFusionIcon]

Uh-Oh. Now OSGUI is going to sue you for copyright infringement. lol

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheFusionIcon heh.

[TheFusionIcon]

@thisweekinlinux 1st Entry from Urban Dictionary for heh:

"heh - half laugh, semi-cynical connotation, used on IRC by those too cool to say lol or roflmao..."

lol IRC FTW!

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheFusionIcon I think that one hit the nail on the head. I almost said "meh" instead...

"Meh" is an interjection, often an expression of apathy, indifference, or boredom. However, it can also be used to indicate agreement or disagreement. It can also be an adjective, meaning mediocre or boring.

:)

[TheFusionIcon]

@thisweekinlinux heh. lol

[librano]

@TheFusionIcon Hahaha... I knew someone was going to say that! Nice one!

[TheFusionIcon]

@librano TY

[Radminster]

whats that software name for webcam? guvsview?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Radminster it's called guvcview. If you just type that into google the first result is the project page for it. Very decent capture program, I just haven't figured out all the right settings to make it work well in Kdenlive (without just capturing the entire desktop like I did in this one)

[Radminster]

@thisweekinlinux thx man, I just found it in Synaptic :) will test it, how this stuff is working :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@Radminster hope it works out for you! It's really great for capturing quick videos from your webcam, and it has a ton of options/features.

[Radminster]

@thisweekinlinux Yep, it's working fine :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@Radminster Glad to hear it!

[davexunit]

Good video as always!

[thisweekinlinux]

@davexunit Thanks!