path: root/recordmydesktop/doc/recordmydesktop.1

.TH "RECORDMYDESKTOP" 1 "13/7/2006" "Linux"


.SH NAME
recordMyDesktop \- record desktop sessions to an Ogg\-Theora\-Vorbis file.


.SH SYNOPSIS

.B        recordmydesktop 
[
.B
Options
]^
.B
filename
.br
.br
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
        recordMyDesktop produces a file(default out.ogg) that contains a video and audio recording
.br
of a linux desktop session. The default behavior of recording is to mark areas that have changed(through libxdamage)
.br
and update the frame. This behavior can be changed (option 
.B
\-\-full\-shots
) to produce a more accurate result
.br
or capture windows that do not generate events on change(windows with 3d context or video display) 
.br
but this will notably increase the workload. In this case, enabling the 
.B
\-\-with\-shared
option is recommended
.br
(by default this option is disabled since copying small areas of display is faster 
.br
than uploading the whole image from video memory).
.br
.br
recordMyDesktop doesn't have a commandline interface.
.br
After startup, it can be controled only through the following signals:
.br
.br
.B
SIGUSR1
causes the program to pause if it's currently recording, and vice-versa.
.br
.B
SIGTERM
causes normal termination of the recording.
.br
.B
SIGINT
also causes normal termination.
.br
.B
SIGABRT
terminates the program and removes the specified output file.
.br
.br
.br
A typical scenario of recording can be a command as simple as:
.br
.B
~$ recordmydesktop
.br
which will produce a fullscreen recording named out.ogg
.br
while a command like:
.br
.B
~$ recordmydesktop foo.ogg
.br 
will write output to foo.ogg
.br
To specify a region for recording you can type this:
.br
.B
~$ recordmydesktop -x X_pos -y Y_pos -width WIDTH -height HEIGHT -o foo.ogg
.br
where X_pos and Y_pos specify the offset in pixels from the upper left
.br
corner of your screen and WIDTH and HEIGHT the size of the window to be recorded(again in pixels).
.br
If the area extends beyond your current resolution, you will be notified appropriately and nothing will happen.
.br
Notice also, that if any option is entered you have to specify the output file with the \-o switch.
.br
.br
.B
To normally end a recording you can press ctl-c.
.br
(which will send a
.B
SIGINT
to the program).
.br
.br
For further manipulation of the end result look at the 
.B
OPTIONS
and 
.B
NOTES
sections.
.br
.br 
.br
.SH EXIT STATUS
0 is success
.br
Non-zero means an error occurred, which is printed in stderr.
.br
.SH OPTIONS
.PP
.B
Generic Options:
.br
.TP
.B
    \-h or \-\-help    
    Print help summary and exit.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-version
    Print program version and exit.
.br
.PP
.br
.B
Image Options:
.br
.TP
.B
    \-windowid id_of_window
    id of window to be recorded.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-display DISPLAY
    Display to connect to.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-x X
    Offset in x direction.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-y Y
    Offset in y direction.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-width N
    Width of recorded window.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-height N
    Height of recorded window.
.br
.TP
.B
.br
.br
.TP
.B
    \-dummy\-cursor color
    Color of the dummy cursor [black|white](default black)
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-no\-dummy\-cursor
    Disable drawing of a dummy cursor.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-with\-shared
    Enable usage of MIT\-shared memory extension.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-full\-shots
    Take full screenshot at every frame(Not recomended!).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-fps N(number>0.0)
    A positive number denoting desired framerate.
.br
.br
.PP
.B
Sound Options:
.br
.TP
.B
    \-channels N(number>0)
    A positive number denoting desired sound channels in recording.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-freq N(number>0)
    A positive number denoting desired sound frequency.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-device SOUND_DEVICE
    Sound device(default hw0:0).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-nosound
    Do not record sound.
.br
.PP
.br
.B
Encoding Options:
.br
.TP
.B
    \-v_quality n
    A number from 0 to 63 for desired encoded video quality(default 63).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-v_bitrate n
    A number from 45000 to 2000000 for desired encoded video bitrate(default 45000).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-drop\-frames
    Allow theora encoder to drop frames(this can significantly lower proccessing times).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-s_quality n
    Desired audio quality(\-1 to 10).
.br
.PP
.br
.B
Misc Options:
.br
.TP
.B
    \-delay n[H|h|M|m]
    Number of secs(default),minutes or hours before capture starts(number can be float).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-\-scshot
    Take a bitmap screenshot(default rmdout.bmp) and exit.
.br
.TP
.B
    \-scale\-shot N
    Factor by which screenshot is scaled down(1<=number<=64,power of 2).
.br
.TP
.B
    \-o filename
    Name of recorded video(default out.ogg).



.PP
.br
If no other option is specified, filename can be given without the \-o switch.
.br
.br
.SH USAGE
.TP
.B        recordmydesktop 
.br
[\-h| \-\-help| \-\-version| \-delay n[H|h|M|m]| \-windowid id_of_window|
.br
\-display DISPLAY| \-x X| \-y Y|\-width N| \-height N| \-fps N(number>0)|
.br
\-v_quality n| \-s_quality n| \-v_bitrate n| \-\-drop\-frames| \-dummy\-cursor color| \-\-no\-dummy\-cursor|
.br
\-freq N(number>0)| \-channels N(number>0)| \-device SOUND_DEVICE| \-\-nosound|
.br
\-\-with\-shared| \-\-full\-shots| \-\-scshot| \-scale\-shot N| \-o filename]^filename
.br
.br
.br
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP
.B
DISPLAY
.br
Display environment variable, specifying X server to connect to.
.br
.SH NOTES
.br
    Recording a window using the \-windowid option, doesn't track the window itself, but the region that it covers.
.br
Also when using that option the \-x,\-y,\-width and \-height options are relative to the specified window area.
.br
An easy way to find out the id of a window, is by using the 
.B
xwininfo
program.
.br
Running a command like :
.br
.B
xwininfo |grep "Window id:"|sed \-e "s/xwininfo\\:\\ Window id:\\ // ;s/\\ \.*//" 
.br
will give you only the id of the window(which should look like this: 0x4800005)
.br
More conviniently you can put all that in the command that launches recordMyDesktop like this:
.br
.B
~$recordmydesktop -windowid $(xwininfo |grep "Window id:"|sed \-e "s/xwininfo\\:\\ Window id:\\ // ;s/\\ \.*//" ) 
.br
.br
    Also, the lower quality you select on a video recording (
.B
-v_quality
option), the highest CPU-power that you will need.
.br
So it's always better to start with default values and manipulate the end\-result with another program.
.br
An excellent converter is
.B
ffmpeg2theora
, which despite its name is also a theora to theora converter.
.br
Changing the quality of a recordng with it,can be as simple as :
.br
.B
ffmpeg2theora infile.ogg -v 3 -a 4 -o outfile.ogg
.br
It can even perform resizing on the size of the recording, or change the overall duration.
.br
.br
.SH BUGS
Too resource intensive, straightforward subsampling of chroma plane degrades quality
.br
(though fixing this with averaraging would make the program even more cpu-hungry).
.br
.SH AUTHORS
John Varouhakis(biocrasher@gmail.com)
.br
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR xwininfo(1)
.br
.BR ffmpeg2theora(1)
.br