From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 22 08:22:16 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5802216A417 for ; Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:22:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from girishvenkatachalam@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com (rv-out-0910.google.com [209.85.198.185]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 41DFE13C46E for ; Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:22:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from girishvenkatachalam@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id l15so2361604rvb for ; Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:22:04 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.140.82.2 with SMTP id f2mr3366345rvb.1195705857306; Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:30:57 -0800 (PST) Received: from saraswathy.susmita.org ( [59.92.40.88]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id k2sm576692rvb.2007.11.21.20.30.54 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Wed, 21 Nov 2007 20:30:56 -0800 (PST) Received: by saraswathy.susmita.org (Postfix, from userid 1002) id 10469143E9; Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:00:48 +0530 (IST) Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:00:48 +0530 From: Girish Venkatachalam To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, questions@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <20071122043048.GA21707@saraswathy.susmita.org> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, questions@FreeBSD.org References: <20071121182639.GA66812@amilo.cenkes.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20071121182639.GA66812@amilo.cenkes.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.12-2006-07-14 Cc: Subject: Re: efficient terminal/console screencasting X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: girishvenkatachalam@gmail.com List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 08:22:16 -0000 On 21:26:41 Nov 21, Andrew Pantyukhin wrote: > A while ago I needed to screencast a terminal to a class of > students in real-time. It turned out to be quite straightforward > with screen(1) in multiuser mode. screen(1) is really cool. :) > Now I want to record screencasts and allow people to watch them > later. I'm looking at recordmydesktop, but the innefficiency > strikes me: I'm operating in text-only environment, there's no > need to record every frame as a flat bitmap. Whatever codec I > choose, the files will be huge and of low quality. How about ttyrec(1) and ttyplay(1) ? > What I need is something like script(1) on steroids: > - accurately record the complete state of my terminal window at > any given moment > - store it as a succession of updates, each represented in a > text-based format (as opposed to pixel-based) If you want pixel based output then there are quite a few options but none to my taste. As you mention they all are bloated. > - record timings correctly > - allow for a method to record speech in the background This you have to do manually with sox(1). Not a big deal. A simple shell script can do what you want. > - allow for a method to play it all back in sync This is no big deal either. If you want to create a video, then you have to go in for pixel based stuff. You can however do efficient compression and use a good codec like x264 or something. > Has anyone heard about any tool which would help me achieve at > least some of my requirements? Your idea seems good enough to create an open source tool that does exactly what you want. Best, Girish