Difference between revisions of "HowTo Create A Screencast"

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(Capturing)
(Publishing)
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It's highly recommended to make a short ''test'' screencast to verify your settings (it's easy to have the wrong sound device selected).
 
It's highly recommended to make a short ''test'' screencast to verify your settings (it's easy to have the wrong sound device selected).
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= Editing =
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For editing the captured video, I came across a program called [http://www.openshot.org/ OpenShot]. However, the installation was a bit tricky. Here are the steps I followed:
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Download and install the OpenShot RPM for your system.
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 +
yum install openshot-1.2.2-1.fc13.noarch.rpm
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Install the following packages (if they are not already on your system):
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yum install blender freeze frei0r-plugins
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After starting OpenShot, open up the preferences panel and change the ''Melt Executable'' from ''melt'' to ''mlt-melt''.
  
 
= Publishing =
 
= Publishing =

Revision as of 16:02, 25 April 2011

This page provides some notes on creating Screencasts using a NST system.

Installing Packages

We have found that the gtk-recordmydesktop provides a simple and free method for capturing screens and producing a screen cast. The totem package provides a viewer for the Ogg Video format screencasts (the VLC media player is also capable of playing back these files). To install these packages:

yum install gtk-recordmydesktop totem

Sound Card Configuration

Configuring and choosing the sound card for gtk-recordMyDesktop can be difficult on systems with multiple sound devices. Here are some tips:

ALSA sound sources are used by gtk-recordMyDesktop and by default, the ALSA sound source of hw:0,0 is used if you leave the sound device set to DEFAULT. To see what sound devices you have available, use the following command:

[pkb@rice ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdffc000 irq 19
 2 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset
                      Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:12.0-2, full speed
[pkb@rice ~]$ 

From the output above, there are 3 ALSA sound sources available. To use the Headset, I needed to change the sound device in gtk-recordMyDesktop from DEFAULT to hw:2,0.

To adjust the recording levels, I used alsamixer.

Capturing

To create your screencast:

  • Launch the gtk-recordMyDesktop application. From the GNOME Desktop, it should be found under the Applications | Sound & Video menu.
  • There are numerous Advanced Options that can be adjusted before starting your capture. If you are only intending on capturing a single window, you may want to consider turning off the Include Window Decorations option (especially if your window contains a Virtual Machine, VNC, or RDP session).
  • After adjusting your options and selecting a window (if not recording the entire desktop), you can press the Record button to start the recording. NOTE: If you right click on this button you can temporarily pause your recording.
  • The small red record button on the GNOME panel will turn into a small gray square stop button. At this point you can start talking and using the application.
  • When you are done press the small square button on the GNOME panel.
  • At this point the raw screen capture data will be encoded and the output file will be saved. By default this will be save to the file $HOME/out.ogv unless you press the Save As button before recording.

It's highly recommended to make a short test screencast to verify your settings (it's easy to have the wrong sound device selected).

Editing

For editing the captured video, I came across a program called OpenShot. However, the installation was a bit tricky. Here are the steps I followed:

Download and install the OpenShot RPM for your system.

yum install openshot-1.2.2-1.fc13.noarch.rpm

Install the following packages (if they are not already on your system):

yum install blender freeze frei0r-plugins

After starting OpenShot, open up the preferences panel and change the Melt Executable from melt to mlt-melt.

Publishing