How do you get good video quality -gtkrecordmydesktop Topic is solved

[viking60]

I am often envious when you sound and video experts present your videos on youtube etc. I can record my desktop with gtk.recordmydesktop.
It creates this out.ogv file and I started out converting it for youtube with

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ffmpeg -i out.ogv out.avi

The quality was nothing to cheer for so I installed mencoder. And the last decent result i got was when i converted it like this:

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mencoder -idx out.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o out.avi

Her is the output of mencoder -ovc help

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mencoder -ovc help
MEncoder SVN-r31774-4.5.0 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team
158 audio & 340 video codecs

Available codecs:
   copy     - frame copy, without re-encoding. Doesn't work with filters.
   frameno  - special audio-only file for 3-pass encoding, see DOCS.
   raw      - uncompressed video. Use fourcc option to set format explicitly.
   lavc     - libavcodec codecs - best quality!
   vfw      - VfW DLLs, read DOCS/HTML/en/encoding-guide.html.
   qtvideo  - QuickTime DLLs, currently only SVQ1/3 are supported.
   xvid     - XviD encoding
   x264     - H.264 encoding


Is this the top of the pyramid , the top of the pops?
I doubt it - so please help me wizards:
How do you do it?

[dedanna1029]

First of all, in gtkrecordmydesktop, check where the /tmp file is going to in Advanced. By default, it tries to put it into root's /tmp, and it can't go there. Change it to your /home/youruser/tmp folder. Start there, and we'll go from there.

Edit: Also, install tovid, and use it.

[viking60]

A I do not find anything in gtkrmdt to alter the /tmp settings but I have made a lot of videos so I guess it works.
B Installed tovid and tried:

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tovid -noask -ffmpeg -in out-1.ogv -out file.avi


no luck

[dedanna1029]

Click "Advanced" - then you'll see it there in the first tab. I just had to change it myself.

Just as a heads up too, not a good idea to run tovid with --noask. All you need is tovid -in <filename-with-extension> -out <filename-without-extension>. This will give you a file in .mpg, yes, but that's best quality anyway.

[viking60]

Yes I had already taken care of the working directory.
What about tovid? How vill it make my videos that I want to upload to youtube beautifull?

[dedanna1029]

Sorry, see edit above. ^^

Also, see man tovid.

[dedanna1029]

Give me a few, and I'll send a vid of me doing it.

gtkrecordmydesktop is encoding a vid now, then I'll have to do another one. Hang tight.

[viking60]

Could you give me the output of yaourt tovid?
I installed it but no reaction to any command in my CLI.
It does not seem to work in Arch

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:[ thomas@viking60-server : 00:50:46 : ~ ]:.
:) man tovid
No manual entry for tovid
.:[ thomas@viking60-server : 00:50:51 : ~ ]:.
:( tovid
bash: tovid: command not found
.:[ thomas@viking60-server : 00:50:56 : ~ ]:.
:(


[dedanna1029]

Oh, crap. I already closed it. :\

BUT, I can tell you that it's not working because mplayer isn't working in Arch. Here's the relevant snippet of the log file from my first video in tovid:

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MPlayer interrupted by signal 11 in module: decode video
- MPlayer crashed by bad usage of CPU/FPU/RAM.
  Recompile MPlayer with --enable-debug and make a 'gdb' backtrace and
  disassembly. Details in DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports_what.html#bugreports_crash.
- MPlayer crashed. This shouldn't happen.
  It can be a bug in the MPlayer code _or_ in your drivers _or_ in your
  gcc version. If you think it's MPlayer's fault, please read
  DOCS/HTML/en/bugreports.html and follow the instructions there. We can't and
  won't help unless you provide this information when reporting a possible bug.
++ WARN: [yuvfps] Original framerate: 15:1, Normalized framerate: 15:1
++ WARN: [yuvfps] Converting from 15:1 to 30000:1001
[tovid]:
[tovid]: =========================================================
[tovid]:
[tovid]: Encode stopped, killing all sub processes
[tovid]: Keeping temporary files used during encoding in /home/dedanna/Videos/sample1.0

I wish they'd fix that f*ing thing already.

[dedanna1029]

Which also ffmpeg and mencoder rely on working, btw.

damn mplayer!

There's your problem, Boss, and mine too. :\

I'm srsly thinking about uninstalling the Arch version, and trying the one straight from the site.

[viking60]

Que?
Forgive me I am a greenhorn in these matters. But I have made and converted videos in Arch with mencoder and ffmeg already.
I guess this tovideo needs something else!
Any other hot programs that will make brilliant quality?
(BTW b1o stated that he had sound in mplayer on Arch - dont know I guess I will have to hook up some loudspeakers now)

[dedanna1029]

tovid requires mplayer to be working. See log above ^^

I've uninstalled the Arch version, and am installing via svn from the site now. You could try handbrake or mkvmerge if you want. *shrug*

I ended up reinstalling the Arch version. mp3 playing in command line now with no sound.

Yet it says it's playing back. Just like before. Dang! And, it's not listing as an application in pavucontrol.