Record my desktop in mp4 format

Question

How do I record my desktop interaction (video) and audio directly in MP4 format?

I have Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

Answer 1

There are a number of tools, but first you should ensure you have the MP4 codecs installed. See here for instructions.

Once that is done, there are a number of tools available to you:

1. recordmydesktop (you can simply

sudo apt-get install recordmydesktop

to install this.

1. Other tools referenced here - Istanbul, Kazam. There is also xvidcap - see this link.

Answer 2

Use the following command:

ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/audio -f x11grab -s 1280x1024 -r 3 -aq 50 -i :0.0 /tmp/out.mp4

This records both sound and video of my screen. I have an attached monitor, so :0.0 is that monitor. The -r 3 keeps the file size smaller by doing 3 frames per second, which causes the mouse to jerk around slightly, but is suitable for tutorials. Increase that 3 towards 30 for much higher quality (but larger file size). The -aq 50 stands for audio quality at 50%, which is suitable for listening to tutorials on your laptop, but not suitable for like a large conference, where removing the -aq option might be best.