Screen Recorder

[krige]

Is there any Screen Recorder shipped with FC or available among its extras?

[sideways]

there's one called istanbul in extras

yum install istanbul

[krige]

Thanks a lot!
Do you think it is safe to install it on a FC4 through the following command?
yum --enablerepo=extras-development install istanbul

[sideways]

why not give it a go? If the dependency list is large then cancel that if it's a production system.

istanbul is a python program, the latest using python 2.4, so If you have that installed it should be enough.

You can try installing an rpm directly, eg here is the fc5 version
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat....i386.rpm.html

[krige]

I tried but I got back several missing dependencies errors.
I will go for the rpm, thanks again!

[sideways]

On that rpm.pbone.net page they list the required dependencies (under the 'Check requires' button), and I was wrong to say python 2.4 would be enough.

You will have to install these manually if yum doesn't work.

[krige]

Originally Posted by sideways

why not give it a go? If the dependency list is large then cancel that if it's a production system.

I went with:

yum --enablerepo=extras-development --enablerepo=development install istanbul

and it did resolve all the dependencies: the list is not only large, it's huge! I am doing it right now and it has been processing them for several minutes by now. Is it a risk to finish the process? What could go wrong if I proceed with the installation?

[krige]

Originally Posted by krige

I am doing it right now and it has been processing them for several minutes by now. Is it a risk to finish the process? What could go wrong if I proceed with the installation?

After half an hour of processing it ended again with missing dependencies errors. Is there any other painless way to install istanbul on a FC4 or do I really need to manually install all the required dependencies manually? And how am I supposed to succeed in that, when yum failed it?

[sideways]

Originally Posted by krige

After half an hour of processing it ended again with missing dependencies errors. Is there any other painless way to install istanbul on a FC4 or do I really need to manually install all the required dependencies manually? And how am I supposed to succeed in that, when yum failed it?

Unfortunately for you, the FC4 repos are no longer maintained, and this is an expected problem.

If you look at the requires list on the rpm.pbone.net link, you can try to locate the rpms one by one, if you have the java plugin enabled the 'Check requires' button will attempt to diagnose your system and tell you what is missing.

Sorry, but FC4 is no longer supported, and this will just be one of many problems you'll have.

You HAVE TO upgrade to FC6, or go with another distro (eg CentOS, which is RHEL without support BUT you'll be ok for software installs & (program) upgrades for next 5 years)

[sideways]

btw, you can install rpms individually with rpm -Uhv <rpm list>, but if dependencies are missing it will fail, you'd have to get all the required rpms in one directory and do rpm -Uhv <path to rpms>/*.rpm.

This is gonna lead to lots of frustration and hair-pulling.

the rpm options mean this:
U means upgrade a package if older one exists, otherwise just install
h gives a nice hash output to show progress
v gives messages to tell you what's happening

[wdgiles]

xvidcap works for me.

[Finalzone]

If you are really brave, you can get the source rpm of istanbul, modify the spec file (look for dependancy in buildrep and requires line) to match the package available on FC4 and rebuild it..

[scotta3234]

I highly recommend the program Wink. I have made several tutorials with it.

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

[krige]

Thank you all for your precious help and support I installed all the 3 applications suggested so far, plus another one suggested by a friend of mine, and this is the evaluation of each one of them:


istanbul http://live.gnome.org/Istanbul
+ fast saving (probably the encoding is done on the fly)
+ installable through yum
+ half and quarter size recording (quarter size pretty useless since already half size is barely visible)
- can't set frame rate nor video quality
- jerky video produced
- only one video format (Ogg Theora)
- selected area borders unmarked during recording
- output videos generated seem to move at faster rate
- frame rate at full size gets slower and slower as the recording goes on


recordmydesktop http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/
+ installable through yum
+ can set frame rate and video quality, plus several other more detailed settings
+ let's you choose a single window to record
+ very smooth video produced
+ less processing power needed with "Quick Subsampling" and or "Zero Compression" options enabled
- only one video format (Ogg Theora)
- selected/window area borders unmarked during recording
- does not support desktop 3d effects


xvidcaps http://xvidcap.sourceforge.net/
+ installable through yum
+ can set frame rate and video quality, plus several other more detailed settings
+ selected/window area borders clearly marked during recording
+ processing power in use indicator
+ several file formats and video codecs available (mpeg, avi, asf, flv, swf, dv, m1v, m2v, mov)
+ very smooth video produced
- missing "hide controls" option during recording
- preferences not intuitively reachable (through a right click on the the output file name??? Com'on!!!)


Wink http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
+ can set frame rate and video quality
+ handy controls for recording area selection
+ automatic generation of html page with the output video embedded
- slow video produced
- selected/window area borders unmarked during recording
- not installable through yum
- only one video format (swf or equivalent exe for Windows only)
- long processing time for the output file creation


Eventually my choice goes definitely to xvidcaps.

[scotta3234]

Thanks for producing this "mini review" for the desktop recorders... i'm sure it will help a lot of folks here.