ffscreencast is a command-line wrapper around FFmpeg designed to make desktop recording less cumbersome. Instead of constructing an FFmpeg command manually, it discovers available displays, cameras and audio devices and can either select them automatically or let the user choose the required inputs.
On Linux, desktop capture uses FFmpeg’s X11 input. A webcam stream can be overlaid on the desktop recording and microphone audio can be captured at the same time. Extra FFmpeg arguments can still be supplied when the defaults do not meet a particular recording requirement.
ffscreencast is also useful simply as an FFmpeg command generator. Its dry-run mode prints the commands it would execute without starting a recording.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Record a Linux X11 desktop using FFmpeg.
- Automatically discover available screens, cameras and audio capture devices.
- Interactively select a recording device when multiple suitable devices are present.
- Devices can alternatively be selected explicitly on the command line.
- Capture microphone or other audio alongside the screen recording.
- Overlay a webcam stream on top of the desktop capture.
- Specify additional FFmpeg arguments independently for screen, audio and camera inputs.
- Pass custom arguments to the output encoder.
- Choose the output container through its filename extension.
- Dry-run mode displays the generated FFmpeg command without executing it.
- List screen, audio and camera devices individually or together.
- Includes a requirements test for checking the required external utilities.
- Can hide the mouse pointer during Linux desktop capture through an FFmpeg input option.
- A configuration file stores preferred defaults so common recording options do not need to be entered repeatedly.
- Contributed utilities can convert finished recordings to other formats.
- Linux capture relies on X11 rather than Wayland.
Website: github.com/cytopia/ffscreencast
Support:
Developer: Cytopia
License: MIT License
ffscreencast is written in Shell.
Related Software
| Console Screencasting Tools / Terminal Session Recording | |
|---|---|
| Terminalizer | Generates animated GIF images of your terminal |
| VHS | Wwrite terminal GIFs as code for integration testing and demoing |
| ttyd | Shares your terminal over the web |
| asciinema | Record and share terminal sessions |
| t-rec | Generates animated GIF images for the web |
| agg | asciinema gif generator |
| ffscreencast | Shell wrapper for ffmpeg that allows fool-proof screen recording |
| IPBT | High-tec terminal player |
| rec | Records terminal sessions and turns them into reusable workflows |
| TermSVG | Record terminal sessions and export them as animated SVG files |
| termrec | Set of tools for recording and replaying tty sessions |
| screencast | Interface to record a X11 desktop |
| script | The granddaddy of terminal recorders |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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