Re: Capture screen with mencoder

[Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org>]

Rodolfo Medina wrote: 
> I posted this to Mplayer mailing list but got no answer so am sharing it here
> hoping someone can help...
> 
> I capture my webcam stream with:
> 
>  $ mencoder tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:forceaudio:alsa:adevice=hw.1,0 -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lameopts cbr:br=64:mode=3 -o webcam.avi
> 
> and it works fine.  How can I modify the above command so to capture desktop
> screen instead (with audio)?  I suppose it's a matter of replacing /dev/video0
> with something else but don't know what nor the correct syntax...
> 

Nope, it's completely different. Your desktop only generates a
video stream at the interface between the video card and the
monitor.

You can tap into that with an HDMI capture device, or you can
run software that snaps multiple still shots of your screen and
stitches them into video later:

$ apt search screencast
byzanz/stable,unstable 0.3.0+git20160312-3 amd64
  small screencast creator

gnome-flashback/stable 3.30.0-3 amd64
  helper application for the GNOME Flashback session

gnome-shell-extension-easyscreencast/stable 1.0.2-2 all
  GNOME Shell extension to simplify video recording

gtk-recordmydesktop/stable 0.3.8-4.1 all
  Graphical frontend for recordMyDesktop screencast tool

kazam/stable,unstable 1.4.5-2.1 all
  screencast and screenshot application created with design in
mind

key-mon/stable 1.17-1 all
  Utility to show live keyboard and mouse status

screenkey/stable 0.9-2 all
  screencast tool to display your keystrokes

shelr/stable,unstable 0.16.3-2 all
  Utility for plain text screencasting

vokoscreen/stable 2.5.0-dmo2 amd64
  Easy to use screencast creator

vokoscreen-ng/buster-backports 3.0.3-1~bpo10+1 amd64
  easy to use screencast creator

-dsr-