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[Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

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Primoz
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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:25 pm
fengshaun wrote:you can get the air wallpaper from:
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdebase ... ts/images/
(that's what I did)

and I have a slight problem, I added a new activity, and now I can't remove it. "Remove this desktop" in the tool menu (top right hand corner) doesn't work, and the remove button under the activity (when zoomed out) doesn't work either. Is it a bug?[hr]
it works now, that's weird. I changed the main desktop to folderview and it worked!

Edit: I just got the idea why< you can't remove the added activity, because it was the last used, so if you switch to other activity and then zoom out again you should be able to remove it.
I also experience this bug, zoom out and back in, it might work...
Or got to plasmarc and locate view ids and delete the second "string".
It should be something like this:
Code: Select all
3=1
25=2

And thanks for Air tip!

Last edited by Primoz on Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:37 pm
Thanks for the tip! That helps a lot![hr]
ah, --delay is not an option, it's -delay (with one dash)[hr]
So I'm finished with my first try. I was wondering if you could review it to see if I left out anything I should have mentioned! I'll do many more to get it perfect! But I want to be sure that I don't leave out important stuff! But where should I upload it for you to review it einar?

Last edited by fengshaun on Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:00 pm
Why does strange things always strange things happen to me?
First my krecordmydesktop encodes files in ogv instead of ogg, even if I specify.
Second what's the FPS that I have to record this, I currently use 45FPS, but my videos are all buggy and stuff.
Here is the video I made so that you get the perspective whats happening:
My video
I did a quite good video (still some problems) but that was before I had to reinstall the root partition (I mistakenly format it).
Hope you can help me, in the mean time I'll try to resolve it myself


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:04 pm
OGV is ogg video, so I think it should be fine anyway. Fengshaun, can you upload it somewhere (even some free download services) so I can see it?
Primoz: downloading and seeing what's going on.I see some kind of corruption there, what is your setup? Did you change the compression level?

Tomorrow morning I'll review the stuff more throroughly (it's night time already for me).

Last edited by einar on Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:29 pm
I had encoding on maximum quality, now I have reduced it and I can see that it's better then before there are still some problems, but it's getting better.
I guess I have a bit of out dated computer (it's just one core AMD 3000+).
I'll run some more tests but I will make this screencast tomorrow as it's nighttime for me to.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Fri Jan 02, 2009 9:34 pm
All right. And for fengshaun or someone without a webspace, I think stuff like sendspace.com should do the trick for uploading.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:45 am
Hello I'll take the desktop settings or interacting with the plasmoids (I'll experiment a bit to figure out what I'm the most comfortable with). I will try to post something tomorrow for crit.


Edit: I'll do interacting with the plasmoid.

Last edited by tikal26 on Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:33 am
Thanks einar, I'm uploading now before I go to bed (nighttime here too), but I wanted to mention guys, you should turn the desktop effects off if you want smooth capture, desktop effects currently messes up the video (only a box around your mouse pointer will get updated each frame instead of the whole desktop)!!

EDIT: ok, uploading finished: http://www.sendspace.com/file/gd8wge

Last edited by fengshaun on Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:34 am, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:25 am
The author of recordmydesktop, iovar, has sent me a bunch of helpful tips. Here they are, straight from the message:

1) recordMyDesktop, gtk-recordMyDesktop and qt-recordMyDesktop are for the most part
written and maintained by me, while krecordmydesktop is 3rd party and currently
unmaintained. rekordMyDesktop is a 3rd party kommander(kde3) script.


2) The .ogv extension is forced on the file, since plain .ogg shouldn't be used for
video files anymore (I got that as a request from a person in Xiph.org).

3) Regarding Primoz's problem (as stated in post 13 in
viewtopic.php?t=23179&p=30137)

The short answer, either : a)Turn off compositing or b) Use the --full-shots
option or c) Upgrade to version 0.3.8 +

The reason is that compositing WM's require a different capture method.
Prior to 0.3.8 this was auto-enabled, by using the window manager's name
(which only worked for Compiz and beryl,since kwin is dual-mode). Now,
in 0.3.8+ the WM compositing state is detected properly, regardless of name,
which means that KWin works without extra options, too. Changing mode while
recording does not work, though.

In any case I don't recommend recording with Compositing on, since it
requires extravagant resources and generally makes much less smooth
screencasts.

4) Do not raise the fps too much. The default(15) is more than enough
for a desktop which can generally be characterised by low amounts of motion.
Raising the fps to e.g 45, as Primoz states in the aforementioned post, will
significantly increase the size of the file and send the CPU requirements for
the screencast flying through the roof. Which in turn will make it less smooth,
since when the program misses some frames, it tries to compensate for them,
but this mechanism works only for short term spikes. If this goes on for too
long the result will be completely messed up.


5) The commandline options have changed a bit in 0.3.8 to make the
style more consistent. Prior to this there was a mix of '-' and '--'
while now all the verbose options use '--' while all the short ones
use '-' (these are -x,-y and -o). 0.3.8 keeps backward compatibility
for now, so even though undocumented, the old mixed style also works.
In any case, there is a manpage, which might be a good reference.
There's also an online guide for the frontends (both gtk-recordMyDesktop
and qt-recordMyDesktop, since they're basically identical) here:
http://recordmydesktop.sourceforge.net/rug/toc.php
and a FAQ here:


6) Making a separate user for the screencast might save the trouble
of capturing a 'neutral' enviroment, without messing with the user's
own preferred setup.
[hr]
Comments on fengshaun's cast: you almost got everything right in the first try, good!
Some minor points:

- use always pre-written text, if you want to write use the pause function to stop recording while you type
- A suggestion: move the "desktop naming" (stating that activities can have different names) part after you show all the main methods (zoom + keyboard) and then move on to the activity bar.
- (not required) When you add a widget you may want to state that the layouts are independent from one activity to another.
- Also perhaps less use of "!" and smilies (since these screencasts *may* get picked up for the release announcement).

Minor points, anyway. Keep the screencasts coming, people!

Last edited by einar on Sat Jan 03, 2009 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:23 pm
Thanks Einar for this tips.
I did consider b), but I had no time today (until now).
It was to beautiful day to not go out and "seize" it.
I'll first try a) than b) and if that fails I'll try the c).

I hope that my first working screencast will be done by tonight.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:05 pm
As I promised this is my "first draft".
Desktop settings
I think there is a lot of room to improve...
I left the writing on the notes for too short period of time and I think I am a bit lost in some parts.
On the end I tried to show the desktop cube, but as expected it didn't work.
I'll probably have to upgrade krecordmydesktop to newest vesion for that.
Are desktop effects part of desktop settings or not?
Please comment on what is missing and what's good.
This is "first try" but I had a lot of rehearsal yesterday when I produced scores of unusable videos.
Hope you'll like it.

Last edited by Primoz on Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:29 pm
Primoz, you're doing quite well. There are some modifications I'd like to see:

- make the Folder View you show stuff in larger (perhaps on the right side of the screen)
- "annotate" a little more the process, e.g. show the text in the notes plasmoid for each step (a problem more at the start than at the end, to be honest)
- No need for desktop effects, we're just using Plasma here (that would be a Kwin feature)

As for the rest, I like it. Very good and comprehensive coverage of the features!


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:37 pm
einar wrote:Primoz, you're doing quite well. There are some modifications I'd like to see:

- make the Folder View you show stuff in larger (perhaps on the right side of the screen)
- "annotate" a little more the process, e.g. show the text in the notes plasmoid for each step (a problem more at the start than at the end, to be honest)
- No need for desktop effects, we're just using Plasma here (that would be a Kwin feature)

As for the rest, I like it. Very good and comprehensive coverage of the features!

Yes I know about speediness and lack of annotation at the beginnig, it's mostly because I had no idea how long should I show the text. But now I have a bit better grasp of time.
I'll take a look what's missing at the beggining.
OK I'll make folder view larger.

Just one thing I don't know what is the right term - are they called widgets or plasmoids? Is this even necessary? I don't want to confuse those that will watch this screencast.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 7:49 pm
Call them as they appear in the interface, it's what the users will see.


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RE: [Kourse 2] Plasma screencasts

Sat Jan 03, 2009 9:22 pm
hahahaha to be honest, many of my friends ask me why I use '!' so much. But yes, I will replace them with '.'. And I moved the 'desktop naming' before using the activity bar because when I create an activity, they have identical names! But yea, I will move it.

Thank you for the points and the tips, I will continue to work on it after I do a little bit work on my bio research paper for school!


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