TeaAge wrote:I'm running into bigger problems.
At the beginnig recordmydesktop sometimes shots up my desktop.
At the moment, kde is very hard to start. I thinks it has something to do with X Server 1.59 which is in use in Mandriva Cooker.
But I don't give up and will present you a nice screencast about the Panel (i hope, at least).

Regards,
TeaAge

einar wrote: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
-kourse-2-plasma-s ... l#pid30137)

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.

einar wrote:Primoz: Save for the last part when you get stuff back in shape (but that can be just cut out) I think yours is OK. As an additional request, would you be able to do an exactly same version, but without the notes plasmoid (e.g. without text)? It's for an "experiment" (see the Discuss Kourse 2 thread).

An addition: *don't* ditch your versions with notes! The note-less versions are to see if we can do an experiment to make the screencasts even more "palatable". In that sense, Primoz and Fengshaun (since you're already ahead w/screencasts), see if you can install this KDE app: http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.ph ... tent=69822

einar wrote:I got a 404 when trying to download that file.

einar wrote:Downloading. If there are no more adjustments (I'll see as soon as it's done downloading), you can put this "with notes" screencast on blip.tv (remember tags and all).