Hi all, I want to do some screen recording on my linux desktop. And like a normal-functioning member of society, I decided to do it the hardest way and learn ffmpeg CLI to do it. Why? well, something about using underlying tools and customizing their usage excites me.
I have already started doing this, and I am finding I have to do a lot of trial and error to get things right. Before I dive deeper, I want to ask: Am I limiting myself in doing this? Is there anything I could be missing out on taking this route, or something that ffmpeg could not do on its own that a dedicated solution can?
What will I use this for exactly? well, things like recording a video game as I play it (which I suppose will require hardware acceleration to be of viable quality), or recording a tutorial (requiring voice input from mic), things like that.
I don’t know whether it would be impossible to do, but using OBS would be much easier both on the short and long term
As long as you make yourself some aliases for your common ffmpeg commands including flags I’m sure it’s gonna work out fine. Using something like OBS is gonna make it a lot easier of course.
does OBS just do everything with ffmpeg, or does it introduce extra functionality?
It has more functionality
https://obsproject.com/kb/obs-studio-overview
I wish you success. I’m happy to use SimpleScreenRecorder(https://github.com/MaartenBaert/ssr).
GNOME has a screen recorder built in, but I use OBS because it’s a swiss army knife of (screen) recording.
I guess no Wayland support, which is pretty big
what do screen recording softwares for wayland use under the hood then?
They use XDG Desktop Portal, which makes video and audio capture system level instead of application level to enhance security. When a program wants to record your screen you get a pop up to choose which screen/window to share. After that the app can only see that window or screen.




