Simple Screen Recorder Successfully Records Audio

[MrDuckGuy]

Hello Forum,

Here is a tip for all those frustrated by SSR
(Simple Screen Recorder) and other applications
to fail to record audio along with video.

There are quite a few threads in this topic on
the dilemma of trying to use SSR or others
or the like to record a video from the screen.

Usually this issue is complicated by the lack
of sound that accompanies the video. I've
seen the suggestion to use an analog wire
connection from the headphone output jack to
the mike input (3.5mm) jack. Never thought
this made sense.

Shouldn't it be a straightforward thing to digitally
accomplish? Well, like all others, I tried many
settings, and ended up with a lot of videos
without sound.

Finally I connected 3.5mm male-to-male patch
wire from the headphone jack to the microphone
jack. I loaded up SSR, selected a video to screen,
set the recording window, and began the recording.

If you do this, you can immediately see feedback
in the preview screen, on the audio VU meters,
that sound is recording.

I've been experimenting with this for several days.

I've had brilliant success. All the videos recorded
have audio and video and have turned out to be
viewable and listenable.

I have relinquished the ability to hear the video as
it's being recorded, although I suppose a y-adapter
might circumvent this to allow me to listen with at
least a pair of headphones. The patchwire turns off
the speakers and won't let me connect headphones.

Warning. The SSR recording format defaults to
'MKV' (Matroska) file type, and I suggest that
you may have better results by switching that
setting to the MP4 file type. It's recognized by
more software than MKV.

The files I recorded in MKV format were playable,
but not navigable. Meaning that I could not FF or
RW or skip to other points. I could only replay from
the beginning.

Am I the only one that's tried this?

Also, is it still impossible to accomplish this,
by using a digital option without using a wire?

As always, thanks in advance, Kelikaku B'H.


Warning. The SSR recording format defaults to
'MKV' (Matroska) file type, and I suggest that
you may have better results by switching that
setting to the MP4 file type. It's recognized by
more software than MKV.

The files I recorded in MKV format were playable,
but not navigable. Meaning that I could not FF or
RW or skip to other points. I could only replay from
the beginning. B'H.

[Mike Walsh]

@ MrDuckGuy:-

I got round this one in a slightly different way. In addition to SimpleScreenRecorder, I also use RecordMyDesktop & wiak/mcewanw's WeX. I was never able to record audio in any of them, though video was always successful. Audio recording in general was always a 'bugbear' for me in Puppy, despite Ubuntu previously being installed on this same hardware, and handling that task without issue.

Two things 'fixed' it for me. The biggest one turned out to be replacing the default ffmpeg; OOTB, Pup comes with a rather old version of this, extremely 'stripped-down', and missing many of the commands needed for processing more modern audio/video formats. Fredx181 (of DebianDog fame) came up with a pretty recent version of ffmpeg when he turned wiak's WeX into a 'portable', and later released it as a separate package to install for system-wide use. Which works a treat.

The other thing I do nowadays, instead of trying to use the Logitech c920 webcam's built-in stereo mikes, is to use a Logitech H340 digital headset, which has its own, built-in soundcard, with a separate set of controls. The combination of these two means I can now create perfect screen-recordings.....and that in turn means creating far superior tutorials with Openshot. So I'm a 'happy camper'!

-----------------------------------------------

A word about formats. I agree, mp4 is probably better for general viewing/usage, but the Matroska/mkv format is one of those highly recommended if you want to upload to somewhere like YouTube. They're also happy with the .ogv (Ogg Video) format as produced by RecordMyDesktop.

Do be aware that Matroska and mp4 are in fact 'containers'. If using Wex, I tend to use mkv for a container, with x264 encoding for the video and aac encoding for the audio. This gives perfect results.

The same combo is employed with complete success in SSR, and also gives excellent results every time.

Also, is it still impossible to accomplish this,
by using a digital option without using a wire?

When you say 'without using a wire', d'you mean as in 'wireless' (like Bluetooth)? My own H340 headset still employs a cord, although this goes into a rather 'chunky' USB connector (this is where the built-in soundcard resides). I'm not at all certain whether you could in fact get a wireless equivalent to these, but I expect you probably can...there's so much tech stuff out there these days, I'd be surprised if you couldn't.


Mike.

[MrDuckGuy]

... got round this one in a slightly different way ... replacing the default ffmpeg ... The same combo is employed with complete success in SSR ... Mike.

OK so in the PPM there is an updated ffmpeg:
version 2.8.15.

The installed version is 2.8.11.

Will updating that file help?
Is there anywhere another
more recent version can be
installed?

I found this site: https://ffmpeg.org/download.html

With this file: ffmpeg-4.1.3.tar.bz2

B'H.

[Mike Walsh]

@ Kelikaku:-

Remind me again, which Pup are you using? Fred's got two packages available; 3.1.2 for 32-bit, and 3.3.4 for 64-bit. I can't track down the thread/post where they were published, but I've got both .pets mirrored on my Google Drive, so; if you'd like either, just say the word, and I'll let you have the links.

I think some of this is probably also soundcard-related; when I was using Ubuntu, this desktop was already 10 yrs old.....it's now 15. The Realtek card in this was originally released back in 2001.....and the kernel does periodically drop support for really elderly hardware. So your guess is as good as mine.....but yes; digital USB solutions are definitely available, and tend to give much crisper, clearer sound quality.


Mike.

[MrDuckGuy]

... which Pup are you using ... if you'd like either,
just say the word ... digital USB solutions are
definitely available ... much crisper, clearer
sound ... Mike.

My laptop is posting this from Xenialpup64v7.0.8,
and my desktop is running Tahrpup32v6.0.6PAE.

The Tahrpup32 is an extended release I was lucky to
find on archive.org with PAE support and some
other extras. I think it must have been one of the
last versions that came out.

Thanks so very much Mr. Mike. B'H.

[Mike Walsh]

@ MrDuckGuy:-

Here's the links for those two .pets.

32-bit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15h97fS ... sp=sharing

64-bit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBCah7 ... sp=sharing

Respectively, those ffmpeg binaries are 30 MB & 43 MB; compare that to many of the originals, which are only a few 100Ks in size. There's more than a slight difference, wouldn't you say?


Mike.

[MrDuckGuy]

... the links for those two .pets ... those ffmpeg
binaries are 30 MB & 43 MB; compare that to
... originals, which are only a few 100Ks ...
more than a slight difference, wouldn't you say? ...

[SECOND UPDATE]----------------
It is working, but I'm having trouble still. The
issue is that the internal microphone built
into the monitor is active now.

I'm still not able to distinguish between the
input from the line in and the internal mike
sending sound to the recorded data
stream. I recorded some video and the
sound input turned out to be ambient input
that came from the built in microphone.
B'H.

=======================================

UPDATE: I tried the 64-bit version in Xenial64,
it's not doing much. I still needed to use the analog
wire. I'm switching to Tahrpup now.

AFTER reboot, I reloaded the package
and it now works. B'H.
---------------------------------
Tahrpup32v6.0.6-k4.1.3.0-uefi-frugal did
not interface with the updated FFmpeg
pet file.

AFTER reboot, I reloaded the package
and it now works. B'H.
=========================

As always thank you so very much. I am anxious
to try these out and will update you on the result. B'H.

[Mike Walsh]

@ Kelikaku:-

One thing you need to be aware of in Tahrpup (and mikeslr has mentioned this several times in recent years) is that Canonical, for reasons best known to themselves, switched away from using ffmpeg in Trusty, and returned to the older avconv standard.

I've found it works with ffmpeg perfectly okay if, after installing the ffmpeg package, you delete /usr/lib/avconv, then recreate it as a sym-link to /usr/bin/ffmpeg. The system will look for 'avconv', find it, think it's using it.....but in reality, it's actually using the newer ffmpeg package instead.


Mike.

[soniabu]

when I use SSR both (video and audio) are recorded, only the audio crackles like a radio that tunes badly. Do you have any suggestions?
Use Bionicpup64 and ffmpeg 3.4.6
thanks sonia

P:S:
fixed with these retrovol settings: