Linux video
Related Pages
- See Linux sound for Linux sound systems
- See Linux audio for audio support on Linux
- See Linux video for video support on Linux
- See Linux photo for photo support on Linux
Play videos
Mplayer
External links
Playing video files
MPlayer plays video files. Many video formats are supported. To play a file:
mplayer <SOMEFILE>
Here a short summary of keyboard shortcuts that can be used during playback:
| Key | Function |
|---|---|
| Left Right | Forward / backward 10 seconds |
| Down Up | Forward / backward 1 minutes |
| PgDn PgUp | Forward / backward 10 minutes |
Some frequently-used options:
mplayer -xy 2 <SOMEFILE> # Plays a file with a scale factor of 2
Playing DVD's
Here some handy examples. Mplayer can also be used to play dvd files directly from the harddisk. Check man mplayer for more examples.
mplayer dvd://1 # Quick start playing dvd from dvd-reader
mplayer dvd://5-7 # Only plays titles 5 to 7
mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /path/to/directory/ # Play DVD title 1 from a directory with VOB files
mplayer dvd://1 -alang fr -slang en # Play in Japanese with French subtitles
bug: There is apparently a bug that prevents subtitles to be displayed even though the option -slang is given on the command-line. As a workaround press the key J while playback to cycle through the subtitles.
Record video
SimpleScreenRecorder
SimpleScreenRecorder is a very simple and powerful tool to record desktop on Linux.
- Fullscreen - 128kb mp3, H.264 superfast setting
- Roughly 2Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 40% of one core.
VLC
We can use VLC to record the desktop, for instance to make Youtube tutorial videos.
- Go to Media → Convert/ Save
- Select the Capture Device tab
- Set Capture Mode to Desktop.
VLC foresee several profiles:
- H.264 + MP3 (.MP4 container).
- Roughly 1Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 95% of one core.
- Youtube SD.
- 640x480 - Roughly 1Mbps for desktop recording. On i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz, it takes 40% of one core.
- Youtube HD.
- Issues
- VLC does not record audio
Encode video
HandBrake
HandBrake is a powerful, yet easy to use video encoder for Linux.
- Tips - Encode a DVD title
- Click Source.
- Select DVD to encode, and select folder VIDEO_TS (don't open it), and click OK.
Movie subtitles
Gnome Subtitles
Gnome Subtitles is an excellent application to generate, or resync subtitles file (format .srt...).
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pedrocastro/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-subtitles
Creating a ScreenCast
From [1]:
- Created an Intrepid instance in VirtualBox.
- Used gtk-recordmydesktop to record only the VirtualBox window.
- Create the intro and outro slides in OOo and recorded them using gtk-recordmydesktop.
- Import all three clips into Pitivi and exported them as a single ogv.
- Recorded the speech in Audacity while watching the screencast and exported it as a wav file.
- Converted the ogv to an avi using mencoder.
- Imported the avi and wav into avidemux, mashed them together and saved an avi.
- Used ffmpeg2theora to convert it back to an ogv.
Another solution: http://wiki.ubuntu.com/ScreencastTeam
Webcam
- Display webcam video stream with mplayer [2]:
mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0