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+Title: Screencasts: discussing with ffmpeg
+Date: 2020-01-11
+Category:
+Tags:
+Slug: ffmpeg-screencast
+Lang: en
+Summary: Screencasts in `ffmpeg`, having some fun solving issues thanks to
+    other people
+
+When you battle using your arguments that's called a *discussion*... That's
+exactly what I've been doing for a couple of days with `ffmpeg`: I've been
+using arguments trying to reach an understanding.
+
+I wanted to record my screen, and a couple of cameras, for reasons you'll know
+about later, and I didn't want to play around with new GUI programs and
+configuration so I decided to go for a simple `ffmpeg` setup.
+
+You probably had played with `ffmpeg` in the past. It has tons of different
+input arguments and options. It's crazy.
+
+Most of my previous times using it were just video conversions and it's as
+simple as choosing the right extensions for files, but when it comes to video
+and audio recording it gets complicated. I have no idea about video and audio
+encodings and I don't really have the time to dig in such an exciting topic.
+I searched on the Internet for examples and I found some: cool.
+
+I played around with multiple inputs and outputs, I changed arguments I can't
+even remember now and it kinda worked until I decided to record my voice at the
+same time. **Delay**.
+
+What to do then?
+
+Just go to the internet an keep searching.
+
+I found a project called `vokoscreen` that now is archived because it's
+migrating from `ffmpeg` to `gstreamer` (I also struggled with gstreamer in the
+past but that's another story) but it worked fine. It was in the repos of my
+distro, it only asked me to install one dependency, a couple of megs only...
+Great!
+
+I tried to make a screencast and the audio worked like a charm. I went for the
+code, read it and [realized the arguments it uses to call `ffmpeg` are easy to
+find][vokoscreen].
+
+Even better, in the program itself there's a button to show a log of what it
+does and it dumps the exact call it does.
+
+With that and some extra things I learned from the investigation in the deep
+abyss of the Internet, boom! There it goes:
+
+    ::bash
+    ffmpeg
+        -y -f x11grab -draw_mouse 1 -framerate 25 -video_size 1920x1080 -i :0+0,0 \
+        -f alsa -ac 2 -i default \
+        -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast \
+        -c:a libmp3lame -q:v 1 -s 1920x1080 -f matroska \
+        output.mkv
+
+Today in half an hour I solved the thing I've been struggling with a couple of
+days. But I think I wouldn't be able to solve it if I didn't struggle with it
+last days... I don't know.
+
+The good thing is I learned a couple of things from this I'll write down here
+to avoid forgetting them:
+
+### Multiple inputs
+
+Like the command in the example, `ffmpeg` can get multiple inputs. In the case
+of the example, they are `x11grab` (my screen) and `alsa`'s default input (the
+microphone). More inputs can be combined, like music playing in the background
+or whatever you want.
+
+### Multiple outputs
+
+There's also the chance to put multiple outputs there just like the multiple
+input thing does but in the output part of the command[^1].
+
+#### Pipe
+
+You can even pipe the command to a different one, like:
+
+```
+ffmpeg [...] - | ffplay -i -
+```
+
+In this case you can use one of the outputs to record to a file and another
+one to `ffplay` which plays the video in screen.
+
+This is useful if you want to record from a webcam and you want to see what you
+are recording.
+
+
+### Closing note
+
+So yeah, I was an ignorant about `ffmpeg` and I still am.
+
+But at least I learned a couple of the arguments and learned how to deal with
+all my cameras and screens at the same time.
+
+Good enough.
+
+I mean, it works, right? And that's the most important thing[^2].
+
+[^1]: Yes, it's hard to know where's the input and where's the output.
+[^2]: It's not. The most important thing is to be happy, do what you like,
+  enjoy your life and feel appreciated and valued. If your software works it's
+  like... Uugh... Congratulations I guess?
+
+[vokoscreen]: https://github.com/vkohaupt/vokoscreen/blob/b5865a85561baa46e627c09cf77efb7369516327/screencast.cpp#L2718