README and INSTALL instructions for DemoRecorder ===================================================================== ==================================== 1. Unpacking and Installing ==================================== DemoRecorder is available in two package formats: *.rpm and *.tgz. 1.1. Installing the rpm-package ==================================== Many Linux Distributions such as RedHat, Suse etc use RPM as their native package format. 1.1.1. Install the rpm-package from the GUI ==================================== Installing an RPM-package on these distributions is as easy as double-clicking on the RPM-package in the file browser and following the instructions. 1.1.2. Install the rpm-package from commandline ==================================== Alternatively the package may be installed from the commandline with rpm -i DemoRecorder.rpm (Please replace "DemoRecorder.rpm" with the name of the rpm-package) 1.1.3. Install on Debian-based systems such as Ubuntu ==================================== On a Debian-based system, you can use the following command to install the RPM-package: alien -i DemoRecorder.rpm (Please replace "DemoRecorder.rpm" with the name of the rpm-package) If you don't have alien, please install it with apt-get install alien before. 1.2. Installing the tgz-package ==================================== 1.2.1. Installing the tgz-package in the standard location /opt/DemoRecorder ==================================== As root, unpack the tgz-file in the directory /opt. This will create a directory /opt/DemoRecorder which contains the software. tar xvzf DemoRecorder.tgz -C /opt (Please replace "DemoRecorder.tgz" with the name of the tgz-package) 1.2.2. Installing the tgz-package at another location ==================================== (You need not be root depending on the access rights in the location where you want to install it.) Unpack the tgz-file in the directory where you want to install DemoRecorder: tar xvzf DemoRecorder.tgz -C your_directory (Please replace * "DemoRecorder.tgz" with the name of the tgz-package * "your_directory" with the name of the directory where you want to install DemoRecorder.) This will create a subdirectory called "DemoRecorder" which contains the installation. Then change to the directory "your_directory/DemoRecorder/bin" and run the script "demorec-set-install-dir": cd your_directory/DemoRecorder/bin ./demorec-set-install-dir (Please replace "your_directory" with the name of the directory where you want to install DemoRecorder.) 1.3. License terms ==================================== In /opt/DemoRecorder/LICENSE.TXT you find the license terms. ==================================== 2. Prepare Sound ==================================== [You may skip this section if you don't need sound or if you have another sound recording program successfully running on your system.] For the sound recording from microphone to work properly, please do the following steps. (If you already have another program doing sound recording from microphone working successfully, you probably have already done most steps) * be sure that you have a sound driver installed which is capable of sound recording. (on my computer, the OSS-driver didn't work, but the ALSA driver worked) * start your mixer program so that you are able to regulate the microphone level. The initial microphone level after booting may be zero, so this is vital! I suggest to use the mixer program "alsamixergui" if you use ALSA drivers. * attach a microphone to the microphone input of your computer * switch on the microphone if it has a switch. * if you are running KDE, before running DemoRecorder, you may have to disable the aRts-System by - calling kcmshell arts - switching to the second tab "Hardware" - and selecting "No Audio Input/Output" at "Select the audio device" (We will provide a direct aRts support in DemoRecorder later, so this procedure will not be necessary some time in the future.) ==================================== 3. Running the program ==================================== To run the program, please start /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec from a shell as your ordinary user. When you start DemoRecorder for the first time, you will get asked two questions for directories to be created. Answer them with 'Y' unless you have good reason to do otherwise. Now you are ready to use DemoRecorder ==================================== 4. Available Editions and Pricing ==================================== For current pricing please visit our Web-page at http://www.DemoRecorder.com. The following prices were valid on writing of this README: 4.1. Overview and pricing ==================================== There are three editions of a permanent license having different prices as follows: DemoRecorder Standard US$ 47 DemoRecorder Web US$ 77 DemoRecorder Pro US$ 247 (prices excluding taxes such as VAT) All Licenses are node-locked, that is, valid and useable on a single computer. 4.2. Technology guarantee ==================================== Our technology guarantee is as follows: All licenses include all updates which are released within two years after the purchase date. 4.3. Features ==================================== Now to the features of DemoRecorder: * "DemoRecorder Standard" is DemoRecorder with all export filters except FLV, that is exporting to MPEG, AVI, VOB-files is supported. (use DemoRecorder as Player. Useful for internal training of, e.g., new employees) MPEG2 and VOB are primarily useful for creating video-DVDs which can be played back in any DVD-player. For other apps we recommend AVI or MPEG4. * "DemoRecorder Web" is DemoRecorder with all export filters, including FLV export filter FLV is flash video, i.e. the video-format used for being embedded into Flash animations. Flash is the primary format for animated web-content. (cf. http://DemoRecorder.com/recommends/flash.htm ) * "DemoRecorder Pro" is DemoRecorder with all export filters and full screen mode. (in the future, more export filters and other features will be added. ==================================== 5. How to use More Features ==================================== 5.1. Exporting Recordings to other formats ==================================== Exporting is done by commandline utilities which are included in the installation. (Commanline has the advantage that it can be run in the background easily which is useful for CPU-intensive tasks such as movie exporting.) These export-utilities are installed in /opt/DemoRecorder/bin and their names start with "demorec-to". You can get a help-text describing the options by calling such an export filter with the commandline option "--help". The following examples describe the commandlines. Please replace "your-recording" with the name of your recording. The following formats are supported: FLV (for web publishing), MPEG2 (for DVD), AVI (with MPEG4 codec), MPEG4, MPEG1 5.1.1. Export filters included in the Web-Edition The following export-filters are only included in the Web-Edition of DemoRecorder. The trial version and the Standard-edition contain a demo mode, so you can try it out. 5.1.2.1. FLV (Flash Video, for use in Flash-Animations) /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-flv $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.flv or /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-flv-with-player $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.flv The second variant (with-player) generates all files necessary for web-publishing, that is: * the FLV video which contains your screen recording -> your-recording.flv * an SWF-file which contains a player for the FLV video -> your-recording.swf * an HTML-file which contains HTML-code which has to be copied into the HTML-code of webpage where you want to show your video -> your-recording.html Options: * --affiliate-id your-esellerate-affiliate-id Make money with commissions: 1. Go to http://affiliates.eSellerate.net to sign up as an affiliate. 2. Please replace your-esellerate-affiliate-id with your esellerate affiliate-id. It starts with AFL. Please include the "AFL". (or set the variable ESELLERATE_AFFILIATE_ID in the preferences, e.g. in $HOME/.DemoRecorder/preferences) 3.When somebody clicks on the "recorded with DemoRecorder"-logo on the player at your website, and when they buy DemoRecorder licenses, then you get a commission. (we refer to the Affiliate-Agreement from eSellerate for details and specific conditions.) * --no-logo don't show the "recorded with DemoRecorder"-logo in the button area of the player. Please note: The combination of FLV-video and SWF-player only works when installed on a webserver. It does not work when you load the HTML, SWF and FLV directly from your local filesystem. More technically: The SWF-player can load the FLV-video via HTTP but it cannot load it from the filesystem, i.e. it cannot load the FLV-video from file:-URLs. Some background on FLV: FLV-Videos can be loaded from Flash-animations which in turn can be played back by the flashplayer-plugin which is installed in most Web-Browsers, so it is the ideal format for Web-publishing. The FLV exporter uses the ScreenVideo-codec format of FLV which optimized for animated screen captures. It creates small files and is lossless, i.e., it has original quality. When you want to make more sophisticated things with your video in Flash, you need the Flash-Authoring software. With the Flash-Authoring Software, you can e.g. import the video into a Flash-Project and add annotations or active content to the video etc. To buy the Flash Authoring software or download a trial version, please use the link below: http://www.DemoRecorder.com/recommends/flash.htm 5.1.2.2. SWF (Flash, the premier format for animated web content) The Web-Edition of DemoRecorder will include a Flash (*.swf) Output filter. You will be notified on the mailing list as soon as the *.swf Outputfilter is available. However, technically, the solution with FLV is more advanced and flexible. 5.1.2. Export filters Included in the Pro-Edition The following export-filters are only included in the Pro-Edition of DemoRecorder. The trial version and the Standard-edition contain a demo mode, so you can try it out. 5.1.2.1. MPEG (1,2, and 4) 5.1.2.1.1. MPEG1 /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg1 $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.mpeg 5.1.2.1.2. MPEG2 (for DVD authoring) 5.1.2.1.3.1. for PAL-DVD /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg2-pal-dvd $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.mpeg2 5.1.2.1.4.2. for NTSC-DVD /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg2-ntsc-dvd $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.mpeg2 5.1.2.1.3. MPEG4 /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg4 $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.mpeg 5.1.2.2. AVI 5.1.2.2.1. AVI with MPEG4 codec /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg4-avi $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.avi File generated with the demorec-to-mpeg4-avi Filter can be played back with plain Microsoft Media Player or gxine. 5.1.2.2.2. more AVI codecs Over time, we will add support for more AVI codecs. You may, however try to use other codecs supported by ffmpeg, by calling /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec-to-mpeg4-avi --output-codec output-codec-name $HOME/demorec/your-recording your-recording.avi where "output-codec-name" is the name of the codec (cf the FFMPEG docs for more details) 5.2. Sound Recording: ==================================== DemoRecorder provides visual feedback for the recording level. The reclevel is displayed with a white bar on black background. The reclevel is only displayed during a recording. 5.2.1. Part of the reclevel bar is red If a portion of the bar becomes red, then this indicates the portion of overdrive-samples, i.e. the microphone signal is too loud which will generate a very poor recording quality. In this case move the microphone further away from you or regulate the microphone level down in your mixer application. 5.2.2. rec level - Display remains black If the "rec level" display remains black even though you speak into the microphone, then you have no signal or a very weak signal. In this case please check the following: * microphone switched on? (if it has a switch) * battery in microphone ok? (if it has a battery) * microphone connected correctlty to your computer? * microphone level too low in your mixer program? (some soundcards support "microphone boost 20dB", try to switch this on in your mixer program.) * other program running which grabbed the soundcard? * does it work with other sound recording programs? (e.g. try "rec" from sox) * sound driver installed? * sound-device is "/dev/dsp"? (if it is called differently, please replace "/dev/dsp" with your device name in /opt/DisplayRecorder/app-defaults/Demorec.ad) ==================================== 6. Further tweaking and configuration ==================================== 6.1. Making Startup more convenient ==================================== You may add /opt/DemoRecorder/bin to your PATH or create a symlink from some directory already in the PATH to the program, e.g. cd /usr/local/bin ln -s /opt/DemoRecorder/bin/demorec 6.2. Configuration ==================================== Edit $HOME/.DemoRecorder/preferences. You can change the values of the variables. For experts: Edit /opt/DemoRecorder/app-defaults/Demorec.ad. (No documentation provided yet for config-options in there...) ==================================== 7. Background info ==================================== 7.1. directory $HOME/demorec which will contain the recording-files. ==================================== For each user, create a directory named "demorec" in his/her home directory. This preliminary version of DemoRecorder may only save files to one specific directory (cf. also Config) cd mkdir demorec ==================================== 8. Contact ==================================== email: info@demorecorder.com ==================================== 9. Acknowlegdements ==================================== DemoRecorder was developped using the professional high-end IDE SNiFF+ which made many tasks a lot easier. More info about SNiFF+ is available trough the link below: http://www.windriver.com/products/development_tools/ide/sniff_plus-pro/ --------------- Known Bugs/Problems: * Recordings can be saved to one directory only