xvidcap - Xt based video capturing program for X window


SYNOPSIS

       xvidcap  [-v]  [--fps  <FPS>]  [--file <file>] [--cap_size
       <WxH>] [--time <seconds>] [--frames <frames>]  [--compress
       <level>]  [--source <x11|shm|v4l>] [--start_no <start_num­
       ber>] [--use_clone] [--expand_to_24bit] [--quality  <qual­
       ity>]

       XVidCap  is  a  small  X11 program to capture continuous a
       certain area of the screen to files. These files could  be
       used  as  input for e.g. a MPEG encoder or to produce ani­
       mated GIF or whatever you want.

       The colormap which the program uses depends on the way you
       select  an  area  to  capture. The default colormap is the
       colormap of the root window. If you  select  a  window  or
       just parts of a window with the select button the colormap
       of this window is used.

       Nevertheless not all bit depths and visuals are supported,
       that  means  you may not get the correct colors :). If you
       have problems please write me a mail about it,  so  I  can
       try to fix it.



MENU and BUTTONS

       File  menu:  This  menu contains entries for quiting, help
       and options. If you quit the program all open  files  will
       be closed.

       Make  Video  menu entry: Pressing the 'mkVideo' menu entry
       will  start  a  program  given  in  the   'mkVideoCommand'
       resource.  It  could be used to start e.g.  a MPEG encoder
       or  simular   -   example   scripts   for   the   Berkeley
       'mpeg2encode'  program and for the ImageMagick's 'convert'
       written in Perl are included in the distribution of  xvid­
       cap.  The following parameters are given at startup to the
       mkvideo program:
       - %s: file name of the frames, e.g. 'cap-%04d.xwd'
       - %d: number of the first saved frame
       - %d: number of the last saved frame
       - %d: width of the frame
       - %d: height of the frame
       - %f: frames per second
       - %d: time per frame (ms, TPF = 1000 / FPS)
       You can omit parameters from the right to the left but not
       in the other direction. This will work 'ppm2mpeg %s %d %d'
       but this will not 'ppm2mpeg %d %d %f'.

       Move button: The toggle buttons controls  if  the  capture
       frame will be moved with the control panel or not.
       nal picture number to the start number,  default  is  '0'.
       The  file  name which is displayed in the label is allways
       the file name of the next frame which will be saved. While
       capturing  the  label  is  only updated if there is enough
       time to do it.

       Stop button: The next button is the 'Stop' button.  Press­
       ing  this  will stop capturing. The 'Pause' and the 'Stop'
       buttons are released.

       Pause button: The 'Stop' button you see the  'Pause'  but­
       ton.  Activating  'Pause' during capturing will stop until
       you untoggle this button.  You can also  press  it  before
       recording.

       Record button: The 'Record' button follows which activates
       the capture process. If you  pressed  the  'Pause'  button
       before the capturing is no started immediatly.

       Step  button:  With  the 'Step' button you can make single
       frames per activating while the 'Record' and  the  'Pause'
       buttons are pressed.

       Previous  and Next button: Use these buttons to change the
       internal picture number. While capturing to  an  MNG  file
       you  can  overwrite  previous frames. Just the internal id
       will be changed.

       Select button: The following button is the  'Select'  but­
       ton.  Use  this  button  if you want to change the capture
       frame. Just clicking to an application will fitt the frame
       to  this  application window.  If you press the mouse down
       and move it over your desktp, you cap specify an  individ­
       ual frame everywhere on your desktop.

       Animate  button: The 'Animate' button will execute an ani­
       mation program as defined in the X resources and play  the
       captured frames.

       Edit  button: The 'Edit' button will execute an image edit
       program as defined in the X resouces.



OPTIONS

       -v
       Runs xvidcap in verbose  mode.  This  gives  some  setting
       informations  on  startup at standard out. If you get mes­
       sages like 'missing XX milli secs ..'  while capturing  it
       means that the capturing of one frame takes more time then
       the program has according the settings of FPS.

       --fps <fps>
       This parameter accepts float values.  E.g.   if  you  want
       very  slow capturing you can say '--fps 0.5' to record one
       frame every 2 seconds.

       --file <file>
       File name to use for  saving  the  captured  frames.  This
       string  should contain an printf() like formating informa­
       tion for integers, e.g. --file "out-%02d.xwd" will  result
       in  the following file names for saved frames: out-00.xwd,
       out-01.xwd, out02.xwd, ..  If you give  '.ppm'  as  suffix
       the  program  saves  the  frames  as PPM (portable pixmap)
       files. There is only an experimental support for  PNM  and
       only  Direct-  and  TrueColor/15bpp,  16bpp  and 24bpp and
       PseudoColor/8bpp seems to work until  now.   If  you  give
       '.png'  as  suffix  the  program  saves  the frames as PNG
       (portable network graphic) files. There is only an experi­
       mental   support  for  PNG  and  only  Direct-  and  True­
       Color/15bpp, 16bpp and 24bpp and PseudoColor/8bpp seems to
       work  until now. PNG support is only avialable if the pro­
       gram was compiled with '-DHasZlib -DHasPNG' and was linked
       with the z-library and the png-library.

       --cap_size <WIDTHxHEIGHT>
       Override  the  default  width  and  height  of the capture
       frame. Use the 'Select' button to adjust the frame size to
       an given window.

       --time <seconds>
       Time to capture, if 0 it will capture endless. This param­
       eter is in conflict with '--frames' (see below).  You  can
       only specify 'time' or 'frames'. The program accepts float
       values, e.g. '2.5'.

       --frames <number of frames>
       Stops capturing after number of frames are saved. If  this
       value  is 0 the program loops until you stop it per mouse.

       --compress <compression level>
       Define the compression level which zlib should  use.  This
       is only available if the program was compiled with '-DHas­
       Zlib'. If level greater 0, the files  are  compressed  and
       automaticly  the  suffix '.gz' is added to the file names.
       The values could be 1,..,9,  '0'  disables  this  feature.
       Warning: This will slow down your capturing process. Note:
       saving frames as QT movie  and  giving  a  compress  level
       greater then 0 produces PNG coded samples.

       --source <x11|shm|v4l[:<device>]>
       Enable  or disable the usage of the X shared memory exten­
       sion. Only available if compiled with '-DHasSharedMemory'.
       For  shm  or  dga support client and server have to run on
       the same host. The dga (direct graphics access)  seems  to
       development!

       --start_no <start_number>
       Defines the start point which should be used for numbering
       the files.  Default value is '0'.

       --use_clone
       Use the CLON chunk for MNG files if needed. This will slow
       down  capturing, but saves bytes if two or more identicaly
       images are saved. This is not recommended if you capture a
       TV/Video  clip,  cause there will never be two consecutive
       images which have the same CRC32 checksum.

       --expand_to_24bit
       This will work only for PPM files. It expands 15 and 16bpp
       images  to  24bpp.  It should also work for TrueColor/8bpp
       images, but this is still not tested. Use this  option  if
       you  want  to  make  input  files  for  the  Berkeley MPEG
       encoder.

       --quality <quality>
       A value between 0 and 100 which defines the  quality  set­
       ting for the JPEG library. The default value is 75. If the
       frames are saved in a QT file and quality  is  lower  then
       100 JPEG-compression is used for the QT samples.



X RESOURCES

       You  can set some default values with the X resources (for
       example in your private '.Xdefaults' file). The syntax  is
       'xvidcap*<resource>: <value>'.

       fps
       Float, see OPTIONS

       file
       String, see OPTIONS

       capWidth and capHeight
       Integers, see the --cap_size option

       time
       Float, see OPTIONS

       frames
       Integer, see OPTIONS

       compress
       Integer, see OPTIONS

       startNo
       Integer, see OPTIONS
       String,  from  where to read the data: x11, shm, dga, v4l;
       see also OPTIONS

       quality
       Integer, see OPTIONS

       animateCommand
       String, animation command which should be executed if  the
       'Animation'  button is pressed. The default value is 'ani­
       mate "%s" &'.  The '%s' is substituted by a file  pattern,
       e.g.  if the file name is 'cap-%03d.xwd' it is called with
       'cap-???.xwd'. You can also add a '%d', but this  must  be
       behind(!)  the '%s'. The '%d' will be filled with the sec­
       onds per frame in milli seconds.

       editCommand
       String, edit command, which  should  be  executed  if  the
       'Edit'  button  is  pressed. The default value is 'display
       "%s" %'. If you don't have the 'display' program from  the
       ImageMagick  package  you  can  also use 'xv' or 'gimp' or
       what ever you want.

       mkVideoCommand
       String, see 'mkVideo' button, default: 'ppm2mpeg %s %d  %d
       %d %d %f %d &'.

       helpCommand
       String,  help  command  which  should  be  executed if the
       'Help' button is  pressed.  The  default  value  is  'MAN­
       PATH=/usr/local/X11/man rxvt -e man xvidcap &'.



AUTHOR

       Rasca Gmelch
       http://home.pages.de/~rasca/
       XVidCap is published under the GNU General Public License.