Burning your Linux desktop is a highly requested feature, for both gamers and business professionals. Simple Screen Recorder, As the name implies, it is a simple but solid screen recording tool. Learn all about it in this post.
What is it Simple screen recorder (SSR)?
SimpleScreenRecorder (abbreviated SSR) is a utility that allows you to simply and easily record your Linux desktop. It is enabled for many Linux operating systems as a directly installable package, or it can even be self-compiled by following the steps in the SSR GitHub page.
SSR also offers all the functions one needs, as multi-screen recording, without complicating the interface too much. The main interface of SSR is elegant and well designed:
installing Simple screen recorder
Install Simple screen recorder on your Debian-based Linux distribution / Apt (like Ubuntu and Mint), run the following command in your terminal:
sudo apt install simplescreenrecorder
If you also want to record OpenGL applications from 32 bits in operating systems based on 64 bits, also you must execute the following:
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder-lib:i386
There is also a PPA repository (works for both Ubuntu and Mint), making it easy for you to get the latest version:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:maarten-baert/simplescreenrecorder
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install simplescreenrecorder
The current version in the main Mint repository 20 it is 0.3.11, while if you install the PPA, the version is 0.4.3. The full Change Log is enabled in the GitHub repository.
The latest version has a practical option 'Skip this page’ for the introduction page. At the same time, there is a new option 'Record the entire screen with the cursor’ and V4L2 device recording option. This is how the new interface looks compared to the interface 0.3.11 anterior:
To know the installation alternatives for other operating systems, You can consult the Downloads section of the Simple screen recorder page on the developer web portal.
the SSR Input profile
Using SimpleScreenRecorder is simple and straightforward. Once the application starts, after closing the introduction page (which can be skipped in later versions), a simple dialog box is displayed allowing you to quickly choose the necessary configuration changes. Let's see in detail the main options that we will probably use:
Video input selection enables you to configure the recording window on a specific screen, all screens, in a fixed rectangle, etc. We can also follow the cursor, and once we select this option, the handy checkbox 'Record entire screen with cursor’ becomes available. We can also record OpenGL and even a V4L2 device (as an example, a webcam or capture card) In a direct way.
Next, we can determine our frame rate and any scaling options:
A frame rate of 20-30 should be sufficient for conducting business presentations, etc. You may want to increase this number a bit for smooth movement in games.. We can also choose if we want to record Audio and choose the Audio input source:
the SSR Output profile
When done with input profile settings, can be saved with the Save money at the top of the dialog box and clicking the next to continue, will take us to the selections of the output profile.
Here we can determine the name of the file to save the recording in (1), and choose the video container format that we will use to do it (2). Other video container options available are MP4, WebM, OGG and even a selection of 'Other’ which enables you to choose any other container format available on the system.
Next, we can choose our codec (better to leave it in H.264 with a Matroska container format (MKV) or previously selected matching MP4, unless you have a good knowledge of video codecs and containers).
Next, we select the constant rate factor (important) (3). A lower value for the constant speed factor (CRF) will result in better quality, with 0 without losses, even though this corresponds to a resulting larger file size for recording. A range of 15-23 is usually the half happy.
Next, we can set our preset video (4), where again a slower selection will result in better quality, even though the machine can be significantly more taxed in the procedure. The best idea is to always try a few different setup combinations and see what eventual recordings look like..
We can also choose or audio codec (5) and bit rate (6). A bit rate of 128 would give reasonable audio quality, even though a configuration of 192 or higher can provide better audio quality. It is not recommended to go to 256 for standard recordings.
the SSR Recording interface
When one is done with the output profile configuration, can be saved with the Save money at the top of the dialog box and clicking the next to continue, will take us to the final recording interface.
In this dialog, we immediately started recording (1) if we choose to do it. It will also allow us to cancel the recording (4), which returns us to the previous screen (the Output Profile selection dialog). After the recording is finished, can be saved (5), and we can even start a preview in real time (7). The real-time preview can be very useful to get an idea of the area to be recorded and to see if the audio input is working well and not too smooth. / strong:
We can determine a schedule (6) using scheduling option (Edit schedule button) and activate the same. We can also see a detailed event log (3) who can help with troubleshooting audio and video problems if things go wrong.
In conclusion, the overview of real-time information in (2) provides a lot of useful information about how it goes / our recording works while recording, and partial information (as the number shown in FPS and, showing us the number of input frames per second) while we are previewing our selections, but not recording yet.
Ending
Maarten Baert, SimpleScreenRecorder developer has created a powerful and comprehensive screen recorder that has surpassed its name in functionality but not in simplicity. The software is simple, stable, is enabled on many Linux operating systems, can be easily updated and has many functions. I can warmly recommend it as a must-have screen recording software., cost-free and robust. Enjoy!
