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GIF / Video Screen Recorder

Open pilcherd opened this issue 5 years ago • 35 comments

crutkas; https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/wiki/Video-GIF-Capture is the spec

I love the idea of this PowerToy. It's something I've wanted in the Snipping Tool for ages.

My use case would be recording software interactions for the purpose of making tickets or training etc.

To that end, saving in more formats that are better (higher fidelity) than GIF would make the tool more useful. E.g. save as MP4/HEIC etc.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

pilcherd avatar Jun 19 '19 15:06 pilcherd

https://www.screentogif.com/

Just in the meantime this is a great product.

vexvoltage avatar Jul 11 '19 10:07 vexvoltage

I'm mainly thinking about using the GIF for sharing on Twitter - so a size that's good for sharing, but not tripping the default dithering algorithm (which makes the GIF unwatchable) would be wonderful.

johnnliu avatar Sep 05 '19 17:09 johnnliu

TBH I think this belongs in Windows itself, not as a powertoy.

Capturing a video (inc GIF) should be as easy as pressing Print Screen (note, I am aware of Gamebar, but Gamebar is complex and weird to use for desktop apps)

image

mikemaccana avatar Sep 09 '19 14:09 mikemaccana

Curious why put too much time and effort in to this as opposed to link to or see if Nicke Manarin would like to integrate for long term support his great tool ScreenToGIF.

https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif

asjones987 avatar Oct 28 '19 21:10 asjones987

Curious why put too much time and effort in to this as opposed to link to or see if Nicke Manarin would like to integrate for long term support his great tool ScreenToGIF.

https://github.com/NickeManarin/ScreenToGif

I had never seen that. A very useful tool along the lines of what I was after. Thank you for the link.

pilcherd avatar Oct 28 '19 22:10 pilcherd

From my original issue:

Windows still doesn't have a good way to record the screen as a video or gif file. That is why I always rely on third party tools like ShareX.

For MacOS there is a tool called Kap which allows you to record a fullscreen video, a window or a specific region in forehand and afterwards allows you to change the video output resolution, fps and format (MP4, WebM or GIF).

I think implementing this in some way would be awesome for people doing a lot of quick videos. (I for example do code handovers with video examples so it's easier to see my feature or change in action).

I could even see this tool in some form in combination with the new Snipping Tool.

In the meantime I'd suggest ShareX, it's a really good Screenshot tool but it's always a hassle to setup.

bdbch avatar Dec 20 '19 09:12 bdbch

Hi, It looks like there have been a lot of great alternatives suggested. If the project is still looking to add this to PowerToys, I would be interested in contributing.

I talked to @crutkas a little offline and it was suggested that I reach out on here. @crutkas suggested reaching out to ScreenToGif devs to look into integration.

I do not have extensive experience with video formats. Basic things like capturing, cropping, or adding text should be reasonable. If not I can always work on the UI and integration with PowerToys UI/Configuration.

Would the first step be to reach out to ScreenToGif?

dprice000 avatar Jan 29 '20 17:01 dprice000

@dprice809 @crutkas what do you guys think about ShareX by @Jaex?

bdbch avatar Jan 29 '20 17:01 bdbch

@dprice809 i will reach out

crutkas avatar Jan 29 '20 21:01 crutkas

@bdbch without a doubt, i bet working with @Jaex and the ShareX team would be great but the license their project uses would cause an issue with our license.

crutkas avatar Jan 29 '20 22:01 crutkas

GIF is a very outdated format, and dosen't have very good compression or quality. I recommend making it use support video formats and it becoming a general screen recorder or using something like APNG or the GIFV metaformat.

Ideally all of them could be supported, but I don't think having its main focus as GIF files is a good idea.

GoodClover avatar Apr 25 '20 20:04 GoodClover

GIF is still the most supported format of all of them (all browsers, all kind of apps they can be shared to, etc.)

I agree options for APNG, WEBP/WEBM or GIFV could be added on top but GIFs should be the most basic implementation for this.

bdbch avatar Apr 26 '20 01:04 bdbch

I just discovered this is already available on Wind10. May it be moved from the ridiculous tools hidden behind WIN+G?

robsonsobral avatar May 29 '20 22:05 robsonsobral

video recording kind of is but Win+G really is aimed at gaming, not the scenarios we're trying to discuss here. I think a good question is why isn't that more accessible to non-gaming scenarios

crutkas avatar May 29 '20 22:05 crutkas

video recording kind of is but Win+G really is aimed at gaming, not the scenarios we're trying to discuss here. I think a good question is why isn't that more accessible to non-gaming scenarios

Oh, I agree. My point is that the tool is already there. Maybe it's an easier starting point.

robsonsobral avatar May 30 '20 02:05 robsonsobral

A point to note is the availability of steps recorder. Allowed users to build html based steps as a series of images with instructions.

Blakeinstein avatar Jul 06 '20 02:07 Blakeinstein

I liked the screentogif for being simpler to use compared to screenx

Will you use screentogif as a base?

eguif avatar Aug 27 '20 20:08 eguif

Another vote from me for looking at ScreenToGif and somehow merging that functionality with PowerToys. For me ScreenToGif is ridiculously easy to use with a few quirks (exporting the video could be better, for example). I've used it for a whole bunch of purposes and it's rock-solid, has a great feature set with superb functionality.

checkdigits avatar Sep 30 '20 17:09 checkdigits

@checkdigits, we want to propose what we're going to build, not the underlying tech. that comes after everyone gives what we are proposing a green light 👍

crutkas avatar Sep 30 '20 22:09 crutkas

I just wanted to add, that I think the ability to choose a region of the screens to "capture" would be useful. (If only for making gifs for GitHub repos to demonstrate things.)

You could also consider conversion and cropping of WIN+G videos to create an animated gif from it. At the moment I have used this site for converting video mock ups to embeddable gifs. https://ezgif.com/video-to-gif

Snip and Sketch / Snipping Tool allows you to drag to select the bounds - in addition to this, I would like to suggest you display the width and height being selected during this process.

mdtauk avatar Sep 30 '20 23:09 mdtauk

Can we also integrate the Steps Recorder that windows already has? It generates HTML but It would be great if the screenshots could be small gifs, that the user can press hotkeys to record and then break into a new step.

Blakeinstein avatar Oct 01 '20 03:10 Blakeinstein

It makes sense to support APNG. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge support it properly, and it has better quality and better compression. Comparison APNG vs GIF vs WebP: http://littlesvr.ca/apng/gif_apng_webp.html

vrubleg avatar Oct 03 '20 20:10 vrubleg

I love having this built in! I record gifs all the time for tutorials and to show off work. Will this have the ability to edit frames? I do that all the time to erase mistakes / speed up footage if needed.

Yecats avatar Oct 05 '20 17:10 Yecats

@checkdigits,queremos propor o que vamos construir, não a tecnologia subjacente 👍.

I believe that people recommend ScreenToGif because they have great tools and those same tools are very easy to use

eguif avatar Oct 05 '20 17:10 eguif

A point to note is the availability of steps recorder. Allowed users to build html based steps as a series of images with instructions.

You mean, like those LEGO instruction books? 😆

Jay-o-Way avatar Jul 08 '21 15:07 Jay-o-Way

Any new updates about screen recorder?

inoyakaigor avatar Aug 16 '21 15:08 inoyakaigor

@crutkas Any update on this? It is very important tool for developers

sheikalthaf avatar Sep 03 '21 09:09 sheikalthaf

I see no one mentioned gif.ski https://github.com/ImageOptim/gifski https://github.com/sindresorhus/Gifski initially build for macOS but the dev added support for windows albeit only CLI but provides great functionality Also, check out https://github.com/mifi/editly, https://terminalizer.com/

& since no one mentioned this I would also like to request a precise trimming tool to skim the fluff from the things that I'm gonna record & top it off with a segment merger that will gonna save so much time! otherwise, it would be half-baked without these! Users would be lookin' for alternatives it would be best for everyone involved to provide these 3 things from the very start and then see what else you want to add to make the power toy better!

@crutkas see if this helps to make the best version of the requested feature!

Droyk avatar Feb 23 '22 17:02 Droyk

What happened to this effort, any plans to finalize?

jayarjo avatar Apr 30 '22 13:04 jayarjo

Yeah, any updates regarding this feature? Is there any way to contribute to it? This feature would be really useful and will significantly bump the popularity of PowerToys.

TheYarin avatar May 06 '22 11:05 TheYarin