libx264 bad codec?

[vdegenne]

I have this command in one of my script:

wf-recorder -c libx264 -g "$REGION" -f "$OUTPUT" &

When I record and send the file on socials (e.g. telegram), some friends say they can't read the video. And on X/Twitter it is even worse, it tells something like "error uploading".
Do you have the same issue with this codec which usually works fine everywhere? Could it be an issue with wf-recorder ?

[vdegenne]

Ok I think I understand the problem, If I run wf-recorder in a terminal and use CTRL-c it works but what I'm trying to accomplish here is writing a "toggle" script, if wf-recorder runs in the background I kill it or else I execute it.
The killing part must be too brutal (using pkill -SIGTERM -x "wf-recorder"), Not sure how I could simulate ctrl-c on a thread, anyone knows?

[marcusbritanicus]

SIGINT is what you are looking for.

[kernaltrap8]

yes, libx264 is in fact, a bad codec

[soreau]

But it should handle SIGTERM and SIGHUP as well. See this line. However this is a scripting issue, not a wf-recorder issue, so closing.

[vdegenne]

I don't understand it still doesn't work, here's my script:

#!/bin/bash

# Check if wf-recorder is already running
if pgrep -x "wf-recorder" >/dev/null; then
  # Gracefully stop the currently running recording using SIGINT
  pkill -SIGINT -x "wf-recorder"
else
  OUTPUT="$HOME/Videos/screencast_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).mp4"
  REGION=$(slurp)

  # Check if slurp was canceled or failed (exit status 1)
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    exit 1
  fi

  wf-recorder --audio=alsa_output.pci-0000_08_00.6.analog-stereo.monitor -c libx264 -g "$REGION" -f "$OUTPUT"
fi

What's wrong?

[vdegenne]

Something I forgot to mention is that I execute the script using a keymap registered in wayfire.ini:

binding_3 = <super> <shift> KEY_P
command_3 = ~/bin/screen-recorder.sh

Not sure if that's what cause the issue or not.

[vdegenne]

@soreau Are you 100% sure it is not a problem with wf-recorder ? Sending SIGINT to wf-recorder will kill the process and I have a video file which appears to work in some places like YouTube but not x.com, however using ctrl-c on wf-recorder will work. Could it be a problem with the way wf-recorder handles signals and forward them to ffmpeg ?

[kernaltrap8]

@soreau Are you 100% sure it is not a problem with wf-recorder ? Sending SIGINT to wf-recorder will kill the process and I have a video file which appears to work in some places like YouTube but not x.com, however using ctrl-c on wf-recorder will work. Could it be a problem with the way wf-recorder handles signals and forward them to ffmpeg ?

C^c sends the same signal. if you send SIGINT via pkill, the same behavior should occur when using C^c

[vdegenne]

@kernaltrap8 ok thanks, I think my problem is with the --audio (I could swear I had no problem with it in the past), so I'll have to figure out which codec to use with this parameter.

Thanks for your help

[ammen99]

@vdegenne Codec support can be spotty. Many people report that videos sometimes do not play depending on browser, app, etc. It is not a bug in wf-recorder but just poor support in the ecosystem. See for example #222 #198 #202

[tannerellen]

I'm running into the same issue with my libx264 videos playing fine on my linux desktop but not on my iPhone or iPad (in the browser). It appears that this is based on the metdata setting "major_brand" which is set to isom by default. I can't figure out a way to pass a new brand through wf-recorder so I use ffmpeg directly on the file after it is created like so... ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -brand mp42 out.mp4

It would be nice if I could figure out how to pass that value directly but the codec parameters in wf-recorder but nothing I try seems to work.

[vdegenne]

@tannerellen Yes in my case I kept having issues uploading to X. So what I ended up doing was to convert the file produced by wf-recorder using this ffmpeg command:

ffmpeg -i "$FILE" -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset slow -vf format=yuv420p -c:a aac -movflags 
 +faststart "$OUTPUT"

(source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59056863/i-cant-upload-this-video-file-mp4-to-twitter)

I wish I didn't have to use this extra step, but I couldn't find any other way.

[vdegenne]

If I remove -vf format=yuv420p in the above command it fails again. @ammen99 Is there any way to pass that argument to wf-recorder directly?

[soreau]

What version of wf-recorder are you using? I recommend latest with default settings. If you want to pass codec options, see the man page or --help output.