[ubuntu-in] Screencast using Istanbul

[Ravi Shanker]

Hello Friends,
About the idea to upload istanbul created screencasts to youtube, I have
something to share. I don't think it would really be feasible idea. Why?
First, istanbul has many limitations,
	* you cannot set the video quality
	* the quality looks like set to 80%
	* text is unreadable when video is downsized
Youtube takes and re-sizes the source video to 320x240, quality of video
deteriorates very much, and text completely becomes unreadable(think of
1024x786 video being re-sized down to 320x240, by 3.2 ratio) .
There is other desktop session recorders better than istanbul, it is
gtk-record-mydesktop and xvidcap.
Any solution? Well since to make the thing redable, we will have to
record and focus that section of screen where there is current activity
is. Also, the output video size should be 1.33333 ratio, no package
mentioned does allow choosing the desktop area using manual size entry,
its driven by mouse so we can't fix it to some custom size accurately.
For youtube since the acceptable format is 320x480, we will have to
first record the full desktop video using gtk-record-mydesktop and then
edit it using some video editors where we will have to crop down the
things to fit in 320x240 size without resizing (to prevent text
readability).
So, it becomes tough task to produce quality video for screencasts. If
there is someone who knows video editing on Linux using
Lives/Cinelerra/Kino/Jahshaka, then we can do it.

The other solution is not to use the Youtube, where there is size
limitation. We can create raw screencast( of whole desktop with 100%
quality) using gtk-record-mydesktop or xvidcap or instanbul, and using
opensource flv/swf decoder, we get the flv/swf (I think ffmpg can do
it). And we will have to program actionscript using free and open source
mtasc (actionscript compiler) to make the video/flv playbck interface
container which would on demand show the required screencasts.flv
streaming. 

So at last, it becomes so complicated. I know some actionscript, but
since I don't think it would be better idea to have flv playback support
in Ubuntu-in, it doesnt seem feasible.
Now, please comments on anything, I wantto solve this problem, you got
there to help me out.
For testing, I have uploaded a screencast on youtube. There you get the
better idea. I will post another one using xvidcap and
gtk-record-mydesktop and let you people know the URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIVlbxgPTTo