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I use the combination of OBS, ffmpeg, and YouTube to share knowledge asynchronously with teammates. Whenever I need to document a particularly complex task or

I use the combination of OBS, ffmpeg, and YouTube to share knowledge asynchronously with teammates. Whenever I need to document a particularly complex task or procedure, I record a 10 mins screencast and explain the process + show the steps. Any screen capture tool would do, but I find OBS to be very good and versatile https://obsproject.com/ https://obsproject.com/ But who wants to watch a 10 min video, with slow sections, typing and "ummm" pauses? Why not compress the information into 6.66min instead? Using the following command will speedup the video as if the user is watching at 1.33x: ffmpeg -i "$1" -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.6666666666666*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1.5[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" "tmp-$1" # Delay audio of $1 by 60ms to fix discrepancy caused by above step ffmpeg -i "tmp-$1" -itsoffset 0.06 -i "tmp-$1" -map "0:0" -map "1:1" -acodec copy -vcodec copy "faster-$1" rm "tmp-$1" # cleanup tmp file After that I upload the video to youtube as "unlisted" and share the link so my teammates can check the video whenever they have time. It's as effective a communication medium as having a meeting, but communication is async. Example use cases: git rebase tutorials, documenting devops procedures, code walkthroughs. (edited to provide also the command to fix 60ms delay)

chrismorgan 9y ago
Trivial quibble: I think you meant 1.5× rather than 1.33×?
- roryisok 9y ago
  Why would you assume that?
  - antaviana 9y ago
    The algebra was wrong. If you do something in 66.66% of the time, you do it a 50% faster (i.e. 1.5x). Perhaps it is easier to see it with the case of reducing 10 minutes to 5 minutes. It is 2x faster, not 1.5x faster.
    - roryisok 9y ago
      Apologies, apparently I can't read. I thought you were suggesting people would not speed up video x1.33
- ivan_ah 9y ago
  You're right, I guess for 1.33x you'd need the first line to be ffmpeg -i "$1" -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.75*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1.333333333333[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" "tmp-$1"
HighlandSpring 9y ago
I'm curious of ways to trim a video down to 'stuff happening', similar to how a voice-activated tape recorder works. One way might be to take clips of a certain length, with no user input and speed them up since these will usually be waiting on a progress bar.
brookside 9y ago
One can modify video playback speed on youtube, so one could also leave the choice to speed up or not to the recipient.
- ivan_ah 9y ago
  That's true, but I think very few bother to change the speed so I'm making the sped-up version as the default. Perhaps 1.5x is too much (as in the example above), but I think 1.33x speedup would not be noticeable. People just think I drank a lot of coffee and talk fast. If YouTube player had more speed options keyboard shortcuts like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-contro... then I probably wouldn't touch the source.
  - brookside 9y ago
    I'm veering slightly in topic and only sharing personally, but I actually make a conscious effort to slow down when I am sharing something with other people. In my youth I used to race through all kinds of speech assuming the other person was on the same wavelength (and maybe also some anxiety I was wasting people's time). Recording classes that I currently teach has made me super-aware of bad patterns, which also include completing sentences with "but..." - assuming the unstated alternative is obvious, and using pronouns later in paragraphs like "so we are able to tell this is out of scope" when I really should be saying something like "...so we are able to tell that the doSomething() function is out of scope" to be explicitly clear. Definitely a big mindfulness challenge for me not to fall back into my default mannerisms.
    - steamer25 9y ago
      For screen-cap/video instructions, I also try to take a little extra time* but towards making it concise/brief. * If the instructions are worth making, more time will be spent viewing them than producing them. I try to get the whole video in one take to save editing but I'll do multiple takes to try to get it right/succinct. I consider the first one a draft/rehearsal (though if it works out, great!). This still doesn't take very long (even when using a small area of the screen to save file size), and viewers should find it easy to pause or back up a few seconds. This is all for step by step style instructions rather than heavy conceptual teaching, though. Also, for documentation it sometimes works even better to make a looping, animated GIF of a single step and then inline that with a text description.
vhiremath4 9y ago
I use Loom to create instantly shareable screen casts: https://www.useloom.com https://www.useloom.com Full disclosure: I’m the founder. But I’m also an engineer and our team has a non-trivial percent of remote people. This thing has truly made my life easier at work.
- diggan 9y ago
  Protip: include which operating systems/browsers you support and what kind of application it is (on the landing page). Without signing up, I can't see if I can even use it. Guessing this is either a Mac app, or a Chrome extension, neither will work for me on Ubuntu and Firefox.
  - vhiremath4 9y ago
    Yeah definitely Diggan. Unfortunately, it is a Chrome extension. We absolutely need to redo our homepage. It could be a lot better Also, I'm working on a desktop app for you soon! Hopefully we can hit the Firefox extension ecosystem as well, considering how awesome quantum seems!
- mzzter 9y ago
  Is this a free or paid service? I can’t find a pricing page on mobile.
  - vhiremath4 9y ago
    @mzzter: free!
- natashabaker 9y ago
  Signed up for Loom last week and it's pretty awesome! I like the fact that it's one click to record/upload/host. The embedded video of the speaker is cool too. My team is currently working on a set of internal training videos using it.
vijucat 9y ago
Hey, I do that, too, but just OBS, YouTube, and private videos with explicit sharing. Also, the unfortunately named but really useful asciinema (careful pronouncing it!) is a great tool if the other person is hands-on and the entire demo is going to be about a terminal session.
- rabidrat 9y ago
  Can you do audio with asciinema?
  - Crespyl 9y ago
    I don't think so, but I usually see people just typing notes for the viewer either directly on the command line (and then erasing them) or as # comments.
  - vijucat 9y ago
    No. It's just a json file with timestamps. I suspect the original authors would not want to move away from this simplicity.
carusooneliner 9y ago
Remote work use cases like yours are the reason my cofounder and I created Outclip (https://checkoutclip.com https://checkoutclip.com). The advantages of Outclip over the OBS + ffmpeg + Youtube workflow are twofold: 1. No overhead of managing files and uploading: you can record and share webcam videos and screencasts without leaving the Outclip webapp. 2. Better privacy than unlisted videos: Outclip has a group feature, where only logged in group members have access to videos. We're 100% focused on making remote work better by enabling teams to communicate through video clips. Check us out at https://checkoutclip.com https://checkoutclip.com.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
thenomad 9y ago
On the subject of "ums" - does anyone know if there's a tool out there to automatically remove ums and uhs from spoken audio? Seems like it'd be a useful and comparatively doable problem to solve.
- ndh2 9y ago
  Train yourself not to do it. It's not that hard, and it will go a long way in improving your communication. Record 30 seconds without ums. If you failed, do it again. Then increase the time. Stop if you fail to much/can't concentrate, try again tomorrow. Recording yourself is the perfect opportunity to train.
- justboxing 9y ago
  Like @ndh2 has stated, train yourself to not do it. Otherwise, your spoken audio files will be fine, but your conversations in team meetings over webex or conference calls will still have it, and it would be annoying everyone else (if it's a lot) and you wouldn't know about it because no-one is going to tell you. Also, if you start to edit the ums out, you will quickly get tired of wasting time on doing this, and would train yourself to not do it yourself. I went through this exercise after recording youtube screencasts that are 5 to 10 mins long, and wasting about 30 minutes editing out my ums and ahems.
  - thenomad 9y ago
    This is good advice, but one question: why is the default assumption here that I'm the only person I ever record? I'm pretty good at not um-ing too frequently (20 years of public speaking will do that), but I can't exactly require all my guests for podcasts or interviews, for example, first rigorously train themselves for months!
    - justboxing 9y ago
      > why is the default assumption here that I'm the only person I ever record? Because your question was in response to OPs statement regarding screenrecording, and in that, OP is talking about video and audio for recordings he/she does, not of group meetings. > Whenever I need to document a particularly complex task or procedure, I record a 10 mins screencast and explain the process + show the steps Source: OP.

chrismorgan 9y ago

Trivial quibble: I think you meant 1.5× rather than 1.33×?

roryisok 9y ago
Why would you assume that?
- antaviana 9y ago
  The algebra was wrong. If you do something in 66.66% of the time, you do it a 50% faster (i.e. 1.5x). Perhaps it is easier to see it with the case of reducing 10 minutes to 5 minutes. It is 2x faster, not 1.5x faster.
  - roryisok 9y ago
    Apologies, apparently I can't read. I thought you were suggesting people would not speed up video x1.33
ivan_ah 9y ago
You're right, I guess for 1.33x you'd need the first line to be ffmpeg -i "$1" -filter_complex "[0:v]setpts=0.75*PTS[v];[0:a]atempo=1.333333333333[a]" -map "[v]" -map "[a]" "tmp-$1"

HighlandSpring 9y ago

I'm curious of ways to trim a video down to 'stuff happening', similar to how a voice-activated tape recorder works. One way might be to take clips of a certain length, with no user input and speed them up since these will usually be waiting on a progress bar.

brookside 9y ago

One can modify video playback speed on youtube, so one could also leave the choice to speed up or not to the recipient.

ivan_ah 9y ago
That's true, but I think very few bother to change the speed so I'm making the sped-up version as the default. Perhaps 1.5x is too much (as in the example above), but I think 1.33x speedup would not be noticeable. People just think I drank a lot of coffee and talk fast. If YouTube player had more speed options keyboard shortcuts like https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-controller/nffaoalbilbmmfgbnbgppjihopabppdk?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/video-speed-contro... then I probably wouldn't touch the source.
- brookside 9y ago
  I'm veering slightly in topic and only sharing personally, but I actually make a conscious effort to slow down when I am sharing something with other people. In my youth I used to race through all kinds of speech assuming the other person was on the same wavelength (and maybe also some anxiety I was wasting people's time). Recording classes that I currently teach has made me super-aware of bad patterns, which also include completing sentences with "but..." - assuming the unstated alternative is obvious, and using pronouns later in paragraphs like "so we are able to tell this is out of scope" when I really should be saying something like "...so we are able to tell that the doSomething() function is out of scope" to be explicitly clear. Definitely a big mindfulness challenge for me not to fall back into my default mannerisms.
  - steamer25 9y ago
    For screen-cap/video instructions, I also try to take a little extra time* but towards making it concise/brief. * If the instructions are worth making, more time will be spent viewing them than producing them. I try to get the whole video in one take to save editing but I'll do multiple takes to try to get it right/succinct. I consider the first one a draft/rehearsal (though if it works out, great!). This still doesn't take very long (even when using a small area of the screen to save file size), and viewers should find it easy to pause or back up a few seconds. This is all for step by step style instructions rather than heavy conceptual teaching, though. Also, for documentation it sometimes works even better to make a looping, animated GIF of a single step and then inline that with a text description.

vhiremath4 9y ago

I use Loom to create instantly shareable screen casts: https://www.useloom.com https://www.useloom.com Full disclosure: I’m the founder. But I’m also an engineer and our team has a non-trivial percent of remote people. This thing has truly made my life easier at work.

diggan 9y ago
Protip: include which operating systems/browsers you support and what kind of application it is (on the landing page). Without signing up, I can't see if I can even use it. Guessing this is either a Mac app, or a Chrome extension, neither will work for me on Ubuntu and Firefox.
- vhiremath4 9y ago
  Yeah definitely Diggan. Unfortunately, it is a Chrome extension. We absolutely need to redo our homepage. It could be a lot better Also, I'm working on a desktop app for you soon! Hopefully we can hit the Firefox extension ecosystem as well, considering how awesome quantum seems!
mzzter 9y ago
Is this a free or paid service? I can’t find a pricing page on mobile.
- vhiremath4 9y ago
  @mzzter: free!
natashabaker 9y ago
Signed up for Loom last week and it's pretty awesome! I like the fact that it's one click to record/upload/host. The embedded video of the speaker is cool too. My team is currently working on a set of internal training videos using it.

vijucat 9y ago

Hey, I do that, too, but just OBS, YouTube, and private videos with explicit sharing. Also, the unfortunately named but really useful asciinema (careful pronouncing it!) is a great tool if the other person is hands-on and the entire demo is going to be about a terminal session.

rabidrat 9y ago
Can you do audio with asciinema?
- Crespyl 9y ago
  I don't think so, but I usually see people just typing notes for the viewer either directly on the command line (and then erasing them) or as # comments.
- vijucat 9y ago
  No. It's just a json file with timestamps. I suspect the original authors would not want to move away from this simplicity.

carusooneliner 9y ago

Remote work use cases like yours are the reason my cofounder and I created Outclip (https://checkoutclip.com https://checkoutclip.com). The advantages of Outclip over the OBS + ffmpeg + Youtube workflow are twofold: 1. No overhead of managing files and uploading: you can record and share webcam videos and screencasts without leaving the Outclip webapp. 2. Better privacy than unlisted videos: Outclip has a group feature, where only logged in group members have access to videos. We're 100% focused on making remote work better by enabling teams to communicate through video clips. Check us out at https://checkoutclip.com https://checkoutclip.com.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

thenomad 9y ago

On the subject of "ums" - does anyone know if there's a tool out there to automatically remove ums and uhs from spoken audio? Seems like it'd be a useful and comparatively doable problem to solve.

ndh2 9y ago
Train yourself not to do it. It's not that hard, and it will go a long way in improving your communication. Record 30 seconds without ums. If you failed, do it again. Then increase the time. Stop if you fail to much/can't concentrate, try again tomorrow. Recording yourself is the perfect opportunity to train.
justboxing 9y ago
Like @ndh2 has stated, train yourself to not do it. Otherwise, your spoken audio files will be fine, but your conversations in team meetings over webex or conference calls will still have it, and it would be annoying everyone else (if it's a lot) and you wouldn't know about it because no-one is going to tell you. Also, if you start to edit the ums out, you will quickly get tired of wasting time on doing this, and would train yourself to not do it yourself. I went through this exercise after recording youtube screencasts that are 5 to 10 mins long, and wasting about 30 minutes editing out my ums and ahems.
- thenomad 9y ago
  This is good advice, but one question: why is the default assumption here that I'm the only person I ever record? I'm pretty good at not um-ing too frequently (20 years of public speaking will do that), but I can't exactly require all my guests for podcasts or interviews, for example, first rigorously train themselves for months!
  - justboxing 9y ago
    > why is the default assumption here that I'm the only person I ever record? Because your question was in response to OPs statement regarding screenrecording, and in that, OP is talking about video and audio for recordings he/she does, not of group meetings. > Whenever I need to document a particularly complex task or procedure, I record a 10 mins screencast and explain the process + show the steps Source: OP.