What is the "Desktop Screen Recorder" extension and how can I use it?

This extension makes screen recording easier for personal use or sharing with others. The extension offers three modes of operation:

• Full Monitor Capture: This mode is meant for recording the entire screen. The user can select which monitor to capture if multiple monitors are present.
• Application Mode: This mode allows you to record only the specific application window, ensuring the recording has the exact window size. This mode is ideal for creating tutorials on how to use an application.
• Browser Tab Mode: This mode records the contents of a single browser tab while keeping all other tabs invisible. It is useful for recording website or web application usage.

To begin recording with this extension, click the newly added recording button on the browser's toolbar. Select the location where you would like the extension to save the recording. A notification appears on the screen indicating that the screen or window is being captured. While recording, a button is placed on the screen that allows you to stop the recording. Alternatively, you can use the action button to stop the recording.

This extension directly writes the video buffers to the selected file, ensuring the recording is safe even if the browser crashes. The output format is WebM. If you encounter issues with this video format, consider using a conversion tool to generate another format.

What's new in this version?

Please check the Logs section.

Is there a way to change the output format of the recorded file if my media player does not support WebM?

We recommend using a modern media player that supports WebM, such as VLC (VideoLAN), or the Media Player browser extension. If you still need to change the format, you can use either the Media Converter browser extension or the FFmpeg command-line tool. Please note that the Media Converter extension uses FFmpeg in the background to perform the conversion.

Can I record audio from the microphone while using this extension to record tutorial videos?

Yes, this extension supports two types of audio recording. You can choose to record audio from the system (captures whatever is playing in the background, such as music from a media player), or you can choose to record audio from your microphone. Note that recording audio from the microphone requires additional permission, which will be requested before the first use. You can remove this permission from the browser's options page. After receiving permission, it is possible to record both the screen and microphone audio at the same time.

What makes WebM format the preferred format for recording, and why doesn't this extension support other formats?

WebM format offers two advantages that make it ideal for sharing content on the internet. Firstly, it is a compressed format, which reduces the video size compared to other formats. Moreover, it allows for immediate playback without downloading the entire video file. With this file structure, the content you share can be played immediately, even if the file is still being downloaded in the background.

Supporting multiple formats would add complexity to the extension and can potentially affect its performance. However, if you need to convert the WebM format to another format, you can use conversion tools such as the Media Converter extension or the FFmpeg command-line tool.

How does the extension handle a browser crash during a recording?

[new versions]

The new version of this extension now saves media segments directly to the disk. This means that even in the event of a crash, the media will still be accessible and usable.

[old versions]

The extension saves the recording data every 5 seconds to an IndexedDB storage. This feature ensures that even if the browser crashes, your recording data is not lost. The extension will automatically recover the data and merge the segments into a single media file using the built-in download manager after you restart your browser. The media file will be saved in the default download directory. Therefore, you do not need to take any action to recover your recording data.

How can I make the downloaded WebM file seekable? My media player can't seek through it.

The latest version of the extension (0.3.0) creates seekable media streams by calculating the duration and fixing the generated WebM stream. If you are using an older version, you can use the command-line tool mkclean suggested by the WebM Project to improve seeking performance. Alternatively, you can use the FFmpeg command-line tool to convert the WebM to AVI or MP4 formats for better global media playing support.

Can I control the recording without opening the application interface? For instance, can I pause and resume recording without interrupting my workflow?

You can define custom keyboard shortcuts to control the recording without opening the application interface. To do this, open "chrome://extensions/shortcuts" in a browser tab. In this tab, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to open the application interface, pause, resume, and stop the recording. These shortcuts allow you to control the recording without interrupting your workflow or bringing the application to the front.

What happens if my browser crashes during a recording?

Before version 0.3.0, the extension attempted to recover the data from the internal storage in the event of a browser crash. However, starting from version 0.3.0, the extension directly writes the recording to the local disk, ensuring that your recordings are safe even in the event of a browser crash.