Recording Desktop Without Compression Using X Events?

[Michael B Allen]

On 2/9/08, pcpa at mandriva.com.br <pcpa at mandriva.com.br> wrote:
> Quoting Michael B Allen <ioplex at gmail.com>:
>
> > I would like to create instructional videos of my desktop (mostly typing
> > into XTerms but occasionally showing a browser).
> >
> > However, the videos I have seen are not acceptable quality. It seems
> > most X desktop recording tools simply record a collection of images or
> > convert to a video stream that results in a variety of compression and
> > scaling aberrations.
> >
> > I would like to know if there is a desktop recording tool that records
> > X events and then generates video that considers this information such
> > that compression is not necessary (or rather the X events *are* the
> > compression).
> >
> > Does such a tool exist?
> >
> > Mike
>
>   Some time ago I was trying to remember the name of a program that
> could do it...
>
>   Check http://www.gnu.org/software/xnee/
>
>   I think it may have limitations, and probably you will want to play
> the record in something like a Xnest with fixed dimensions.

I'm aware of Xnee. Yes, it would work if it was reasonable that
everyone use Xnest but they're not. I would like to ultimately have
regular video such as an MPEG.

What I want is something that translates X events directly into
"compressed" video.

How does video compression work? It looks at each frame and determines
the areas of the view that have changed using a difference algorithm
and writes only the changes to the stream.

How does X window renderering work? It looks at each event and
determines the areas of the view that are affected and only updates
those areas of the display accoringly.

These two processes are logically the same and therefore it should be
possible to create a video stream from a series of X events that does
not need additional compression because it is already optimal.

Mike