vlog-toolset

Video and audio recording toolset for vloggers🎙️📹🎬

Designed to record vlogs with classical jump cuts using camera of Android-based device and microphone of GNU/Linux machine. I use it with Pitivi for my YouTube channel.

Currently can keep functioning well even if you experience temporary USB phone connection failure.

Two possible pipelines:

• record with vlog-record, apply vlog-render
• record normally, without any additional software, apply vlog-add and vlog-render

Installation

GNU/Linux

1. Install dependencies

• ruby (tested with 3.1.4)
• python3 (tested with 3.11.8)
• pip (tested with 24)
• ffmpeg (tested with 6.1.1)
• sox (tested with 14.4.2)
• mediainfo (tested with 23.04)
• sync-audio-tracks (should be in your PATH environment variable)
• alsa-utils (tested with 1.2.10)
• xdotool (tested with 3.20211022.1)
• socat (tested with 1.7.4.4)
• mpv (tested with 0.37.0)
• whisper.cpp (tested with 641f2f4)
  • build for
    • NVIDIA proprietary driver
    • or other GPUs
    • or CPU
  • download model(s) (base and/or medium are recommended)
• android-tools (tested with 34.0.1, adb version is 1.0.41)
  • USB Debugging should be enabled

2. git clone git@github.com:alopatindev/vlog-toolset.git && cd vlog-toolset && ./configure

Android device

• Open Camera (from F-Droid or Google Play) (tested with 1.51.1)

vlog-record

• records video
  • using camera of Android-based device
• records audio
  • using microphone, connected to GNU/Linux machine
• detects voice (to trim silence)
  • if you save clip without auto trimming — it will just remove beginning and ending of each clip
    • which typically contain the button click sound
• synchronizes audio
• combines stuff together to produce MP4 video clips
  • which contain
    • H.265/HVEC video taken from camera
    • FLAC audio recorded with GNU/Linux machine
• plays lastly recorded video clips
  • with optional mirror effect

cd vlog-toolset

./bin/vlog-record -h
Usage: vlog-record -p project_dir/ [other options]
  -p, --project <dir>              Project directory
  -t, --trim <duration>            Trim duration of beginning and ending of each clip (default: 0.2)
  -s <arecord-args>,               Additional arecord arguments (default: "--device=default --format=dat")
      --sound-settings
  -A, --android-device <device-id> Android device id
  -o, --opencamera-dir <dir>       Open Camera directory path on Android device (default: "/storage/emulated/0/DCIM/OpenCamera")
  -b <true|false>,                 Set lowest brightness to save device power (default: false)
      --change-brightness
  -m, --mpv-args <mpv-args>        Additional mpv arguments (default: "--vf=hflip --volume-max=300 --volume=130 --speed=1.2)"
  -P <seconds>,                    Minimum pause between shots for auto trimming (default: 2.0)
      --pause-between-shots
  -a, --aggressiveness <0..1>      How aggressively to filter out non-speech (default: 0.4)
  -d, --debug <true|false>         Show debug messages (default: false)

./bin/vlog-record -p ~/video/new-cool-video-project
...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
        R - (RE)START clip recording (loses unsaved clip)
        S - STOP and SAVE current clip
Shift + S - STOP and SAVE current clip, DON'T use auto silence removal
        D - STOP and DELETE current clip
        P - PLAY last saved clip
        F - FOCUS camera on center
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Shift + R - (RE)START SILENCE recording attempt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
        H - show HELP
        Q - QUIT

[ ⬜ ] [ 💻 | 💾 466G ] [ 📞 | 🔋100% / 41°C | 💾 18G ]

vlog-render

• applies some effects to video clips
  • speed/tempo change
  • forced constant frame rate
    • which is useful for video editors that don't support variable frame rate (like Blender)
  • video denoiser, mirror, vignette and/or whatever you specify
• renders video clips to a final video
  • also H.265/HVEC, with hardware acceleration if available
• plays a video from a given position

Usage: vlog-render -p project_dir/ -w path/to/whisper.cpp/ [other options]
  -p, --project <dir>              Project directory
  -P, --preview <true|false>       Preview mode. It will also start a video player by a given position (default: true)
  -n, --tmux-nvim <true|false>     Plain text video editing: open render.conf (during preview mode or when render.conf was just generated) in Neovim via Tmux if they are available (default: true)
  -f, --fps <num>                  Constant frame rate (default: 30)
  -S, --speed <num>                Speed factor (default: 1.2)
  -V, --video-filters <filters>    ffmpeg video filters (default: "hqdn3d,hflip,vignette")
  -c, --cleanup <true|false>       Remove temporary files, instead of reusing them in future (default: false)
  -w, --whisper-cpp-dir <dir>      whisper.cpp directory
  -W, --whisper-cpp-args <dir>     Additional whisper.cpp arguments (default: "--model models/ggml-base.bin --language auto")
  -y, --youtube <true|false>       Additionally optimize for YouTube (default: false)
  -I, --ios <true|false>           Additionally optimize for iOS video editors (default: false)

./bin/vlog-render -p ~/video/new-cool-video-project --preview false --whisper-cpp-dir path/to/whisper-cpp-dir

• it also runs voice recognition in a selected language
• makes more precise clips segmentation
• produces media output
  • clips are located in project_dir/output/
  • concatenation of all clips is located at project_dir/output.mp4
• produces a configuration file
  • the columns in the config are:
    • clip filename
    • speed multiplier
    • start position (in seconds)
    • end position (in seconds)
    • recognized text (to figure out which clips can be removed / reordered)
  • you can edit the config
    • put # in the beginning of line you want to ignore (or just remove the entire line)
    • change speed of individual clips

vi ~/video/new-cool-video-project/render.conf

vlog-add

Usage: vlog-add -p project_dir/ [other options]
Project directory must contain inputvoice_000001.mp4, inputother_000002.mp4 ... as input files (also optionally inputvoice_000001.wav, inputother_000002.wav ... with highest audio quality)
  -p, --project <dir>              Project directory
  -P <seconds>,                    Minimum pause between shots for auto trimming (default: 2.0)
      --pause-between-shots
  -a, --aggressiveness <0..1>      How aggressively to filter out non-speech (default: 0.4)

Known issues/limitations

• it's just a dumb dirty PoC/prototype, it's not necessarily gonna work on your hardware
  • I use Xiaomi Mi 8
    • front camera faces at me
    • microphone and camera are allowed
• paths with spaces and weird characters are unsupported

Recommended Open Camera Settings

• ⋮
  • Grid - Phi 3x3
• ⚙️
  • Video settings…
    • Video resolution - FullHD 1920x1080 (16:9 2.07 MP)
    • Video format - MPEG4 HEVC
    • Video frame rate (approx) - 30
  • Camera API - Camera2 API

Troubleshooting

• auto-rotation fails
  • reboot your phone
• flickering when recording with artificial lighting
  • Open Camera - ⚙️ - Processing settings - Anti-banding - Auto (or precisely 50 Hz in my case)

TODO: Rewrite this prototype in Rust?

• support other sources (webcams, screencasting)
  • support multiple sources (cams, mics) at the same time
• support other operating systems
• adb
  • pull performance comparing android-tools? for USB 2 and 3

Support

I'm currently investing all my time in FOSS projects.

If you found this repo useful and you want to support me, please

• ⭐ it
• check ⚡ here

Your support keeps me going ❤️ (◕‿◕)

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; read LICENSE.txt for details.

Copyright (C) 2018—∞ Alexander Lopatin <alopatindev ät codonaft dot com>