Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Recording both Audio and Video Streams from browser


This post is about the recent project that I am working on and details the approach that I have taken to circumvent an apparant problem.
I have been trying to create a web based audio+video capture tool that was using HTML5 webrtc based libraries to capture information from the user if it has a webcam and a mic. To do this task, the most robust library is RecordRTC (https://github.com/muaz-khan/WebRTC-Experiment) by Muaz Khan, which contains various examples and is actively maintained and supported by its creater.
For my requirements, I needed both audio and video streams to record at the same time, which was not coming from the usermedia object and the following code only provided a single stream of information:



I was thinking that selecting both the audio and video parameters to true would result in multiple streams or even one stream containing both the audio and video information, but I was wrong and after a detailed search, I ended up with selecting both the streams in the following function:



So, in RecordRTC we have to use the same stream object, but pass the appropriate type of stream (audio, video, gif, canvas) to choose in the library constructor, which calls the appropriate recorder, such as WhammyRecorder to record video, etc.

While stopping the recorder, similar steps are required to get the captured stream and we have to enforce a callback mechanism in the audio recording to get the video stream within the audio recording.


Currently this is supported in chrome and firefox aurora and works correctly on both the desktop as well as mobile devices out of box. But at times, the recorded audio is not in sync with the video (atleast for the first recording after each page refresh). Hopefully, this will get sorted out and this spec gets implemented in all the browsers and saves us from the problem of installing plugins like flash to use the hardware for data capture from user.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Packt celebrates International Day Against DRM today, May 6th 2014

Packt publication is celebrating International Day Against DRM today and this is a welcome sign for all the users of this ebook publisher. Personally, I've never been a fan of DRM and have always felt that it only encouraged piracy by harassing the legitimate users.

To mark this occasion, Packt Publication is showing its support for the clause by giving worthwhile discounts as mentioned in their press release:

Packt Publishing firmly believes that you should be able to read and interact with your content when you want, where you want, and how you want – to that end they have been advocates of DRM-free content since their very first eBook was published back in 2004. 
To show their continuing support for Day Against DRM, Packt Publishing is offering all its DRM-free content at $10 for 24 hours only on May 6th eBooks and Videos at www.packtpub.com

“Our top priority at Packt has always been to meet the evolving needs of developers 
in the most practical way possible, while at the same time protecting the hard work of our authors. DRM-free content continues to be instrumental in making that happen, providing the flexibility and freedom that is essential for an efficient and enhanced learning experience. That’s why we’ve been DRM-free from the beginning – we’ll never put limits on the innovation of our users.” 
– Dave Maclean, Managing Director

Advocates of Day Against DRM are invited to spread the word and celebrate on May 6th by exploring the full range of DRM-free content at www.packtpub.com, where all eBooks and Videos will be $10 for 24 hours.