Arch Linux

skyrim

Member

From: <3

Registered: 2025-04-18

Posts: 6

Screen recording on Wayland using FFmpeg

I tried using wf-recorder — this thing sucks.
Didn't work at all.

So, is there a way to record on Wayland using ffmpeg?
If not, what's a good alternative?

Nothing bloated like OBS, of course.
I’m looking for something simple — terminal-based, bash-friendly stuff.

Last edited by skyrim (2025-04-18 12:20:37)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: Screen recording on Wayland using FFmpeg

For something like screen recording there's no "wayland", what is it exactly you're using? Most modern use cases would want something that talks the XDG Portal protocols or depending on environment something specific to that, e.g. KDE has spectacle, gnome something built-in in the shell...

FWIW obs-cli is something that exists and might suit your needs.

ffmpeg doesn't have anything doing this properly yet: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/10742

Last edited by V1del (2025-04-18 15:52:21)

qu@rk

Member

Registered: 2021-07-28

Posts: 149

Re: Screen recording on Wayland using FFmpeg

Didn't work at all.

How did it fail? What encoder did you use?
Post output of

ffmpeg -encoders

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 73,775

Re: Screen recording on Wayland using FFmpeg

As V1del indicated, the problem is unlikeky "ffmpeg" but "wayland" - the specific compositor (wf-recorder *might* works if yours depends on https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/wlroots/ ) and available xdg-desktop-portal implementations (for OBS)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Screen_capture

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