Feature Request: RAW/Advanced export

[Lohann]

Description

First thank you for building this awesome tool! I've being using it to record my lectures everyday.
Whoever I miss the ability to export the recording INSTANTLY without pre-processing or transconding, I record in my Macbook Pro M1 MAX, but I do the transcoding in a more powerful linux machine for maximum compression/quality, where I use FFMPEG or HandBrakeCLI to have a more granular control over the enconding process, ex: using SVT-AV1 with custom parameters.

Currently even using the fastest export method possible with minimal quality loss (minimal compression + 4k), I still have to wait 30~60min for CAP rendering process, just to move this file to my other machine to do another transconding session with HandBrakeCLI:

HandBrakeCLI \
    --input ./input.mp4 \
    --output ./output-av1-crf50-preset2-30fps.mp4 \
    --encoder svt_av1 \
    --encoder-preset 2 \
    --encoder-tune psnr,fastdecode \
    --encoder-profile auto \
    --encoder-level auto \
    --quality 50 \
    --rate 30 \
    --pfr

I noticed the files are stored using a custom .cap format, would be nice to have direct access to the media files, or at least a way to export the video without transcoding.

[linear]

CAP-398 Feature Request: RAW/Advanced export

[Brendonovich]

The .cap bundles are basically just folders, you can access the media files by using the 'Open Package Contents' option on the bundle in Finder. Not sure if that'll be what you want though since the display, camera, mic, etc. are recorded separately and rendering is needed to combine them into one video.

[Lohann]

@Brendonovich nice! thank you I haven't realized it was a directory, this is perfect. While combine audio + video is easy using FFMPEG, combine both videos isn't, so the only inconvenient I have now is have the ability to combine both videos + export in the format I need, right now there's no way to use AV1 or choose between software VS hardware encode.

I know this may be an advanced feature, but would be really nice if CAP provide a way to write plugins or extended the video export process, if I had access to the raw video stream, I could pipe it to FFMPEG and encode it directly in the format I need:

ffmpeg -f rawvideo -pix_fmt bgra -video_size 1920x1080 -framerate 30 -i <cap_output_pipe> \
       -c:v libsvtav1 -crf 35 -preset 2 output.mp4

[Brendonovich]

We likely won't add plugins, but I could look into adding custom encoding via named pipes in the CLI, probably won't happen for a while though

[bradenkeith]

@Brendonovich Would be awesome as part of exploring solutions here, to see if it's feasible to connect into Mac's Shortcuts for different triggers.

[nathanael]

I opened a related issue here: #1914

This may be connected to the need for RAW/Advanced export, but in my case it also appears to be a bug in the export/render pipeline. Cap’s preview looks acceptable, and the same HDMI capture-card source records cleanly in OBS and Photo Booth, but Cap export introduces heavy compression, red/magenta color shift, and stutter in the camera feed.