recdroidvid 0.1.0

Record and monitor video on android devices from computer (currently Linux via USB).

reddroidvid

Monitor and record video from Android devices remotely, pulling, renaming, and optionally previewing the videos when recording stops. Has very basic integration capability with DAW software (Ardour is currently the default setting).

Currently only works over USB (via the ADB interface). Only tested with OpenCamera on Android, controlled from Linux. (Windows could work in principle, but there are various Linux-specific commands which would need to be replaced.) No attempt is made to unlock a locked phone.

Disclaimer: This is beta-level software that works for what I need it to do. It is, however, written fairly generally to be customizable.

Screenshot of the program being used to record music a performance:

Installation

The easiest way to install the basic program is to install from PyPI using pip:

pip install recdroidvid

Dependencies

The required and optional dependencies are described below.

scrcpy

The scrcpy program needs to be installed and set up to be runnable via USB. It functions as the computer-screen monitor for what is being recorded on the phone. (All the actual recording is done on the phone, however.) The program is available in many linux repos, or can be compiled from the scrcpy site at https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy.

On Ubuntu the command to install from the repos is:

sudo apt install scrcpy

Installing via snap is also possible (and may be a more recent version):

sudo snap install scrcpy
snap connect scrcpy:camera

Setup requires that developer mode be activated on the mobile device to allow ADB commands via USB:

• Go to Settings > About phone and tap the Build number at the bottom seven times to activate developer mode.

• Then go to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options and turn on USB debugging.

• Connect the mobile device via USB and authorize it on the Android notification.

See the scrcpy Github page for more information. Use scrcpy --help | more for information about the available options.

ffmpeg

The ffmpeg program is used to print out information about the pulled movies, as well as to optionally extract audio from the video files:

sudo apt install ffmpeg

previewing

Previewing by default assumes the mpv movie player is installed (though there is an option to set any movie player program from the command line):

sudo apt install mpv

Options and Customization

To see the command-line options, run recdroidvid --help | more. The output of that command follows. Note that any options can also be set in the config file ~/.recdroidvid_rc.py. The file will be imported and the strings on the list rdv_options will be used as the default command-line options. See the example config file.

usage: recdroidvid [-h] [–scrcpy-cmd CMD-STRING] [–numbering-start INTEGER]

[–loop] [–autorecord] [–preview-video] [–preview-video-cmd CMD-STRING] [–preview-video-cmd-jack CMD-STRING] [–date-and-time-in-video-name] [–sync-daw-transport-with-video-recording] [–toggle-daw-transport-cmd CMD-STRING] [–add-daw-mark-on-transport-start] [–add-daw-mark-cmd CMD-STRING] [–raise-daw-on-camera-app-open] [–raise-daw-on-transport-toggle] [–raise-daw-to-top-cmd CMD-STRING] [–is-daw-running-cmd CMD-STRING] [–audio-extract] [–camera-save-dir DIRPATH] [–camera-package-name PACKAGENAME] [–config-conditional STRING] [PREFIXSTRING]

Record a video on mobile via ADB and pull result. All config options can be set in a file .recdroidvid_rc.py. The file is evaluated and the list rdv_options in the file is used as the options list. See the example config file.

positional arguments:

PREFIXSTRING The basename or prefix of the pulled video file.

Whether name or prefix depends on the method used to record.

optional arguments:

-h, --help

show this help message and exit

--scrcpy-cmd CMD-STRING, -y CMD-STRING

The command, including arguments, to be used to launch the scrcpy program. Otherwise a default version is used with some common arguments. Note that the string --window-title=RDV_SCRCPY_TITLE can be used to substitute-in a more descriptive title for the window.

--numbering-start INTEGER, -n INTEGER

The number at which to start numbering pulled videos. The number is currently appended to the user-defined prefix and defaults to 1. Allows for restarting and continuing a naming sequence across invocations of the program.

--loop, -l

Loop the recording, querying between invocations of scrcpy as to whether or not to continue. This allows for shutting down the scrcpy display to save both local CPU and remote device memory (videos are downloaded and deleted from the device at the end of each loop), but then restarting with the same options. Video numbering (as included in the filename) is automatically incremented over all the videos, across loops.

--autorecord, -a

Automatically start recording when the scrcpy monitor starts up.

--preview-video, -p

Preview each video that is downloaded. Currently uses the mpv program.

--preview-video-cmd CMD-STRING

The command used to invoke a movie player to view the preview. The default uses the mpv movie viewer. The string ‘RDV_PREVIEW_FILENAME’, if present in the command, will be replaced with the title of the video being previewed.

--preview-video-cmd-jack CMD-STRING

The command used to invoke a movie player to view the preview when the jack audio system is detected to be running. The default uses the mpv movie viewer. The string ‘RDV_PREVIEW_FILENAME’, if present in the command, will be replaced with the title of the video being previewed.

--date-and-time-in-video-name, -t

Include the date and time in the video names in a readable format.

--sync-daw-transport-with-video-recording, -s

Start the DAW transport when video recording is detected on the mobile device. May increase CPU loads on the computer and the mobile device.

--toggle-daw-transport-cmd CMD-STRING

A system command to toggle the DAW transport. Used when the --sync-to-daw option is chosen. The default uses xdotool to send a space-bar character to Ardour.

--add-daw-mark-on-transport-start, -m

Whether to add a mark in the DAW when the transport starts, to help in syncing with the video.

--add-daw-mark-cmd CMD-STRING

A system command to add a mark to the DAW at the playhead. The default uses xdotool to send a tab character to Ardour.

--raise-daw-on-camera-app-open, -q

Raise the DAW to the top of the window stack when the camara app is opened on the mobile device. Works well when scrcpy is also passed the --always-on-top option.

--raise-daw-on-transport-toggle, -r

Raise the DAW to the top of the window stack whenever the DAW transport is toggled by the --sync-to-daw option. Works well when scrcpy is also passed the --always-on-top option.

--raise-daw-to-top-cmd CMD-STRING

A system command to raise the DAW windows to the top of the window stack. Used when either of the --raise_daw_on_camera_app_open or --raise-daw-on- transport-toggle options are selected. The default uses xdotool to activate any Ardour windows.

--is-daw-running-cmd CMD-STRING

A system command to test if the DAW is actually running. A zero return code means it is, and a nonzero return code means it isn’t.

--audio-extract, -w

Extract a separate audio file (currently always a WAV file) from each video.

--camera-save-dir DIRPATH, -d DIRPATH

The directory on the remote device where the camera app saves videos. Record a video and look at the information about the video to find the path. Defaults to the OpenCamera default save directory.

--camera-package-name PACKAGENAME, -c PACKAGENAME

The Android package name of the camera app. Defaults to “net.sourceforge.opencamera”, the OpenCamera package name. Look in the URL of the app’s PlayStore web site to find this string.

--config-conditional STRING

The .recdroidvid_rc.py config file contains interpreted Python code, so conditionals can be set for different use-cases. This option allows one to set a string value from the command line which can then be used to choose a case in the config file. To set such a variable, pass the value to this option. The default value is the string “default”. To access this variable, use from recdroidvid import config_conditional at the top of the config file.