Capturing Audio & Video in HTML5 ? HTML Media Capture? Flash and a media server on desktop? The MediaStream Recording proposal with Commercial solutions

HTML5 provides a built-in API for capturing video from the user's camera and recording it on the client-side. The MediaRecorder API can be used to capture video from a MediaStream and store it in various formats, including webm and mp4.

Here is an example of how to use the MediaRecorder API to record a video and store it in a Blob object:

const videoElement = document.getElementById("myVideo");
const startButton = document.getElementById("startRecording");
const stopButton = document.getElementById("stopRecording");

let mediaStream;
let mediaRecorder;
let recordedBlobs = [];

startButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ video: true })
    .then(stream => {
      mediaStream = stream;
      videoElement.srcObject = mediaStream;
      mediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder(mediaStream);
      mediaRecorder.ondataavailable = handleDataAvailable;
      mediaRecorder.start();
    })
    .catch(error => console.error(error));
});

stopButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  mediaRecorder.stop();
  mediaStream.getTracks().forEach(track => track.stop());
});

function handleDataAvailable(event) {
  if (event.data && event.data.size > 0) {
    recordedBlobs.push(event.data);
  }
}

function downloadVideo() {
  const blob = new Blob(recordedBlobs, { type: "video/webm" });
  const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
  const a = document.createElement("a");
  a.style.display = "none";
  a.href = url;
  a.download = "my_video.webm";
  document.body.appendChild(a);
  a.click();
  setTimeout(() => {
    document.body.removeChild(a);
    URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
  }, 100);
}

In this example, we have a video element in our HTML file, along with two buttons to start and stop the recording. When the user clicks the "Start Recording" button, we use getUserMedia to request access to the user's camera, and we assign the resulting MediaStream to the srcObject property of the video element.

We also create a new MediaRecorder object and set its ondataavailable property to a function that pushes any recorded data to an array called recordedBlobs.

When the user clicks the "Stop Recording" button, we call the stop method on the MediaRecorder object to stop the recording, and we stop all tracks in the MediaStream.

Finally, we can use the recordedBlobs array to create a Blob object, which we can then download using a link element ().

Note that this is just a simple example, and there are many additional features and options you can use with the MediaRecorder API, such as specifying a desired video format, setting the video bitrate, and adding event listeners for various recording events.

RecordRTC: WebRTC audio/video recording


RecordRTC is a JavaScript library that simplifies the process of recording audio and video using WebRTC. It provides an easy-to-use interface for capturing media streams, as well as a variety of customization options.

To get started with RecordRTC, you'll need to include the library in your HTML file:

Once you've included the library, you can start using it to record audio and video like this:

navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ audio: true, video: true })
 .then(function (stream) {
   var recorder = RecordRTC(stream, {
     type: 'video'
   });
   recorder.startRecording();
   setTimeout(function () {
     recorder.stopRecording(function () {
       var blob = recorder.getBlob();
       var videoElement = document.createElement('video');
       videoElement.src = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
       document.body.appendChild(videoElement);
     });
   }, 5000);
 });

In this example, we first use getUserMedia to request access to the user's microphone and camera. We then create a new RecordRTC object, passing in the media stream and an options object.

The options object specifies the type of media to record (in this case, video). You can also specify options like video width and height, audio and video codecs, and more.

Once we've created the RecordRTC object, we start recording by calling the startRecording method. We then wait 5 seconds and stop recording by calling the stopRecording method. This method takes a callback function that will be called when recording is complete.

Inside the callback function, we get the recorded data as a Blob object using the getBlob method, and create a new video element to display the recorded video.

Note: that this is just a simple example, and there are many more features and options available in RecordRTC. You can customize the recording format, set video and audio quality, add effects and filters, and more.

Creating .webm video from getUserMedia()?


 

To create a .webm video from a MediaStream obtained via getUserMedia(), you can use the MediaRecorder API. Here's an example of how to do it:

const videoElement = document.querySelector('video');
const startButton = document.querySelector('#start');
const stopButton = document.querySelector('#stop');

let mediaStream;
let mediaRecorder;
let recordedChunks = [];

startButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
  navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({ video: true, audio: true })
    .then(stream => {
      mediaStream = stream;
      videoElement.srcObject = mediaStream;
      mediaRecorder = new MediaRecorder(mediaStream, { mimeType: 'video/webm' });
      mediaRecorder.addEventListener('dataavailable', event => {
        if (event.data.size > 0) {
          recordedChunks.push(event.data);
        }
      });
      mediaRecorder.start();
    })
    .catch(error => console.error(error));
});

stopButton.addEventListener('click', () => {
  mediaRecorder.stop();
  mediaStream.getTracks().forEach(track => track.stop());
});

function downloadVideo() {
  const blob = new Blob(recordedChunks, { type: 'video/webm' });
  const url = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
  const a = document.createElement('a');
  a.href = url;
  a.download = 'my_video.webm';
  document.body.appendChild(a);
  a.click();
  setTimeout(() => {
    document.body.removeChild(a);
    URL.revokeObjectURL(url);
  }, 100);
}

In this example, we have a video element in our HTML file, along with two buttons to start and stop the recording. When the user clicks the "Start Recording" button, we use getUserMedia() to request access to the user's camera and microphone, and we assign the resulting MediaStream to the srcObject property of the video element.

We also create a new MediaRecorder object and set its mimeType option to 'video/webm'. We add an event listener to the dataavailable event, which is fired whenever the MediaRecorder has recorded some data. We check the size of the data to make sure it's not empty, and then push it to an array called recordedChunks.

When the user clicks the "Stop Recording" button, we call the stop() method on the MediaRecorder object to stop the recording, and we stop all tracks in the MediaStream.

Finally, we can use the recordedChunks array to create a Blob object, which we can then download using a link element ().

Note: that this is just a simple example, and there are many additional features and options you can use with the MediaRecorder API, such as specifying a desired video format, setting the video bitrate, and adding event listeners for various recording events.