Headless recording

[SaadAI2]

Is it possible to record audio and video in headless mode? If not, what is the optimal platform for deploying an application that requires a headful browser with audio and video capabilities?

[pbkompasz]

I managed to record video in headless mode with the following script.
Not sure if it records audio.

const { launch, getStream } = require("puppeteer-stream");
const Xvfb = require('xvfb');

const file = fs.createWriteStream(`./example.mp4`);
var xvfb = new Xvfb({
  silent: true,
  xvfb_args: ["-screen", "0", '1920x1080x30', "-ac"],
});
xvfb.start((err) => { if (err) console.error(err) })

const browser = await launch({
  executablePath: 'google-chrome',
  headless: false,
  defaultViewport: null,
  protocolTimeout: 30000,
  args: ['--no-sandbox', '--start-fullscreen', '--display=' + xvfb._display,
    '--window-size=1920,1080',],
});

const page = await browser.newPage();
const stream = await getStream(page, { audio: true, video: true });

stream.pipe(file);

// ...

await stream.destroy();
file.close();
xvfb.stop();

[Eatwhiterabbit]

puppeteer-stream could record audio and video at the same time, even in headless mode. i've already used it in production

[Omer Faruk Davarci]

did you guys tried it on k8s clusters? i mean in a pod

[Samuel Scheit]

by adding this cli argument to the browser args, --headless=new

[Unravel Technologies]

@SamuelScheit okay. I deleted my post to provide the answer.

These settings worked for me:

const browser = await launch({
  executablePath: executablePath(),
  defaultViewport: {
    width: 1080,
    height: 1920,
  },
  args: [
    '--headless=new',
    '--no-sandbox',
    '--window-size=1080,1920',
    '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
    '--ozone-override-screen-size=1080,1920',
  ],
});

@xephtar tested in GCP. Worked well.

Minimum instance requirements - 12-16Gib and 2 CPUs.
On 4Gib and 8Gib, the video had cracks and freezes. Haven't tested with 12Gib, though. But I assume it'd be okay. Went with 16Gib to be safe.

[SaadAI2]

I managed to record video in headless mode with the following script. Not sure if it records audio.

const { launch, getStream } = require("puppeteer-stream");
const Xvfb = require('xvfb');

const file = fs.createWriteStream(`./example.mp4`);
var xvfb = new Xvfb({
  silent: true,
  xvfb_args: ["-screen", "0", '1920x1080x30', "-ac"],
});
xvfb.start((err) => { if (err) console.error(err) })

const browser = await launch({
  executablePath: 'google-chrome',
  headless: false,
  defaultViewport: null,
  protocolTimeout: 30000,
  args: ['--no-sandbox', '--start-fullscreen', '--display=' + xvfb._display,
    '--window-size=1920,1080',],
});

const page = await browser.newPage();
const stream = await getStream(page, { audio: true, video: true });

stream.pipe(file);

// ...

await stream.destroy();
file.close();
xvfb.stop();

This is working for me on Linux server .

[Nimitt Mehta]

defaultViewport: {
width: 1080,
height: 1920,
},
args: [
'--headless=new',
'--no-sandbox',
'--window-size=1080,1920',
'--disable-setuid-sandbox',
'--ozone-override-screen-size=1080,1920',
],

Worked for me