Mint 21 Xfce VNC

[rossdv8]

I just got off the phone after an exhausting conversation with a 'friend' who refuses to believe that Linux can stream smooth video at a decent resolution across a VNC connection on his high end gaming computer.
I explained that I do it using Mint on two fairly basic i5 machines with 8GB RAM every day. He is a stubborn and obviously needle damaged. He refused to believe that it is possible, so I told him I would make a screen capture video to prove it and send it to him.
The response was 'yeah, good luck with that, Linux doesn't have any decent screen capture for video'.

So I decided to kill two chooks with a rock.

I'm sure I have posted this screen capture code before. It is about the quickest simplest way to get a high quality screen cap of video but it makes a 3.5 minute file that is 2GB in size. I had it tweaked for small file sizes, but now I simply upload the big file and let YouTube compress 2GB into 47MB with almost the original res.:

Code: Select all

ffmpeg -f x11grab -video_size 1920x1080 -framerate 15  -i :0.0 -c:v libx264 -qp 0  -preset ultrafast screentest04-15fps.mp4

Here's the result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onSOWe7ccDc

I also discovered recently that NoMachine not only does VNC, but it automatically set the new machine up on the LAN better that I ever managed using Samba or NFS. The more I learn about it, the gooder it does be . .

[rossdv8]

I realised after posting that I was dumb enough to record the desktop with the NoMachine window at Full Screen on the Viewing computer, so it was not apparent that we were viewing through VNC.

This video was also recorded using the Terminal and ffmpeg command, but the NoMachine window into VNC is Not Full Screen. It might be more like the real experience, but the video was playing in 4k, and Youtube 'might' default to 480p.
In the settings of your YouTube window you can switch to HD 1080p if it does.

I guess the point of this is that for anyone who has a couple of half decent machines on their LAN, there 'IS' an easy to use, plug and play (as in - the only config you have to do is add a couple of port rules to your Firewall if you use one) VNC solution that is NOT Laggy and doesn't make people tear their hair out in frustration.

This video shows that you can actually play pretty smoooth video over VNC from one computer to another, meaning a lot less hardware (keyboards, mooses and monitors) cluttering the desktop.
I can run several computers using a single mouse and keyboard, with a single large screen. If I was still running my business, I 'might' opt for two screens, but I think using Virtual Desktops and Mint, I wouldn't even have to do that.
It would be an excellent solution for someone who absolutely 'has to have' a Windows or mac computer for something they do for work, but prefers to use Mint for most of their day.

I'm actually typing this in Firefox running in the 'other' computer through NoMachine VNC. With a little effort, it is possible to set up the Free Licence version of NoMachine to Remotely Access ONE of your computers from more or less anywhere. A reasonable licence fee allows much, much more.

Ok, I don't sell NoMachine. I just like Software like FreeOffice and NoMachine when they are available for Linux - something we all used to wish for in the old days - and when they simply 'work'

What I should have uploaded yesterday as an example:
https://youtu.be/zvR0ajeW3G8