recordMyDesktop

Still available for most (all?) Linux distributions. Can encrypt the recordings in real time as the video, but uses much resources (CPU,GPU, etc).

Found it to be easy to use, reliable. Saves recording even if computer crashes, or switched off suddenly. SimpleScreenRecorder is also usually avaliable on most Linux distros as well. Both capture audio & screen, etc.

A good app.

It is truly capable of recording a section of the screen, fullscreen or follow the mouse. However, recording games is tricky. The only way you're going to get synchronized sound with video is by using another application for sound. Like outRec or Audacity (For mic).

Alas, the biggest let down of this app is it's inability to record games in fullscreen OR have synchronized video+audio. Its great just for video, not so much audio. Heard that FFmpeg is great, problem is that it's completely CLI oriented plus scarce tutorials/guides makes it hard to learn.

Unfortunately, this utility seems to create broken OGG video files with incorrect keyframes on my system. A simple fix is to use mencoder to convert and re-index the file:

mencoder -idx desktop_recording.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o fixed.avi

I've heard that simplescreenrecorder is a good alternative, but no binaries are readily available on my platform (yet).

I love and use gtkRecordMyDesktop, but beware there are problems that I have experienced time and time again.

Cons:

1. With sound recording enabled, video becomes unsynchronized after a couple of minutes.
2. It is unable to record FULL SCREEN games (like every other Linux recorder I have tried sadly)
3. Only records in .ogv (no option to change this)

Pros:

1. Supremely simple and easy to use User Interface.
2. Has a plethora of good functionality and changeable settings at your disposal.
3. Hardly feel any performance setback when recording (tested on my measly low specced HP laptop).

The best combo I have found when recording games is to use gtkRecordMyDesktop for VIDEO only and outRec for desktop sound recording. Combine these two, and I'm good to go.

I haven't used gtkRecordMyDesktop much, but the few times I have, it has done a great job. I'm wondering, though, is there any way to show mouse clicks while recording the desktop? I don't have it in front of me right now to look at the options.

Since I am on Ubuntu this is the only screen recorder I know of, but it does a wonderful job. You have to play with the settings though to get it to a quality that you like, but after that it does great.