Media Recorder

Media Recorder is an in-app recorder designed for Obsidian. It provides a lightweight, dockable workspace panel to record daily webcam reflections, screen captures, and voice memos directly into your vault notes.

Whether you are conducting daily study reviews, documenting practical labs, or keeping a quick audio diary, Media Journal streamlines the capture workflow without cluttering your system with third-party recording software.

Features

• Dockable & Movable Interface: Lives inside Obsidian's workspace leaves. Place it in the right or left sidebar, dock it as a tab, or pop it out into an independent floating window.
• Multiple Capture Sources:
  • Webcam: Record video reflections using your device camera.
  • Screen Capture: Capture your desktop or specific application windows alongside microphone narration.
  • Audio Only: Record lightweight .webm voice notes to save storage space.
• Picture-in-Picture (PiP): Pop out the live video preview to monitor your camera while writing or reading notes in full screen.
• Dynamic Quality & Size Optimization: Switch between Low, Normal, and High quality profiles to aggressively limit bitrates and keep your vault file sizes small.
• Microphone Echo Prevention: Built-in live audio mute toggle so you don't hear your own feedback during recording.
• Pause & Resume: Built-in timer with full pause and resume control, producing a single combined file.
• Automatic Note Embedding: Automatically inserts a markdown embed link (![[recording.webm]]) right where your cursor is placed in your active note.
• Configurable Save Directory: Specify a custom folder path in settings (e.g., Media/Daily Recordings). The plugin creates the folder automatically if it does not exist.

Installation

From Community Plugins (Once Approved)

1. Open Obsidian Settings.
2. Navigate to Community plugins and turn off Safe mode.
3. Click Browse and search for Media Recorder.
4. Click Install, then Enable.

Manual Installation

1. Download the latest release assets (main.js and manifest.json) from the Releases tab.
2. Navigate to your vault folder: <VaultFolder>/.obsidian/plugins/.
3. Create a new folder named obsidian-media-journal.
4. Place main.js and manifest.json inside this folder.
5. In Obsidian, go to Settings > Community plugins and enable Media Journal.

How to Use

1. Click the Camera icon in the left ribbon to reveal the Media Recorder panel.
2. Select your desired Source (Webcam, Screen Capture, or Audio Only).
3. Select your preferred Quality setting (Low, Normal, or High).
4. Click Start Preview to initialize the hardware stream.
5. Click Record to begin capturing.
6. Use Pause / Resume as needed.
7. Click Stop & Save. The recording will save to your vault and automatically embed into your active note if the option is checked.

Settings

• Save Folder: Define the vault folder where your media files are stored. Defaults to Video Journals.

💬 Feedback and Reviews

Your feedback drives the development of Media Journal! Since Obsidian doesn't have a built-in rating system, I rely on the community to tell me what works and what needs improving.

• Found a bug? Open an Issue so I can squash it.
• Have a feature idea? Start a Discussion to request new capabilities.
• Love the plugin? Please consider starring the repository on GitHub! It helps others discover the tool.

Development

If you want to contribute or build the plugin locally:

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone [https://github.com/Alaxanalax10/obsidian-media-journal](https://github.com/Alaxanalax10/obsidian-media-journal.git)