videonorma

Fix quiet macOS screen recordings and screencasts on Linux — one click or one command.

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Table of Contents

• The problem
• What it does
• Before / After
• Compatibility
• Requirements
• Installation
  • Ubuntu / Debian — .deb
  • Arch Linux — AUR
  • Fedora / RHEL — .rpm
  • Any distro — from source
  • From git (development)
• Usage
  • CLI
  • File manager
  • Daemon
• Supported formats
• Roadmap
• How it works
• Contributing
• License

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The problem

macOS screen recordings arrive whisper-quiet on Linux.

QuickTime, Zoom, Loom, Teams, and other screen-recording tools on macOS capture audio at a very low input level — typically −40 to −50 dB LUFS average loudness. When you open these files on Linux there is no automatic loudness compensation, so the video is barely audible even at maximum system volume.

Common sources of the problem:

Recording tool	Typical loudness	Audible on Linux?
QuickTime screen recording	−44 dBFS	❌ barely
Zoom cloud / local recording	−38 to −46 dBFS	❌ barely
Loom screen recording	−40 to −48 dBFS	❌ barely
macOS Screenshot.app (⌘+Shift+5)	−42 to −50 dBFS	❌ barely
Slack video message	−40 to −50 dBFS	❌ barely
OBS (default settings)	−18 to −23 dBFS	✅ fine

videonorma fixes all of them.

What it does

• Normalizes video/audio loudness to EBU R128 −16 LUFS (broadcast standard)
• Never modifies the original — output is <name>_normalized.<ext> alongside the source
• Copies the video stream without re-encoding (fast, no quality loss)
• Re-encodes audio to AAC 192 kbps with corrected loudness
• Works as a CLI tool, a file manager right-click script, and a background daemon that watches ~/Downloads and normalizes new videos automatically

Before / After

	Original (macOS screen recording)	Normalized
Mean loudness	−46.1 LUFS	−16.0 LUFS
True peak	−21.0 dBTP	−1.5 dBTP
Perceived	barely audible	broadcast-level

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Compatibility

Distributions

Distro	CLI	File manager script	Package	Notes
Ubuntu 22.04+	✅	✅	.deb	Fully tested
Debian 12+	✅	✅	.deb
Fedora 38+	✅	✅	.rpm	ffmpeg needs RPM Fusion
Arch / Manjaro	✅	✅	AUR
openSUSE Tumbleweed	✅	✅	tarball
Other systemd distros	✅	⚠️	tarball	Manual file manager setup

File managers

File manager	Desktop	Auto-install	How
Nautilus (Files)	GNOME	✅	install.sh puts script in ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts/
Nemo	Cinnamon	✅	~/.local/share/nemo/scripts/
Caja	MATE	✅	~/.config/caja/scripts/
Dolphin	KDE	⚠️	Manual service menu
Thunar	XFCE	⚠️	Edit → Configure custom actions → Command: normalize-audio %f
Any	—	—	CLI always works regardless of desktop

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Requirements

Dependency	Required for	Installed by
ffmpeg ≥ 4.2	core normalization	install.sh
pipx	installing ffmpeg-normalize	install.sh
ffmpeg-normalize	core normalization	install.sh
libnotify (notify-send)	desktop notifications	install.sh (optional)
xdg-utils (xdg-open)	opening result in player	install.sh (optional)
zenity	error dialogs	install.sh (optional)

A video player (VLC, mpv, Totem, etc.) is needed to play the output — xdg-open uses your system default.

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Installation

Ubuntu / Debian — .deb package (recommended)

# Download the latest .deb from the releases page
wget https://github.com/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest/download/videonorma_$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest | grep tag_name | cut -d'"' -f4 | tr -d v)_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i videonorma_*_all.deb
sudo apt-get install -f   # install any missing system dependencies

The package installs normalize-audio to /usr/local/bin/ and runs pipx install ffmpeg-normalize automatically.

Arch Linux — AUR

Install via your AUR helper:

yay -S videonorma
# or
paru -S videonorma

Manual install from PKGBUILD (download the PKGBUILD from the releases page):

mkdir videonorma && cd videonorma
curl -LO https://github.com/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest/download/PKGBUILD
makepkg -si

After install, enable pipx and install ffmpeg-normalize:

pipx install ffmpeg-normalize

Fedora / RHEL — .rpm package

Enable RPM Fusion (required for ffmpeg), then install the .rpm:

sudo dnf install -y \
  https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm

VER=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest \
  | grep tag_name | cut -d'"' -f4 | tr -d v)
sudo dnf install -y \
  "https://github.com/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest/download/videonorma-${VER}-1.noarch.rpm"

After install, enable pipx and install ffmpeg-normalize:

pipx install ffmpeg-normalize

Any distro — from source archive

# Download and extract
wget https://github.com/prostopasta/videonorma/releases/latest/download/videonorma-VERSION.tar.gz
tar -xzf videonorma-VERSION.tar.gz
cd videonorma-VERSION/

# Run the installer (auto-detects apt / dnf / pacman / zypper)
bash install.sh

CLI only (no file manager integration):

bash install.sh --cli-only

From git (development)

git clone https://github.com/prostopasta/videonorma.git
cd videonorma
bash install.sh

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Usage

CLI

# Single file — macOS screen recording, Zoom export, Loom download, etc.
normalize-audio recording.mov

# Multiple files at once
normalize-audio *.mp4

# Output is created next to the original:
# recording.mov  →  recording_normalized.mov

File manager (GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE)

Right-click any video file → Scripts → ▶ Play normalized

The script:

1. Checks if _normalized version already exists (skips re-processing)
2. Shows a desktop notification while normalizing in the background
3. Opens the result in your default player when done
4. Logs errors to /tmp/videonorma_last.log

Daemon (automatic, background)

The daemon watches ~/Downloads and notifies you when a new video arrives:

1. A desktop notification pops up: Normalize / Skip / Dismiss
2. Click Normalize — it processes in the background and opens the result when done
3. The tray icon lets you pause watching, toggle auto-normalize, and quit

The daemon starts automatically on login (systemd user service). Control it manually:

systemctl --user status videonorma    # check status
systemctl --user stop videonorma      # stop
systemctl --user start videonorma     # start
journalctl --user -u videonorma -f    # live log

Additional daemon dependencies (installed automatically by install.sh):

Dependency	Purpose
python3-watchdog	file system events
gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1	system tray icon
python3-gi	GTK/GLib Python bindings

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Supported formats

Any container supported by ffmpeg: .mov, .mp4, .mkv, .webm, .avi, .m4v, .ts, and more.

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Roadmap

• Phase 1 — CLI tool + file manager right-click script
• Phase 2 — videonorma daemon: watches ~/Downloads, desktop notification with one-click "Normalize", system tray icon with dark/light theme support
• Phase 3.1 — PKGBUILD for Arch Linux / AUR and .rpm for Fedora / RHEL — both published as GitHub Release assets
• Phase 3.2 — AUR submission: real checksums in PKGBUILD, .SRCINFO, auto-push to aur.archlinux.org on every release
• Phase 3.3 — Fedora COPR: auto-publish .rpm to a COPR repository so users can dnf install with a one-time dnf copr enable
• Phase 4 — Flatpak / Flathub (cross-distro, works on Ubuntu / Fedora / Arch / openSUSE); multi-directory watch; per-directory rules; GUI settings window

Want to help? See CONTRIBUTING.md for guides on AUR submission, COPR setup, Flatpak packaging, and package testing.

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How it works

normalize-audio calls ffmpeg-normalize with EBU R128 two-pass loudness normalization:

Target:     −16 LUFS
True peak:  −1.5 dBTP
LRA:        11 LU
Video:      stream copy (no re-encode)
Audio:      AAC 192 kbps

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Keywords

macOS screen recording too quiet · QuickTime recording low volume · Zoom recording quiet Linux · Loom video quiet · screencast audio normalization · video loudness fix Linux · EBU R128 normalization · ffmpeg normalize audio · normalize video loudness · macOS screen capture audio boost · fix quiet video Linux · audio normalization tool Linux · video audio too low · normalize mp4 loudness · normalize mov file audio · ffmpeg-normalize GUI · screencast loudness · macOS recording volume fix · low volume video fix · LUFS normalization Linux

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for:

• How to submit videonorma to AUR (Arch User Repository)
• How to publish to Fedora COPR so Fedora/RHEL users can dnf install
• How to package for Flatpak / Flathub
• How to test packages on each distro (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch)

If you want to take ownership of the AUR or COPR package — open an issue or start a discussion, it's very welcome.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE