V4L capturing
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There is several applications for continuous pictures capturing (e.g. for web, emailing)
- webcam
- streamer
- videodog
Common configuration and control commands
1. Control the TV card (v4lctl is a part of the xawtv package)
- v4lctl -c /dev/video0 list
- v4lctl -c /dev/video0 bright "60%"
- v4lctl -c /dev/video0 contrast "55%"
2. Capture the snaps (streamer is a part of the xawtv package)
- streamer:
- Usage:
- streamer -i 1 -c /dev/video0 -s 320x240 -q -j 80 -f jpeg -n ntsc -b 24 -o /var/www/webcam.jpeg
- streamer -i 1 -c /dev/video0 -s 320x240 -q -j 80 -f jpeg -n ntsc -b 24 -o /dev/stdout |uuencode thief.jpeg|sendmail alarm@foo.com
- videodog:
- Usage:
- videodog -x 640 -y 480 -w 3 -b 1 -c 65535 -m PAL -q -d /dev/video0 -j -f /var/www/webcam.jpg
- mencoder
- webcam:
- This useful tool supports continuously moving (ftp or scp - ssh copy) of jpeg output to remote server. Also allows put in additional text (date time, location), rotating of image.
- Usage:
- webcam /etc/webcamrc
Image format information
Good place to look is http://www.fourcc.org/
About philips webcam compression format good info and free decoders can be found on http://www.saillard.org/linux/pwc/