Which application can I use to test webcam?

[richfm]

I want to test the webcam to see if it works but have tried many applications without success. I've installed ekiga, guvcview, xawtv, cheese, webcam and webcamoid, kamoso, and akqml, all with synaptic. Some didn't run with error messages, some ran but needed a USB cam, none accessed the built-in webcam. Which application have others installed to use the webcam and how did you install it?

[electriccrowbar]

I want to test the webcam to see if it works but have tried many applications without success. I've installed ekiga, guvcview, xawtv, cheese, webcam and webcamoid, kamoso, and akqml, all with synaptic. Some didn't run with error messages, some ran but needed a USB cam, none accessed the built-in webcam. Which application have others installed to use the webcam and how did you install it?

I just tried Firefox and Chrome on stock Debian and neither worked when sites tried to access the camera. However Cheese did work-ish.



It was very slow, under 1 frame per second but I was able to take pictures. There were some warnings in stdout as well

Code:

(cheese:2724): cheese-WARNING **: A lot of buffers are being dropped.: gstbasesink.c(2834): gst_base_sink_is_too_late (): /GstCameraBin:camerabin/GstViewfinderBin:vf-bin/ClutterGstVideoSink:cluttergstvideosink0:
There may be a timestamping problem, or this computer is too slow.

[Der Geist der Maschine]

I want to test the webcam to see if it works but have tried many applications without success. I've installed ekiga, guvcview, xawtv, cheese, webcam and webcamoid, kamoso, and akqml, all with synaptic. Some didn't run with error messages, some ran but needed a USB cam, none accessed the built-in webcam. Which application have others installed to use the webcam and how did you install it?

Have you tried preinstalled programs, say ffmpeg or smplayer? They work for me out of the box just by pointing them to /dev/video0

$ smplayer /dev/video0 
$ ffplay /dev/video0

---

However Cheese did work-ish. It was very slow, under 1 frame per second.

With ffmpeg, I get 6.8 fps.

[richfm]

I want to test the webcam to see if it works but have tried many applications without success. I've installed ekiga, guvcview, xawtv, cheese, webcam and webcamoid, kamoso, and akqml, all with synaptic. Some didn't run with error messages, some ran but needed a USB cam, none accessed the built-in webcam. Which application have others installed to use the webcam and how did you install it?

Have you tried preinstalled programs, say ffmpeg or smplayer? They work for me out of the box just by pointing them to /dev/video0

$ smplayer /dev/video0 
$ ffplay /dev/video0

---

However Cheese did work-ish. It was very slow, under 1 frame per second.

With ffmpeg, I get 6.8 fps.

Thanks for your reply. smplayer /dev/video0 worked and cheese worked but both were choppy. ffplay /dev/video0 crashed with a core dump. Any suggestions for getting  ffplay /dev/video0  working? At least I know the webcam works!

[xalius]

I use VLC and just went with "Open Capture Device..."

[hmuller]

I tested mine with:

Code:

$ mplayer tv://

[richfm]

I tested mine with:

Code:

$ mplayer tv://

Thanks everyone for your help.

[MrTester]

Just used Microsoft teams Video call via Chromium. Success, looks good!

[ab1jx]

Thanks, good to know it's a v4l device, not USB or something that needs gphoto with a special driver.  I'm going to try webcam (how original).

Hmm, this is an area that could stand documenting more.  There are /dev/video0 -  4, I tried yavta and it said the first couple wouldn't capture.

For /dev/video2 it says:

Code:

Device /dev/video2 opened.
Device `USB Camera: USB Camera' on `usb-fe3c0000.usb-1.2' (driver 'uvcvideo') supports video, capture, without mplanes.
control 0x00980900 `Brightness' min -64 max 64 step 1 default 0 current 0.
control 0x00980901 `Contrast' min 0 max 64 step 1 default 32 current 32.
control 0x00980902 `Saturation' min 0 max 128 step 1 default 64 current 64.
control 0x00980903 `Hue' min -40 max 40 step 1 default 0 current 0.
control 0x0098090c `White Balance Temperature, Auto' min 0 max 1 step 1 default 1 current 1.
control 0x00980910 `Gamma' min 72 max 500 step 1 default 100 current 100.
control 0x00980913 `Gain' min 0 max 100 step 1 default 0 current 0.
control 0x00980918 `Power Line Frequency' min 0 max 2 step 1 default 1 current 1.
 0: Disabled
 1: 50 Hz (*)
 2: 60 Hz
control 0x0098091a `White Balance Temperature' min 2800 max 6500 step 1 default 4600 current 4600.
control 0x0098091b `Sharpness' min 0 max 240 step 1 default 68 current 68.
control 0x0098091c `Backlight Compensation' min 0 max 2 step 1 default 1 current 1.
control 0x009a0901 `Exposure, Auto' min 0 max 3 step 1 default 3 current 3.
 1: Manual Mode
 3: Aperture Priority Mode (*)
control 0x009a0902 `Exposure (Absolute)' min 1 max 5000 step 1 default 156 current 156.
control 0x009a0903 `Exposure, Auto Priority' min 0 max 1 step 1 default 0 current 1.
14 controls found.
Video format: YUYV (56595559) 1280x720 (stride 2560) field none buffer size 1843200
pre { font-family: "Liberation Mono", monospace; font-size: 10pt; background: transparent } p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 115%; background: transparent }

Looks interesting but I haven't seen a picture yet.  The next device is similar, the last 2 aren't. I don't know anything about v4l2 really.  Search v4l2 in Synaptic.

Using fswebcam.  The camera is fixed-focus, like many, notice that what's 2 meters behind me is in better focus than me.  With most little cameras you can loosen the lens mount and unscrew it a little to make it focus closer.  If you want to use this for a chat room that might be appropriate.  I fixed the black level in Gimp, cameras that natively do YUV usually don't look very good.

[xmixahlx]

I used cheese and 800x600 resolution for best trade-off of fps and "quality".