Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended? [SOLVED]

[finny388]

in the kubuntuguide.org it says Gnome's Cheese or Kopete.

I want to record short videos for possible youtube upload.

I also see fswebcam and webcamd in kpackagekit.

What is the best app for my purpose?

btw, I will be using the built-in webcam of my Asus EEEPC 900 netbook

thx

[vinnywright]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

I do know Cheese will do that.... the vid comes out as .ogv (ogg video)

never tryed the others

VINNY

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

hi vinnie

I tried Cheese. The capture window was taking video when I switched to video mode.

But when I clicked Start Recording, the capture area turned solid black and Cheese hanged.

When I click the Stop Recording button it doesn'tt react (doesn't change back to Start Recording)

It was not using up CPU (in this state it was using 0-20%).

I had to kill the process on each of 2 attempts.

Checking Home>usr>Video>Webcam, Cheese created 2 ogv files of 0 bytes each.

I am surprised Kubuntu doesn't ship with such a fundamental app.

[skunk]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

Have you installed kamoso yet?

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

I tried Kamoso.

It "worked" but with 2 deal-killing issues:
1. It somehow time compresses so movement is approx 3x real-time and video is 3x shorter than actual time recorded.
2. Audio is enabled in settings but there is no audio.

[vinnywright]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

some times it helps to restart the box after installing things.......... have you??

VINNY

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

Performed a Restart and no change in either Cheese or Kamoso

[GreyGeek]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

Make sure that libv4l-0 is installed.

Cheese, on some systems, appears to hang for 15 to 20 seconds but then begins recording. Some laptop web cams will not work right until Cheese is installed, even if one uses Skype or guvcview.

guvcview does, in my opinion, a better job recording videos or taking pictures. Some laptop vendors have installed their web cams UPSIDE DOWN, and have so for several years. Windows, or course, works fine on those laptops because of their incestuous relationship with Microsoft. guvcview automatically reverts the view to right side up and reconfigures the drivers so that Skype and other web cam apps work right.

There are other multimedia apps but I can understand why none are installed by default. Not all web cams are UVC compatible and thus require specific drivers available from other sites.

A list of supported UVC devices is given here or here, and other places which can be Googled.

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

libv4l-0 is indeed installed

I installed guvcviewer. Looks like a great program but I can't find a record button.

How do you do that? Where can I find help? Under the audio tab all is greyed out. I wonder if I have an audio issue as Kamoso did not record sound.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

There are three tabs at the top and an icon tool bar at the bottom. The sound tab has a check box for sound. check it. Also set the input device. Mine is set to /dev/dsp.

On the middle tab are the controls for "video & Files". Set your device, the frame rate, the resolution and the output (Mine are: UVC camera (0rca:183d), 1/30 fps, 640x480, YUYV

The Image file is set to image.jpg Set it to what you want. The image format is jpg.
The Video File is "capture.avi" (which will show up in your home account after you stop recording.
Video codec: MJPG-compressed. (it gives me about 1 Mb/sec for 640x480 color with sound.
Video format: AVI -avi format.

After you make the changes you want click the "Save" icon on the bottom of the dialog to save the settings.

On the bottom icon tool bar are two icons. One is marked "Cap. image" The other is "Cap. video".
Click the "Cap. Image" to create an "image.jgp" file. Click "Cap. Video to start recording a movie. Click again to stop.

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

Thank you GreyGeek

It successfully recorded video to avi but no sound.

(turns out the only reason things in audio tab were greyed out is b/c I was recording and didn't realize it)

Audio is checked off (enabled)
The audio device drop down has 3 choices. Initially it was set to /dev/dsp
The other choices are Default and HDA Intel: ALC662 rev1 Analog (hw:0,0)

I tried all, saving in between, but no audio will record.

On occasion, upon reboot, I get an error (I couldn't reproduce it just now for exact message). But it is something like Cannot Find Audio Device and I think it mentions the Intel device. It asks to ignore device, I say OK and using the internet or VLC or system sounds I have no issues.

If I go into System Settings>Multimedia it lists the aforementioned Intel device and Pulse Audio as the 2 Video Output Device Preferences.
Under Audio Capture it only lists the Intel device for both Communication and Accessibility

phew, any ideas? thanks

[finny388]

Re: Does Kubuntu 9.10 come with a webcam app? If not what is recommended?

I opened Kmix, went into Settings>Configure Channels, and found that the mic's were turned down to zero.
There is a mic and a front mic.
After fiddling I found I needed to turn up front mic.

Now GUVCViewer records audio.

I tried Kamoso again and now it doesn't work it all. But screw it. GUVCVIewer seems like the best app among them.

Thanks for all the help everyone
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