WXcam, any chance to get it back?

[TheGhost]

It's my understanding that Wxcam is no longer available.

I'm looking for an alternative, a SMALL applications that can be used for basic webcam check, and perhaps taking a quick picture with it.

The emphasis is in small. I'm currently building a base remaster that started with MiniMe; but I need to install it in a 8 - 10 GB hard drive. So space used is a concern.

I know about Cheese and Camorama, but both are Gnome based and have to install a lot of Gnome packages; that makes them too big for what I need.
Same goes to VLC; too big (and I'll be using SMplayer since the Mplayer pluging works very nicely with Firefox)

There is an app called "Kamoso", but it doesn't work for me; it just crashes when I attempt to take a picture (or do anything else, for that matter). The crash gives the following output when run from console:

[guest@localhost ~]$ kamoso

(<unknown>:16829): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_bin_add: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed

(<unknown>:16829): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_bin_add: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed

(<unknown>:16829): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_bin_add: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed
KCrash: Application 'kamoso' crashing...
KCrash: Attempting to start /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/drkonqi from kdeinit
sock_file=/home/guest/.kde4/socket-localhost.localdomain/kdeinit4__0

[1]+  Detenido                kamoso
[guest@localhost ~]$

So the questions are:

1- Any chance to get WXcam back?
2- Alternatively, any ideas on how to fix Kamoso?

TIA.

[Leiche]

What will you do?

Works this in a konsole?

Code:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30

or

Code:

mencoder tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0 vcodec=h264 vb=1300 -ovc lavc -o test.mp4

last command create a video file in your home names test.mp4

[TheGhost]

What will you do?

Works this in a konsole?

Code:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30

or

Code:

mencoder tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0 vcodec=h264 vb=1300 -ovc lavc -o test.mp4

last command create a video file in your home names test.mp4

That is simply BRILLIANT!! It worked perfectly!

I didn't know I could do that with MPlayer.
Now all I have to do is to configure that url in the TV configuration in SMplayer, and I have a quick and easy way to test webcams, grab images or recordings, etc.

You're a genius!

Thanks a million.

[Leiche]

you are welcome, TheGhost 

[Just18]

What will you do?

Works this in a konsole?

Code:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30

or

Code:

mencoder tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0 vcodec=h264 vb=1300 -ovc lavc -o test.mp4

last command create a video file in your home names test.mp4

Is there a simple way to add to that mencoder command so that it records audio also from the webcam?

only out of interest, not need 

thanks

[Leiche]

mencoder will not capture from audiocard or else, but you can try arecord.

I play here with a little script, but get it not working  .
I can capture video, and i can capture audio, but not together audio, and video. 

[Just18]

mencoder will not capture from audiocard or else, but you can try arecord.

I play here with a little script, but get it not working  .
I can capture video, and i can capture audio, but not together audio, and video. 

Thanks .......  that explains why I also failed 

I guess both need to be captured and muxed 

[Leiche]

Here an old script, (my first script), changed for webcam, maybe it's work for you

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#
# saa7134
#
# Shellscript to capture a video with sound
#
# Recommended: mplayer, mencoder, yad
#
# Daniel Meiß-Wilhelm <MeissSW01@aol.com>
# 17. Januar 2009
#
# Licence: GPL, V2
#
# Information
#
 yad --title "WebcamDub for Webcam" --text "Welcome to WebcamDub !\nRecord will starts, after closing preview window!"
#
# Preview window
#
mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 30
#
# save in directory
#
 NAME=$(yad --title "Save record ..." --file-selection --save )
if  [ "$NAME" = "" ]; then
     exit
    else

#
# Information
#
    yad --title "WebcamDub" --text "Stop record with\n\nStrg+C !"
#
# Audio and Video record
#
    arecord -D hw:0,0 -f cd -t wav $NAME.wav & xterm -e mencoder tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0 vcodec=h264 vb=1300 -ovc lavc -noautoexpand -nosound -o $NAME
    killall arecord
    mencoder -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp2:abitrate=224 -ovc copy -o $NAME.mp4 -audiofile $NAME.wav $NAME
#
# Information
#
    yad --title "WebcamDub" --text "Recording successful saved!"
    rm -rf $NAME
    rm -rf $NAME.wav
#



fi

An result would be fine 

[Just18]

Will give it a run and see what happens

[Just18]

arecord -v -c 1 -D hw:1,0 -f S16_LE -t wav NAME.wav

As the webcam has only a mono sound, only one channel should be used ....  the CD format will not work I think.

Also, the hw reference for the webcam needs to be defined in the script, as it will change.

The above worked here for recording sound.


Have you tried putting both arecord and mencoder into separate xterm processes?

I think that will get the two files saved ......  then comes the remuxing part

[Leiche]

Have you tried putting both arecord and mencoder into separate xterm processes?

I choose here all ways, but i can only record audio, or video, both together don't work.
This script worked on my old tower perfectly under kde3 for a long, long, looooonnnng time

[Just18]

I have corrupted the script .....  I was not aware it had previously worked 

The commands that work for me are as follows .....

Code:

xterm -e arecord -v -c 1 -D hw:1,0 -f S16_LE -t wav $NAME.wav & xterm -e mencoder tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0 vcodec=h264 vb=1300 -ovc lavc -noautoexpand -nosound -o $NAME.raw

    killall arecord

mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -o $NAME.avi -audiofile $NAME.wav $NAME.raw

The difficulty I have is that the .raw video file does not play at the correct speed, and thus also does not mux properly.

regards

[Leiche]

raw?
Maybe avi and muxing to mp4 

[Just18]

raw?
Maybe avi and muxing to mp4 

just a unique name I used .....  could have been .xxx

[Leiche]

my lost, sorry, maybe will help -fps 30 ?

Or have you to many frames dropped ?