What program for a video (motion picture) web cam?

[dougmack]

Latest release seems not to have Kamodo any more. It could record motion pictures, but not sound (even tho it was supposed to).
What is there now?  It would be nice if there's a program that also includes sound, since my HP webcam has a mic in it.

--doug

[bicol_willem]

Tried Cheese?

[bnc75ohm]

With Kdenlive you can also record video from a webcam and sound from a mic. 

[dougmack]

Synaptic, re kdenlive: "Depends: libmlt4 but it is not installable"  I looked at cheese some time ago, and was confused.  I'll take another look.
According to Google, guvcview is supposed to do what I'd like, but it makes a pretty picture, and somehow--not sure how, since the save command
is sporadic---saves it, but I can't figure out how you're supposed to play it back, so I don't know what the result was.
Googled for instructions for the GUI, but only found reference to a command-line interface via a man page that might as well be written in Greek.
I would appreciate being sent to a user manual for guvcview (GUI) if there is one.

Thanks for looking.  BTW, I think the original file name was kamoso, with an "s" but it doesn't matter now.

--doug
           

[Just17]

Maybe if you explain your difficulty with Guvcview we can help.

It works well here .....  the only difficulty I ever really had with it is that some older webcams require a low res setting for the video .....  but it appears to work properly with modern webcams (that are uvc compliant)

[dougmack]

Looked again at Cheese.  It only takes snapshots, not motion-pictures. Now I now what confused me! However sometimes snapshots
are all you need.
I'm looking at guvcview now. It seems to have a frame rate of 1fps--hardly real-time video! It would need at least 16fps
to be a useful video tool.  If that's the frame rate, I'm still looking for a tool.  Also, I don't know how to display what has been saved.
I went to "open" and found a file I thought I saved yesterday, but when I snapped on it, nothing happened--I was still looking at "live" pictures--
i.e., "now" frames.   
What does SKYPE do? Don't they use live video?  Or am I thinking of some other video chat routine?

Thanx for looking--doug

[Just17]

To play the video go to the location you saved it in and open it with a video player such as VLC.

The Save & Open buttons on the bottom of the Guvcview window are for saving and loading profiles.

The frame rate to be used is selectable from the drop-down, as are most of the other user choices.

I think the audio is not enabled by default so you need to tick that to enable it if you want it.

[dougmack]

Interesting.  I found a file, apparently from yesterday, and played it on vlc.  It was at a good frame frate, no sound.
Today, however, the frame rate I see is 1/1, and snapping on the pull-down mark next to the frame rate bar does nothing.
That's the kind of thing that needs a manual. Probably the capability is there, but how do you invoke it?

--doug

[Just17]

Try reducing the size of the video and you should get better framerates

[dougmack]

Shrunk the picture on screen down to thumbnail size--didn't help.  Changed the resolution to 160x120--didn't help. I still can't change the fps.
--doug

[Just17]

changing the video resolution in the settings should do it .....  altering the size of the displayed picture would have no effect

[dougmack]

It seems the video resolution did NOT do it, but by holding my mouth right (trumpet player's idiom) I did get it to record video (only--no sound,)
It seems to have no advantage over kamoso, except that it's way more complicated with no instruction manual.  I give up.
Thanx for trying.  --doug

[Just17]

OK.

As I pointed out in an earlier post you need to enable the audio capture ....   and indeed ensure the correct device is listed to record from.

[dougmack]

The sound checkbox was checked.  I have decided that a Jazz cheapie video camera is an easier solution.  All the computing requirements are built in.
Video and sound automatically. (I already have the camera. Not a bad $20 investment.) All I have to do is pull the memory card and stick it in the computer.  Voilà!
 
It's true that Microsoft "help" is usually useless, but at least they try. About the only Linux programs I know that have any instructions are the
word processors and maybe the spread sheets. (I don't use spread sheets,thank God. I'm retired.)

Thanx for the inputs, but I meant it: I give up.

--doug

[Just17]

I am sure there are help posts on the internet if that is what you need .... like this one

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/02/05/record-from-your-web-cam-in-linux-with-guvcview/