[opensuse] Webcam picture quality
I have a Microdia webcam which finally works without much ado. I have tried out xawtv and luvcview and am not impressed by the quality of the images. When running Skype the picture is sharp and quit good. What kind of video program Skype is using? are there better webcam products than luvcview and xawtv? -- Linux User 183145 using a Pentium III , powered by openSUSE 11.2 (i586) Kernel: 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop KDE Development Platform: 4.4.2 (KDE 4.4.2) 11:21am up 21:48, 5 users, load average: 1.09, 0.60, 0.44 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 11:26 +0700, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
I have a Microdia webcam which finally works without much ado. I have tried out xawtv and luvcview and am not impressed by the quality of the images. When running Skype the picture is sharp and quit good. What kind of video program Skype is using? are there better webcam products than luvcview and xawtv?
The first thing is to see what the camera is really sending. The best app I have found (i.e., it actually runs) is cheese. With that you can see that the camera can provide quality images. It comes with openSUSE 11.2. If the images look good in cheese, then the issue is the app. If the images look bad in cheese, then it is a camera/driver issue. At least this is my experience. When it comes to skype, and many flash web cam interfaces, it seems the specific resolution used and frame rate are not under user control. I also find this frustrating. Perhaps I have missed something. I can see an excellent image in cheese, but skype is using relative crap. I see this in the skype test window. Of course skype needs to be efficient. But I think there is something wrong as the images look so bad. I am running the current skype beta. Maybe someone else knows where to tell skype (or flash) what resolution/frame rate to use. I suspect, however, that they do not let users specify this. -- Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 05/05/10 16:29, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 11:26 +0700, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
I have a Microdia webcam which finally works without much ado. I have tried out xawtv and luvcview and am not impressed by the quality of the images. When running Skype the picture is sharp and quit good. What kind of video program Skype is using? are there better webcam products than luvcview and xawtv?
The first thing is to see what the camera is really sending. The best app I have found (i.e., it actually runs) is cheese. With that you can see that the camera can provide quality images. It comes with openSUSE 11.2. If the images look good in cheese, then the issue is the app. If the images look bad in cheese, then it is a camera/driver issue. At least this is my experience.
When it comes to skype, and many flash web cam interfaces, it seems the specific resolution used and frame rate are not under user control. I also find this frustrating. Perhaps I have missed something. I can see an excellent image in cheese, but skype is using relative crap. I see this in the skype test window. Of course skype needs to be efficient. But I think there is something wrong as the images look so bad. I am running the current skype beta. Maybe someone else knows where to tell skype (or flash) what resolution/frame rate to use. I suspect, however, that they do not let users specify this.
*/Just tried cheese with my webcam (logitech). Works fine in Skype, doesn't work at all in cheese...? John /* -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 19:11 +1000, John Bennett wrote:
*/Just tried cheese with my webcam (logitech). Works fine in Skype, doesn't work at all in cheese...?
OK. I can only relate my experience, which is with a logitech as well. I tried all the various webcam apps what come with opensuse. cheese was the only one that seemed to work properly. It uses v4l2 as the interface. Does your camera show up at all? -- Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden Office: Int +46 10-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 05/05/10 19:39, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 19:11 +1000, John Bennett wrote:
*/Just tried cheese with my webcam (logitech). Works fine in Skype, doesn't work at all in cheese...?
OK. I can only relate my experience, which is with a logitech as well. I tried all the various webcam apps what come with opensuse. cheese was the only one that seemed to work properly. It uses v4l2 as the interface. Does your camera show up at all?
I am a bit confused... Set to dev/video0 which is in theory the webcam, I get what looks like a test pattern, with "off channel" square static area in the bottom RH corner. If I set cheese to my TV card (dev/video1 - a kworld digital - Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d0)) I just get a black screen... John. *//* -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 05/05/10 19:39, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 19:11 +1000, John Bennett wrote:
*/Just tried cheese with my webcam (logitech). Works fine in Skype, doesn't work at all in cheese...?
OK. I can only relate my experience, which is with a logitech as well. I tried all the various webcam apps what come with opensuse. cheese was the only one that seemed to work properly. It uses v4l2 as the interface. Does your camera show up at all?
I am a bit confused... Set to dev/video0 which is in theory the webcam, I get what looks like a test pattern, with "off channel" square static area in the bottom RH corner. If I set cheese to my TV card (dev/video1 - a kworld digital - Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d0)) I just get a black screen... John. *//* Think I had the same test pattern. After I went into preferences I found
On Thursday 06 May 2010 16:14:12 John Bennett wrote: that cheese was trying to use my TV card on video1. Clicking on the small window with this info I was given the choice of my USB camera and everything was fine. -- Linux User 183145 using a Pentium III , powered by openSUSE 11.2 (i586) Kernel: 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop KDE Development Platform: 4.4.2 (KDE 4.4.2) 21:10pm up 2 days 7:37, 3 users, load average: 2.28, 1.29, 0.79 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 07/05/10 00:13, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
On Thursday 06 May 2010 16:14:12 John Bennett wrote:
On 05/05/10 19:39, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 19:11 +1000, John Bennett wrote:
*/Just tried cheese with my webcam (logitech). Works fine in Skype, doesn't work at all in cheese...? kworld digital - Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d0)) I just get a black screen... John. *//*
Think I had the same test pattern. After I went into preferences I found that cheese was trying to use my TV card on video1. Clicking on the small window with this info I was given the choice of my USB camera and everything was fine.
*/Still having no success... :-( John. /* -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wednesday 05 May 2010 13:29:12 Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
On Wed, 2010-05-05 at 11:26 +0700, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
I have a Microdia webcam which finally works without much ado. I have tried out xawtv and luvcview and am not impressed by the quality of the images. When running Skype the picture is sharp and quit good. What kind of video program Skype is using? are there better webcam products than luvcview and xawtv?
The first thing is to see what the camera is really sending. The best app I have found (i.e., it actually runs) is cheese. With that you can see that the camera can provide quality images. It comes with openSUSE 11.2. If the images look good in cheese, then the issue is the app. If the images look bad in cheese, then it is a camera/driver issue. At least this is my experience.
Thanks for the "cheese" idea. Images are better than I hoped for. As with Skype, the test image was not that bad but right now I know it should/could be better. -- Linux User 183145 using a Pentium III , powered by openSUSE 11.2 (i586) Kernel: 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop KDE Development Platform: 4.4.2 (KDE 4.4.2) 16:12pm up 1 day 2:38, 5 users, load average: 3.01, 2.74, 1.82 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (3)
-
Constant Brouerius van Nidek -
John Bennett -
Roger Oberholtzer