Canyon CN-WCAM21 webcam with ffmpeg
- 09 May 2017: Post was created (diff)
Trying to take a screenshot with my webcam using ffmpeg. Using ffmpeg is making it possible to turn the camera on, wait for brightness/gamma correction, then take a snapshot when I deem it to be ready. For me I assume 5 seconds should be ready.
My initial try which worked fine with my built-in webcam, threw an error at me when trying with my (old!!!) CN-WCAM21
$ ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video1 -f image2 /tmp/screen.jpeg
ffmpeg version 3.3 Copyright (c) 2000-2017 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 6.3.1 (GCC) 20170306
configuration: --prefix=/usr --disable-debug --disable-static --disable-stripping --enable-avisynth --enable-avresample --enable-fontconfig --enable-gmp --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgsm --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libv4l2 --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxcb --enable-libxvid --enable-netcdf --enable-shared --enable-version3
libavutil 55. 58.100 / 55. 58.100
libavcodec 57. 89.100 / 57. 89.100
libavformat 57. 71.100 / 57. 71.100
libavdevice 57. 6.100 / 57. 6.100
libavfilter 6. 82.100 / 6. 82.100
libavresample 3. 5. 0 / 3. 5. 0
libswscale 4. 6.100 / 4. 6.100
libswresample 2. 7.100 / 2. 7.100
libpostproc 54. 5.100 / 54. 5.100
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x55d662616560] Cannot find a proper format for codec 'none' (id 0), pixel format 'none' (id -1)
Assertion *codec_id != AV_CODEC_ID_NONE failed at libavdevice/v4l2.c:808
Got it to work by setting LD_PRELOAD environment variable loading video4linux1 driver
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so ffmpeg -f v4l2 -t 6 -i /dev/video1 -r 1 -f image2 /tmp/screen%03d.jpeg
The above command starts the video stream, takes a screenshot (-f image2) every second (-r 1), then stops after 6 seconds (-t)
References
If you have any comments or feedback, please send me an e-mail. (stig at stigok dotcom).
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