On 4/20/05, James <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Jan Drugowitsch <jdrugo <at> gmail.com> writes: > > > I've been looking around online, but I haven't found any good summary > > and comparison page about the use of recently priced webcams for the > > use with linux (and in particular Gentoo). Could anyone recommend > > webcams that are properly supported in linux and are not too expensive > > but have a good quality/price ratio? Tips on which ones to avoid would > > also be welcome!
[snip] > Also, the term 'webcam' is a bit too generic. Are you after cameras to be used > with your web_whatever that are based on usb (usb1.1 or usb 2.0)? Or are > your after cameras that output video right over ethernet, or output > ntsc(pal) into a frame grabber board? I ment a standard (cheap but capable) usb webcam. > Also, you have to look at the output format i.e. mjpeg, which is jerky and low > quality in general or something new and fantastic, such as H.264. Camera > technology that works over ethernet with TCP/ip is in flux right now, > due to a wide variety of issues. You may want a camera that supports > open standards for video, such as Ogg-theora. > > My suggestions is you read for a few weeks/months to decide what you are > doing, > what work with the kernel version(s) you intend to use, and what new > technologies > are applicable to your needs. I intend to use it with >2.6.10 kernels. However, the v4l driver section only gives the chipset and it's not too easy to gather information about what chipset is in what camera > For a cool viewing package, check out Zoneminder. Xawtv and Came and mplayer. > In their documentation, or any other package you are going to use to > view the video, usually they list cameras that are know to work. Will do, thanks for the tip. > One important caveat. Vendors often change the chipsets used in cameras > but keep the name of the camera the same. So one particular make and model > of a camera may work and yet another does not, because the ass_hole vendor > switched the chipsets used in the camera. When they switch chipsets > you usually need to use a different device driver to get it > working under linux. USBVIEW and USBUTILS are great > tools for discovering details of usb based cameras. > > PCI based cards can be discerned by lscpi lshw commands. > > Test before you purchase is my recommendation. Thanks for all the information! The testing before purchase won't be easy, but I'll see what the shops say about that. Jan -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
