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Dorian_Hawkmoon

Member

Registered: 2013-09-01

Posts: 18

Webcam with more than one application

Hi everyone!

I have a webcam Logitech HD Webcam C525 fully functional with driver linux-uvc following the wiki. I can use it without problems in cheese or skype and more.

But I can't use it in both applications at the same time, the first application gets the webcam and the second application don't find the webcam, don't mind the order and the applications, it is like that only one application can use the webcam at the same time.

Is there any way to share the webcam between two or more applications?

Greetings!

phw

Member

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 318

Re: Webcam with more than one application

I know there is software for Windows which creates a virtual webcam so multiple apps can access the same webcam simultaneously (kinda like what a sound server does, but for webcams). But I don't know whether something similar exists on Linux.

In theory it should be possible to have an application which reads from the original video device and creates multiple virtual devices so you can point each app to a separete virtual device. But I too couldn't find an existing implementation of this.

Dorian_Hawkmoon

Member

Registered: 2013-09-01

Posts: 18

Re: Webcam with more than one application

Thanks for the idea. I found something but is not complete working
Needed v4l2loopback and ffmpeg to achieve it

modprobe v4l2loopback devices=2
ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -s 800x600 -i /dev/video0 -codec copy -f v4l2 /dev/video1 -codec copy -f v4l2 /dev/video2

That create two virtual cameras and working with two instance of vlc. There's little delay in the image. But none of them was recognized by cheese or skype. I will keep researching about this.

BEEDELLROKEJULIANLOCKHART

Banned

From: `curl -L 'dub.sh/zza'`{.PS1}

Registered: 2022-05-12

Posts: 5

Website

Re: Webcam with more than one application

Have any of you seen https://askubuntu.com/q/165727/1002900? It may answer this for you.

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2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,645

Re: Webcam with more than one application

This thread is ten years old. Please do not necrobump.

Closing.