Arch Linux

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

I picked up one of these off ebay cause they looked pretty nice.  I love the webcam, it has a great design.  But it's turning out to be kind of a PITA to get working right.  ATM, the only piece of software I can use this camera with is luvcview (yes, it looks to be a UVC camera).  It seems alright, but it is really ... hackjobby.  There's a significany video delay, it seems to not have audio recording support, and the video quality is pretty terrible.  I've seen videos on the internet of people posting with these webcams, and the quality of the video is much higher than what I've been able to obtain.  This makes me curious if this camera is enhanced with proprietary MS code when running in Windows (I sure hope not!).

Regardless, I've been trying the camera with different pieces of software.  Cheese always pops up for just a split second, crashes, and verboses "Segmentation Fault" at the terminal.  Ekiga can't use the webcam either, but the light on the front of it flashes a couple times when I try to.  I installed the linux-uvc-svn driver, and uvcvideo is automatically probed when I plug the camera in (as well as snd_usb_audio).  I've heard of other people having success with this camera so I'm curious if I've missed anything!

Fatsobob

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2006-06-27

Posts: 126

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

Some other programs to try out are aMSN and kopete. Both have camera supported and I used them as a major test.
Also, I have never been able to get cheese working either, same exact problem and I have tried compiling manually as well.

ADD: Post 100 YAY!

Last edited by Fatsobob (2008-03-06 08:42:28)

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

Hmmmm ... I've been trying other things and I get a really interesting message from fswebcam ...

[max@pwn ~]$ fswebcam | xsel -i
--- Opening /dev/video0...
Trying source module v4l2...
/dev/video0 opened.
No input was specified, using the first.
Adjusting resolution from 384x288 to 352x288.
--- Capturing frame...
gd-jpeg: JPEG library reports unrecoverable error: Not a JPEG file: starts with 0x02 0x8a
Captured frame in 0.00 seconds.
--- Processing captured image...
There are unsaved changes to the image.

Not a JPEG file?

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

Well, the picture quality is a lot better during the day.  I still wish luvcview could record audio though.

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

What app would I use to record a simple video for youtube with this camera?

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

bump

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

Think it'd be better to use a different webcam?

synthead

Member

Registered: 2006-05-09

Posts: 1,337

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

Update: I found an app called guvcview that is based off luvcview.  It is more feature-laden and user-friendly, which also means ... it supports sound!  I made a PKGBUILD for it and uploaded it to the AUR.  Enjoy!

Zerathidune

Member

Registered: 2007-02-25

Posts: 102

Re: Microsoft NX-6000 Webcam and Arch Linux

I'm having the same issue. my uvc camera will only work with luvcview and guvcview. maybe it has something to do with the fact that the uvc driver only suports v4l2, and not v4l, but that seems unlikely to me since even apps that claim to support v4l2 don't work with it. Way back I had this working.

btw, thanks for the PKGBUILD.