DV4Linux

Introduction

This program allows applications using the V4L API to receive video from a firewire camcorder.

Detailed Description

DV4Linux provides two utilities v4l and dv4lstart to access a firewire camcorder from a V4L application.

dv4l uses the Vloopback kernel module to push the camcorder's video streams to a virtual V4L device.

dv4lstart uses shared library preloading to intercept V4L API calls and deliver the camcorder's videostream to the application.

Related programs:

• Dv2Vloopback
• Coriander works for IEEE1394 cameras, not for consumer-grade camcorders

Installation

DV4Linux requires some libraries to access firewire and to convert the frames received from the camcorder, libraw1394, libiec61883, and libdv. See DV4Linux dependencies for details.

Download the [[https://developer.berlios.de/project/filelist.php?group_id=8221] [DV4Linux source code]],

• un-tar it to a free directory with tar xvzf dv4l-xx.tar.gz
• run ./configure
• run make
• as root, run make install If ./configure complains about missing libraries, install those libraries, and try again.

Users Guide

In many cases, you just can call dv4l, without any parameters. dv4l displays the name of the video device you can use in your V4L application.

Some programs, like Kopete or Gqcam require an additional parameter to set the picture size and to enable the appropriate mode. For Kopete, the command line would be dv4l --size 320x240.

After starting dv4l, run your V4L application and select the video device that was displayed by dv4l.

Should your V4L application hang, kill that application before killing dv4l.

To use the camcorder with skype 2.0.0.27beta , use dv4lstart instead of dv4l.

The DV4Linux home page and the man page contain a more complete description.

Comments and Bug Reports

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