Features/BetterWebcamSupportF13

Better Webcam Support Continued

Summary

The Better Webcam support feature for F-10 and F-12 has added support for many webcams, but there still are models which are unsupported the goal of this feature is to get even more webcams supported out of the box, with a special focus on so called dual mode camera's for this release.

Owner

• Name: Hans de Goede
• Email: hdegoede redhat com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 13
• Last updated: (Mar 18 2010)
• Percentage of completion: 100%

Detailed Description

The Better Webcam support feature for F-10 has done much of the groundwork needed for properly supporting webcams in Linux. We now have a library (libv4l) for decompressing various proprietary video formats in userspace, and almost all webcam using applications have been patched to use this library.

This third push for better webcam contains of 4 pieces:

1. Lots of testing and bugfixing / improving of existing in kernel drivers. I need access to cams for this! As you can see in the matrix below I already have quite a few of them, most of which were bought from my own money especially for this. If you have old cams to donate please contact me!
2. Try to make the ever growing list of upside down mounted laptop webcams as complete as possible, so people will not have any upside down issues out of the box.
3. Clean up existing out of tree drivers, moving the decompression to libv4l where needed and merge them into the mainline, specifically the following ones:
   1. stv0680 dual mode camera bridge (done as of 2.6.33rc2)
   2. w996Xcf dual mode camera bridge (done as of 2.6.33rc2)
   3. ovfx2 webcam bridge (done as of 2.6.33rc2)
   4. cpia1 webcam soc (done as of 2.6.33-0.49.rc8.git4)
4. Help upstream and specifically Theodore Kilgore from gphoto2 to get kernel drivers supporting the streaming mode of dual mode cameras (still cams which can act as webcams) into the mainline kernel, specifically for the following chipsets:
   1. mr97310a dual mode camera bridge (done as of 2.6.33rc2)
   2. sn9c2028 dual mode camera bridge (done as of 2.6.33-0.49.rc8.git4)
   3. benq dual mode camera bridge (done as of 2.6.33-0.49.rc8.git4)

Benefit to Fedora

Out of the box working hardware makes for happy end users and good reviews.

Scope

This may require temporarily carrying kernel patches if drivers are clearly moving upstream, but not there yet in time for release.

This requires updating libv4l to a version which contains an up2date upside down table and can decompress any formats produced by new drivers.

Test Plan

I currently test with the following webcams:

Webcam	USB ID	Bridge	Sensor	Status
Sweex WC001	0c45:6005	sn9c101	tas5110c	ok
Hewi cam	0c45:6007	sn9c101	tas5110d	ok (8)
Trust spacecam 120	0c45:600d	sn9c101	pas106	ok
Sweex WC004	0c45:6011	sn9c101	ov6650	ok
Qware EasyCam WB-001	0c45:6028	sn9c102	pas202	ok (1)
Sansun SN-520	0c45:608f	sn9c103	ov7630	ok
SanSun webcam	0c45:60c0	sn9c105	mi0360	needs work
Premier Chatpack cam	0c45:613e	sn9c120	ov7630	good
Sitecom Voicecam	0c45:62bb	sn9c202	ov7660	needs work
Canyon Chatpack CNR-CP2 Cam	0c45:6128	sn9c325	om6802	ok
I.T. Works PCW 03	093a:2460	pac207	integrated	ok
Trust WB-1400T	093a:2468	pac207	integrated	ok
Canyon CN-WCAM21	093a:2468	pac207	integrated	ok
Sweex JA00050	093a:2468	pac207	integrated	ok
Sitecom VP-010	093a:2468	pac207	integrated	ok
Sweex WC004v2	093a:2468	pac207	integrated	ok (8)
Pleomax / Typhoon Easycam 330K	093a:2600	pac7311	integrated	ok
Trust WB-3400T	093a:260e	pac7311	integrated	ok
MicroInv (MI) webcam	093a:260e	pac7311	integrated	ok (7)
Nobrand cam	093a:2620	pac7302	integrated	ok
I.T. Works notebook cam	093a:2621	pac7302	integrated	ok
Philips SPC 200NC	0471:0325	zc3xx	pas106	ok (1)
Philips SPC 200NC	0471:0325	zc3xx	pas106	ok (8)
Logitech QuickCam IM/Connect	046d:08d9	zc3xx	hv7131r	good (1)
Logitech QuickCam E2500	046d:089d	zc3xx	mc501cb	needs work (3)
Labtec notebook cam	046d:08aa	zc3xx	hdcs2020	ok
Creative WebCam NX Pro	041e:401e	zc3xx	hv7131b	ok
Creative WebCam Notebook	041e:401f	zc3xx	tas5130c	good
Creative Live! Cam Video IM	041e:4053	zc3xx	tas5130-vf250	good
No brand	0ac8:307b	zc3xx	ADCM2700	good (4)
Intel Create and Share	0733:0401	spca501	integrated	ok
Creative WebCam Vista	041e:403b	spca561	integrated	ok (1)
Logitech QuickCam Express	046d:0928	spca561	integrated	ok
Logitech QuickCam Chat	046d:092e	spca561	integrated	ok
Logitech QuickCam Express Plus	046d:092f	spca561	integrated	ok
No Brand	04fc:0561	spca561rev72	integrated	needs work
Creative Webcam Pro	05a9:a511	ov511+	ov7620	good (1)
Philips PCVC720K/00	05a9:0518	ov518	ov66308AE	ok
Philips PCVC820K/00	05a9:0518	ov518	ov66308AF	ok (1)
Trust spacecam 320	05a9:a518	ov518+	ov7620AE	good
Creative Live! VISTA VF0420	041e:4064	ov519	ov7670	good
Playstation EyeToy camera	054c:0155	ov519	OV7648	good
OmniVision "2800" ref. board	05a9:2800	ovfx2	ov3610	good (5)
Logitech QuickCam Express	046d:0840	stv0600	pb100	ok (2)
Logitech QuickCam Messenger	046d:08f0	st6422	integrated	ok
Logitech QuickCam Mess. Plus	046d:08f6	st6422	integrated	ok
Creative ?	0553:0002	cpia1	CIF	ok
Ezonics ezcam	0553:0002	cpia1	CIF	ok (6)
Logitech QuickCam 4000 Pro	046d:08b2	pwc	?	good
Logitech QuickCam 4000 Pro	046d:08b2	pwc	?	good
Logitech QuickCam 4000 Pro	046d:08b2	pwc	?	good (8)
Kensington VideoCam CABO II	047d:5002	se401	?	Does not work (6)
Dynalink ???	06be:d001	NW802	integrated	Does not work out of tree driver
Oregon scientific photo camera	0553:0202	stv0680	CIF	ok
Aiptek PenCam 1	0553:0202	stv0680	CIF	ok (6)
Kinel 40C300	0553:0202	stv0680	VGA	ok
Vivitar mini photo camera	093a:010e	mr97310a	CIF type 0	ok (2)
CD302N	093a:010f	m397310a	VGA type 1	ok
SIPIX dual mode camera	2770:9120	sq905	VGA	ok
No brand (aiptek pencam housing)	2770:9120	sq905	VGA	ok
Trust 100 MobileC@m	2770:9120	sq905	CIF	ok
Smart Mini Digital Camera	2770:9120	sq905	CIF	ok
Mini Digital Camera (pink)	2770:905c	sq905c	CIF	ok
No brand silver compact	2770:905c	sq905c	CIF	ok
Card cam 300 (silver compact)	2770:905c	sq905c	VGA	ok
Mustek MDC 3000	055f:b500	zr364xx	?	ok (6)
Creative VideoBlaster Go Plus	041e:4003	w9967cf	?	ok (6)
Microsoft Lifecam VX-500	045e:074a	uvcvideo	NA	good
Logitech Sphere MP	046d:08cc	uvcvideo	NA	good

Legenda:

• good, works well
• ok, works but not the best cam ever (with the Linux drivers)
• needs work, works ok in (not too bright) daylight, but needs more work to work better in other lighting conditions.
• WIP, the driver for this is currently being written / cleaned up for mainline merger

Note that the status column refers to the status with the latest v4l-dvb mercurial tree¸ which Fedora is tracking pretty closely, but Fedora can lag a little.

Credits, cameras marked (#) are donated by:

1. Jan Gnodde
2. Dave Jones
3. Andy Walter
4. Simon Wood
5. Erik de Castro Lopo
6. Hans Verkuil
7. Laurent Pinchart
8. Paulus (Laudaka)

Many many thanks to these people!

Also see here for cams which are supported by gspca and their testing status with the new cleaned up gspcav2.

Tests are done with the following applications:

• xawtv
• cheese
• ekiga
• camorama
• vlc *
• mplayer *
• skype *

(*) Not in Fedora

User Experience

Out of the box working hardware.

Dependencies

None.

Contingency Plan

Don't ship the new drivers / updated libv4l if they aren't ready.

Documentation

Fedora 13 now supports even more webcams and has the support for several existing cams improved.

Release Notes

Fedora 13 now supports the webcam mode of a lot of so called dual mode cameras, these are cheap still cameras (which usually only on board storage, no memory card slot), which can can also function as a webcam.

When running the GNOME desktop (Fedora's default desktop), these camera's will be seen as a storage device by default. To use them as webcam go to Places -> Computer, right click on the camera icon and select unmount, you should now be able to use the camera as webcam.

For a list of all webcams and applications with which Fedora-13's improved webcam support has been tested see the BetterWebcamSupport feature page.

Comments and Discussion

See Talk:Features/BetterWebcamSupport13

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