Even Better Webcam Support

Summary

The Better Webcam support feature for F-10 has added support for many webcams, but there still are many models which are unsupported the goal of this feature is to get a whole lot more webcams supported out of the box.

Owner

Name: Hans de Goede

Current status

Targeted release: Fedora 12
Last updated: (Jun 15 2009)
Percentage of completion: 30%

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.

The second push for better webcam contains of 3 pieces:

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!
Add video processing to libv4l for better video quality for cams which lack any of the following in hardware:
1. White Balancing
2. Gamma Correction
3. Automatic adjustment of Exposure / Gain
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. qc-usb: stv0600 (and alike) based cams mainly logitech quickcam express (done as of kernel 2.6.29)
2. ov51x-jpeg: ov511(+) and ov518(+) driver
3. qc-usb-messenger: st6422 based cams mainly logitech quickcam messenger models
4. sn9c20x: sn9c20x based cams, many newer cheap cams

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 the new video processing code 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	tas5110	ok
Trust spacecam 120	0c45:600d	sn9c101	pas106	needs work
Sweex WC004	0c45:6011	sn9c101	ov6650	ok
Qware EasyCam WB-001	0c45:6028	sn9c102	pas202	needs work
Premier Chatpack cam	0c45:613e	sn9c120	ov7630	good
Canyon Chatpack CNR-CP2 Cam	0c45:6128	sn9c325	om6802	Does not work
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
Pleomax / Typhoon Easycam 330K	093a:2600	pac7311	integrated	ok
Trust WB-3400T	093a:260e	pac7311	integrated	ok
Nobrand cam	093a:2620	pac7302	integrated	ok
I.T. Works notebook cam	093a:2621	pac7302	integrated	ok
Philips SPC 200NC	0471:0325	zc3xx	PAS106	needs work
Logitech QuickCam IM/Connect	046d:08d9	zc3xx	HV7131R	good
Labtec notebook cam	046d:08aa	zc3xx	HDCS2020	needs work
Creative WebCam NX Pro	041e:401e	zc3xx	HV7131B	good
Creative WebCam Notebook	041e:401f	zc3xx	TAS5130	good
Creative Live! Cam Video IM	041e:4053	zc3xx	TAS5130	good
Intel Create and Share	0733:0401	spca501	integrated	ok
Creative WebCam Vista	041e:403b	spca561	integrated	ok
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
Creative Webcam Pro	05a9:a511	ov511+	OV7620	good
Philips PCVC720K/00	05a9:0518	ov518	OV66308AE	ok
Philips PCVC820K/00	05a9:0518	ov518	OV66308AF	ok
Trust spacecam 320	05a9:a518	ov518+	OV7620AE	good
Creative Live! VISTA VF0420	041e:4064	ov519	OV7670	good
Logitech QuickCam Express	046d:0840	STV0600	PB100	ok
Logitech QuickCam Messenger	046d:08f0	ST6422	integrated	ok
Logitech QuickCam Mess. Plus	046d:08f6	ST6422	integrated	ok
Oregon scientific photo camera	0553:0202	STV0680	?	?
Logitech QuickCam 4000 Pro	046d:08b2	PWC	?	good
Vivitar mini photo camera	093a:010e	mr97310a	?	WIP
Creative ?	0553:0002	CPIA1	?	ok (v4l1)
Microsoft Lifecam VX-500	045e:074a	uvcvideo	NA	good
Logitech Sphere MP	046d:08cc	uvcvideo	NA	good
Dynalink ???	06be:d001	NW802	integrated	Does not work out of tree driver
Sitecom Voicecam	0c45:62bb	sn0c202	ov7660	Does not work out of tree driver

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.

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 12 now supports even more webcams and has the support for several existing cams improved leading to (sometimes much) improved video quality.

Release Notes