webcam

[Randy Rathbun]

I have yet to see a USB camera run under Linux. Maybe one day it will
work, but I am not counting on it at the moment. This is not a flame at
the USB developers - this is a flame aimed at the manufacturers for not
releasing specs.

Parallel cameras are a bit simpler to get running under Linux (but not
all! The above applies to paralell devices just like USB), but when they
do work there is a huge sucking sound that is emitted from your CPU as
cycles start to go by the wayside.

If you go with a vidcap card such as the Happauge, for instance, you can
watch TV on your monitor as well. Sounds stupid, I know, but it is fun to
have a little window up and watch TV while chatting on IRC or something.

On Mon, 14 May 2001, Brian Densmore wrote:

> Randy,
>
> > Also, stay away from parallel port/usb port cameras. They stink.
>
> Could you qualify that statement? There are some really cheap usb cameras
> out there, and I had thought about picking one up just to play with, to see
> if I want to get serious about having a camera on my PC. Are they easy to
> use? Do they capture usable quality pictures? I thought it might be a good
> way to capture some faces on my PC, maybe the cat, etc. Especially since I
> can't use my parallel port scanner in Linux (what a bummer, got a nice
> scanner and can't even use unless I want to use Winblows).
>
>
> > Use a vidcap board and real camera. The quality is much better.
>
> No doubt about that, obviously they take a big load off the cpu and ram.
>
> Thanks,
> Brian
>

-- 

Randy Rathbun, NV0U                      randy at randyrathbun.org
nv0u at arrl.net       Elecraft K2 #1981 ARS #895  QRP-ARCI #10776
http://randyrathbun.org http://quitequitefantastic.org
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