22

Is there a way to redirect a real webcam to a virtual webcam from the command line, for example using the v4l2loopback module with ffmpeg ?

Details

I have an old webcam which works with most software (vlc, cheese, etc.), but not with others (Skype).

A possible workaround to make it work with such software is to redirect it to a virtual webcam using the v4l2loopback module, as done by Webcamoid, but I need to do it from the command line, for example via ffmpeg.

I am sure this is possible via ffmpeg as well, but since real webcams are rarely redirected to virtual ones, I found no examples online (the only examples I have found, like this one, redirect screen captures or existing videos to the virtual webcam instead).

Community
  • 1
GeekInDisguise
  • 733

2 Answers2

26

Based on this answer (already mentioned in the question) I think I have found a solution by myself, and it works with Skype!

Suppose the real webcam is in /dev/video0. When you run

modprobe v4l2loopback

the module creates a second (virtual) webcam, for example in /dev/video1. At this point, it is sufficient to execute:

ffmpeg -i /dev/video0 -vcodec rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -threads 0 -f v4l2 /dev/video1

and the new virtual webcam is ready to be used and selected with Skype as well.

GeekInDisguise
  • 733
0

For me i must place LD_PRELOAD before like this :

LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libv4l/v4l1compat.so" ffmpeg -i /dev/video0 -vcodec rawvideo -pixel_format rgb24 -vsync 2 -threads 0 -f v4l2 /dev/video1

Precision : for Q4OS

llogan
  • 12,348
user1386481
  • 1