Ubuntu
vlc package

Webcam streaming using VLC

Asked by daroyski on 2008-02-12

I have a webcam installed and it's working fine.... I also installed VLC....I just want to use my webcam to monitor my office remotely... How do I do this? Can somebody tell me the step by step process of doing this? I'm still not well versed in Linux.

Question information

Language:: English Edit question

Status:: Answered

For:: Ubuntu vlc Edit question

Assignee:: No assignee Edit question

Last query:: 2008-02-12

Last reply:: 2008-02-12

Link existing bug

Revision history for this message

Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said on 2008-02-12:

Hello:

This link wiill give you some info on setting up of webcams:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Webcam

as far as streaming goes,It is not that difficult at the outset.. :)

Basically:
- before you install motion make sure to have ffmpeg + lavcodecs installed
- after you install motion from repos/synaptic (just regular installation), locate the motion.conf file (in Edgy this is located in /etc/motion; could as well be in /usr/local/etc).

whatever you want motion to do, or want to change any settings this is being done in that file. The original file will contain default settings which may (or may not) be sufficient to have it running, but you may want to take a look at some basic tuning, like:
width (of picture/movie = > this should be according to your webcam specs)
height
framerate (of you video = > this should be according to your webcam specs)
quality (of the jpegs used to build your video)
etc

As you see, it is no magic - just very normal settings you would want to put in any video file.

Take a look at:
http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion
anything you need to know is Here

The download file is here:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/motion/motion_3.2.9-0.ubuntu.gutsy_i386.deb?download

(Just save the file double click on it and install the package(Since its .deb just a double click installs the package))

Usage is given above..

Hope that helps

Bhavani Shankar.

Revision history for this message

Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said on 2008-02-12:

As said above you can use synaptic package manager to download motion Just go to system > administration > synaptic package manager.. Give a search for "motion" as key words.. right click on the box next to motion package and click on mark for installation and then click apply..

A few notes:

(1).To enable extra repositories in ubuntu ref:

http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=2794

(2). If you want to use command line then type the following command in a terminal (applications -> accessories -> Terminal)

sudo apt-get install motion

(3).For a detailed info about synaptic package manager refer:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SynapticHowto

Hope it helps

Bhavani Shankar.