Webcaming With Ubuntu Is Easy

Seems like only yesterday that getting a webcam to do ANYTHING in Linux was like trying to herd cats with a rubber hose. Today, it honestly could not be easier. Seriously! Thanks to v4l and v4l2 technology, most webcams work out of the box in modern distributions such as Ubuntu.

Speaking for myself, I own both the Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX and both the Logitech Communicate Deluxe. Both work very well, plus thanks to help from the PulseAudio Device Chooser, the included mics are usable out of the box as well.

I have tested both cams in Ubuntu 8.10 using programs such as Cheese, wxCam and WebcamStudio. My experiences are as follows. Cheese is neat for creating ogv files that are unusable with YouTube and creating cool stills. wxCam is still using dated sound technology as to leave ALSA at the curb and relies on OSS which sucks big time. And the audio sounds terrible with wxCam.

But WebcamStudio works pretty well with the understanding that it is a bit of a resource hog. On a decent system, it’s usable though and once mastered, can provide much of the functionality found in Anywebcam or CamTwist. It should be noted however that this is still beta software. That said, its lone developer is very helpful in helping out those who post questions to the forum at the website. I have used it successfully through multiple versions without any real problems.

Unfortunately, without fully understanding just how powerful this app is, most people become frustrated with it and move on. To counter this, I will be doing a video piece (soonish) showing you how to do things from streaming your desktop over Ustream down to simply adding special effects to your own show. It’s actually pretty cool what you can do with this app.

But what about simply recording videos for YouTube? Surely there is a simple way to do this? Ah, but there is. I have tried many methods and have found the most reliable is to use Ustream, streaming turned off if you want to keep it private…then just record with it set to send the finished video off to YouTube. I have done this and have never been disappointed with the quality or the process. Using a cam such as Logitech Communicate Deluxe means you will have a great picture and the “RightLight technology” will show its colors as your video will look awesome.