Setting up your camera
Go ahead, plug in your webcam and boot up the Pi; we'll take a closer look at what makes it tick.
Note
If you experimented with the
dwc_otg.speed
parameter to improve the audio quality during the previous chapter, you should change it back now by changing its value from 1
to 0
, as chances are that your webcam will perform worse or will not perform at all, because of the reduced speed of the USB ports.
Meet the USB Video Class drivers and Video4Linux
Just as the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) system provides kernel drivers and a programming framework for your audio gadgets, there are two important components involved in getting your webcam to work under Linux:
The Linux USB Video Class (UVC) drivers provide the low-level functions for your webcam, which are in accordance with a specification followed by most webcams produced today.
Video4Linux (V4L) is a video capture framework used by applications that record video from webcams, TV tuners, and other video-producing...