Re: [RFC PATCH] media: Virtual camera driver

[Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>]

On Mon, Feb 02, 2026 at 12:36:44PM +0100, Gergo Koteles wrote:
> On Mon, 2026-02-02 at 02:02 +0100, Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> > On Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:25:37 +0100
> > Oleksandr Natalenko <oleksandr@natalenko.name> wrote:
> > 
> > > Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:25:37 +0100
> > > From: Oleksandr Natalenko <oleksandr@natalenko.name>
> > > To: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@kernel.org>
> > > Cc: Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>, Jarkko Sakkinen <jarkko@kernel.org>, linux-media@vger.kernel.org, jani.nikula@linux.intel.com, anisse@astier.eu, Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>, Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@kernel.org>, Sakari Ailus <sakari.ailus@linux.intel.com>, Jacopo Mondi <jacopo.mondi@ideasonboard.com>, Ricardo Ribalda <ribalda@chromium.org>, open list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
> > > Message-ID: <13939245.uLZWGnKmhe@natalenko.name>
> > > 
> > > On pondělí 2. února 2026 0:17:20, středoevropský standardní čas Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote:
> > > > No. At the machine with the camera, obs can read from a V4L2 input,
> > > > generate a mpeg TS stream, and listen to a UDP port (for instance). 
> > > > 
> > > > At the remote machine, you can just pass the URL to ffmpeg.  
> > > 
> > > I can't, I have to feed the stream into Firefox somehow for it to see the stream as a virtual webcam.
> > 
> > Motioneye could be used on such scenario. It has a proper web
> > interface, allows multiple users to watch, has login control accepts
> > multiple cameras.
> > 
> 
> WebRTC in browsers isn't that bad. Firefox and Chrome also have
> PipeWire video support. 
> 
> If I understand correctly, it would be more forward-thinking to develop
> virtual camera support in PipeWire rather than in the kernel.

I don't think there's even a need for development in PipeWire

$ gst-launch-1.0 \
	videotestsrc ! \
	video/x-raw,format=YUY2 ! \
	pipewiresink mode=provide stream-properties="properties,media.class=Video/Source,media.role=Camera"

This gives me a virtual camera in Firefox. Extending the GStreamer
pipeline to get the video stream from the network should be quite
trivial.

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart