720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

[Csillag Kristof]

Dear linux-media users,

I have stopped following the advancements in Linux video
(and video hw in general) a while ago, so I am no longer
up to date with the current technologies,
therefore I seek your advice.

I am looking for for a webcam that
  - works properly under GNU/Linux (without proprietary drivers)
  - connects via USB 2.0
  - can capture 720p video at 25 or 30 FPS
  - provides a video stream that
    - is hardware compressed by the camera
    - can be recorded to a file with minimal CPU requirements
      (Bonus points if it's wrapped a nice container format,
      so that I can simply record it by something like
      cat /dev/video0 > capture.mpeg
      - like old Hauppauge PVR-250 cards )
    - can be decoded by VDPAU hw acceleration

I have tried to look into this, and it seems that the status for H264
streams for UVC webcams is still problematic.

However, I don't specifically need neither UVC nor H264; any driver,
and any other VDPAU-supported format (like MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV9, etc)
could be OK.

I am not interested in sykpe; I only want to capture the 720p video stream
to files (with as low CPU usage as possible), and play it back
using mplayer, on NVidia cards supporting VDPAU hw acceleration
  - again, with as low CPU usage, as possible.

Could someone please recommend me a device that can do this?
(Or tell me which device will likely get the required support soon?

Thank you for your help:

    Kristof Csillag

Re: 720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

[Laurent Pinchart]

Hi Kristof,

On Sunday 22 January 2012 14:03:29 Csillag Kristof wrote:
> Dear linux-media users,
> 
> I have stopped following the advancements in Linux video
> (and video hw in general) a while ago, so I am no longer
> up to date with the current technologies,
> therefore I seek your advice.
> 
> I am looking for for a webcam that
>   - works properly under GNU/Linux (without proprietary drivers)
>   - connects via USB 2.0
>   - can capture 720p video at 25 or 30 FPS
>   - provides a video stream that
>     - is hardware compressed by the camera
>     - can be recorded to a file with minimal CPU requirements
>       (Bonus points if it's wrapped a nice container format,
>       so that I can simply record it by something like
>       cat /dev/video0 > capture.mpeg
>       - like old Hauppauge PVR-250 cards )
>     - can be decoded by VDPAU hw acceleration
> 
> I have tried to look into this, and it seems that the status for H264
> streams for UVC webcams is still problematic.

I think your best bet is still UVC + H.264, as that's what the market is 
moving to. Any other compressed format (except for MJPEG) will likely be 
proprietary.

As you correctly mention, H.264 support isn't available yet in the UVC driver. 
Patches are welcome ;-)

> However, I don't specifically need neither UVC nor H264; any driver,
> and any other VDPAU-supported format (like MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV9, etc)
> could be OK.
> 
> I am not interested in sykpe; I only want to capture the 720p video stream
> to files (with as low CPU usage as possible), and play it back
> using mplayer, on NVidia cards supporting VDPAU hw acceleration
>   - again, with as low CPU usage, as possible.
> 
> Could someone please recommend me a device that can do this?
> (Or tell me which device will likely get the required support soon?

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Re: 720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

[Csillag Kristof]

At 2012-01-23 15:41, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> I think your best bet is still UVC + H.264, as that's what the market is
> moving to. Any other compressed format (except for MJPEG) will likely be
> proprietary.
>
> As you correctly mention, H.264 support isn't available yet in the UVC driver.
> Patches are welcome ;-)

So... do I understand it correctly that with the current hw/sw stack, my 
original requirements can not be satisfied?

In that case, let's try with reduced requirements. What if I give up HD 
resolution and H264?

Is there a camera that can provide a HW-compressed 480p video stream, in 
MPEG-2 or something like that?

Thank you:

    Kristof

Re: 720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

[Laurent Pinchart]

Hi Kristof,

On Monday 23 January 2012 17:31:13 Csillag Kristof wrote:
> At 2012-01-23 15:41, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> > I think your best bet is still UVC + H.264, as that's what the market is
> > moving to. Any other compressed format (except for MJPEG) will likely be
> > proprietary.
> > 
> > As you correctly mention, H.264 support isn't available yet in the UVC
> > driver. Patches are welcome ;-)
> 
> So... do I understand it correctly that with the current hw/sw stack, my
> original requirements can not be satisfied?

Not that I'm aware of.

> In that case, let's try with reduced requirements. What if I give up HD
> resolution and H264?
> 
> Is there a camera that can provide a HW-compressed 480p video stream, in
> MPEG-2 or something like that?

I don't think so. Once again, unless you can work with MJPEG, your best bet is 
UVC and H.264. But you will need to write the code (or find someone who can 
write it).

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart

Re: 720p webcam providing VDPAU-compatible video stream?

[Csillag Kristof]

At 2012-01-24 15:16, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> Hi Kristof,
>
> On Monday 23 January 2012 17:31:13 Csillag Kristof wrote:
>> At 2012-01-23 15:41, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
>>> I think your best bet is still UVC + H.264, as that's what the market is
>>> moving to. Any other compressed format (except for MJPEG) will likely be
>>> proprietary.
>>>
>>> As you correctly mention, H.264 support isn't available yet in the UVC
>>> driver. Patches are welcome ;-)
>> So... do I understand it correctly that with the current hw/sw stack, my
>> original requirements can not be satisfied?
> Not that I'm aware of.
OK, thank you for confirming that. In this case, I will just give this 
up, for now.

>> In that case, let's try with reduced requirements. What if I give up HD
>> resolution and H264?
>>
>> Is there a camera that can provide a HW-compressed 480p video stream, in
>> MPEG-2 or something like that?
> I don't think so. Once again, unless you can work with MJPEG, your best bet is
> UVC and H.264. But you will need to write the code (or find someone who can
> write it).
>
I could definitely write the code, but I wish to spend my (severely 
limited) time and resources on other projects.

Thank you for your help anyway:

     Kristof