The VideoLAN Forums

Hi all,
I am using VLC 0.7.2 under Windows and Linux. Now in Windows, I can use VLC to capture video from the camera through the "directshow". I want to do the same thing in my Linux - cacapture the video from camera and audio from microphone. I compiled the VLC under my Linux. But I cannot see the "capture device" choice, there're only "file", "network" and "Disc" choices. I think I must have lost some thing when I compiling it.
I checked the help, maybe I should enable v4l when compiling. I hope to know what others should I do, and what others modules should I enable or add to it? Thank you!
TianTao

You need v4l2 (both in your kernel as wel as in vlc)

Thank you for your response. Do you mean that I should do 2 things to make the capture device avaliable. One is compile the vlc with -enable-v4l. Another is make the kernel support v4l? Can you please tell me how to make the kernel support v4l? what step should I take to make the kernel support v4l? Sorry for I am a newbie to Linux. Thank you!

Search on google on how to make sure your kernel has v4l capabilities. This is a rather complicated thing and i'm sure there are specialized websites for it.

BTW post url's here if you find them. Easier for ppl following in your footsteps.

I have some problem with input video from webcam in Linux. I have compiled vlc with option -enable-v4l. But I cannot see the difference from the interface. I can find the libv4l.a file in my /lib/vlc. But I cannot find the option to input video from webcam in the Linux interface, like dshow in Windows. I think I must have made some wrong. Could anyone help me to how to input video from my webcam. Thank you!

Thank you for your response. Do you mean that I should do 2 things to make the capture device avaliable. One is compile the vlc with -enable-v4l. Another is make the kernel support v4l? Can you please tell me how to make the kernel support v4l? what step should I take to make the kernel support v4l? Sorry for I am a newbie to Linux. Thank you!

Generally v4l should be already compiled in the kernel, if you're using one of the major Linux distros, so I assume the only thing you need to do is to compile vlc with --enable-v4l.

Other thing is if your camera (whatever it is) is supported by the kernel, too.

And of course to get the V4L GUI setup box you need to use the wxwindows interface and not the deprecated wxGTK or kde ones.

Thank you for your answer. I think I may use kde to show the interface, so the v4l GUI isnot shown. But I tried the below command but it doesn't work:
vlc -vvv v4l:adev=/dev/dsp:audio=0
I input voice through microphone, but I cannot hear anything in my headphone.