246 lines
9.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
246 lines
9.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
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Philips webcams (pwc driver)
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============================
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This file contains some additional information for the Philips and OEM webcams.
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E-mail: webcam@smcc.demon.nl Last updated: 2004-01-19
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Site: http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/
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As of this moment, the following cameras are supported:
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* Philips PCA645
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* Philips PCA646
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* Philips PCVC675
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* Philips PCVC680
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* Philips PCVC690
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* Philips PCVC720/40
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* Philips PCVC730
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* Philips PCVC740
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* Philips PCVC750
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* Askey VC010
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* Creative Labs Webcam 5
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* Creative Labs Webcam Pro Ex
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* Logitech QuickCam 3000 Pro
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* Logitech QuickCam 4000 Pro
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* Logitech QuickCam Notebook Pro
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* Logitech QuickCam Zoom
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* Logitech QuickCam Orbit
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* Logitech QuickCam Sphere
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* Samsung MPC-C10
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* Samsung MPC-C30
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* Sotec Afina Eye
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* AME CU-001
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* Visionite VCS-UM100
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* Visionite VCS-UC300
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The main webpage for the Philips driver is at the address above. It contains
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a lot of extra information, a FAQ, and the binary plugin 'PWCX'. This plugin
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contains decompression routines that allow you to use higher image sizes and
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framerates; in addition the webcam uses less bandwidth on the USB bus (handy
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if you want to run more than 1 camera simultaneously). These routines fall
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under a NDA, and may therefore not be distributed as source; however, its use
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is completely optional.
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You can build this code either into your kernel, or as a module. I recommend
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the latter, since it makes troubleshooting a lot easier. The built-in
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microphone is supported through the USB Audio class.
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When you load the module you can set some default settings for the
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camera; some programs depend on a particular image-size or -format and
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don't know how to set it properly in the driver. The options are:
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size
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Can be one of 'sqcif', 'qsif', 'qcif', 'sif', 'cif' or
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'vga', for an image size of resp. 128x96, 160x120, 176x144,
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320x240, 352x288 and 640x480 (of course, only for those cameras that
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support these resolutions).
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fps
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Specifies the desired framerate. Is an integer in the range of 4-30.
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fbufs
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This parameter specifies the number of internal buffers to use for storing
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frames from the cam. This will help if the process that reads images from
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the cam is a bit slow or momentarily busy. However, on slow machines it
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only introduces lag, so choose carefully. The default is 3, which is
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reasonable. You can set it between 2 and 5.
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mbufs
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This is an integer between 1 and 10. It will tell the module the number of
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buffers to reserve for mmap(), VIDIOCCGMBUF, VIDIOCMCAPTURE and friends.
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The default is 2, which is adequate for most applications (double
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buffering).
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Should you experience a lot of 'Dumping frame...' messages during
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grabbing with a tool that uses mmap(), you might want to increase if.
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However, it doesn't really buffer images, it just gives you a bit more
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slack when your program is behind. But you need a multi-threaded or
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forked program to really take advantage of these buffers.
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The absolute maximum is 10, but don't set it too high! Every buffer takes
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up 460 KB of RAM, so unless you have a lot of memory setting this to
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something more than 4 is an absolute waste. This memory is only
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allocated during open(), so nothing is wasted when the camera is not in
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use.
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power_save
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When power_save is enabled (set to 1), the module will try to shut down
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the cam on close() and re-activate on open(). This will save power and
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turn off the LED. Not all cameras support this though (the 645 and 646
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don't have power saving at all), and some models don't work either (they
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will shut down, but never wake up). Consider this experimental. By
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default this option is disabled.
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compression (only useful with the plugin)
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With this option you can control the compression factor that the camera
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uses to squeeze the image through the USB bus. You can set the
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parameter between 0 and 3::
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0 = prefer uncompressed images; if the requested mode is not available
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in an uncompressed format, the driver will silently switch to low
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compression.
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1 = low compression.
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2 = medium compression.
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3 = high compression.
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High compression takes less bandwidth of course, but it could also
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introduce some unwanted artefacts. The default is 2, medium compression.
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See the FAQ on the website for an overview of which modes require
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compression.
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The compression parameter does not apply to the 645 and 646 cameras
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and OEM models derived from those (only a few). Most cams honour this
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parameter.
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leds
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This settings takes 2 integers, that define the on/off time for the LED
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(in milliseconds). One of the interesting things that you can do with
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this is let the LED blink while the camera is in use. This::
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leds=500,500
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will blink the LED once every second. But with::
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leds=0,0
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the LED never goes on, making it suitable for silent surveillance.
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By default the camera's LED is on solid while in use, and turned off
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when the camera is not used anymore.
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This parameter works only with the ToUCam range of cameras (720, 730, 740,
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750) and OEMs. For other cameras this command is silently ignored, and
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the LED cannot be controlled.
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Finally: this parameters does not take effect UNTIL the first time you
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open the camera device. Until then, the LED remains on.
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dev_hint
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A long standing problem with USB devices is their dynamic nature: you
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never know what device a camera gets assigned; it depends on module load
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order, the hub configuration, the order in which devices are plugged in,
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and the phase of the moon (i.e. it can be random). With this option you
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can give the driver a hint as to what video device node (/dev/videoX) it
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should use with a specific camera. This is also handy if you have two
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cameras of the same model.
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A camera is specified by its type (the number from the camera model,
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like PCA645, PCVC750VC, etc) and optionally the serial number (visible
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in /sys/kernel/debug/usb/devices). A hint consists of a string with the
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following format::
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[type[.serialnumber]:]node
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The square brackets mean that both the type and the serialnumber are
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optional, but a serialnumber cannot be specified without a type (which
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would be rather pointless). The serialnumber is separated from the type
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by a '.'; the node number by a ':'.
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This somewhat cryptic syntax is best explained by a few examples::
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dev_hint=3,5 The first detected cam gets assigned
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/dev/video3, the second /dev/video5. Any
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other cameras will get the first free
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available slot (see below).
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dev_hint=645:1,680:2 The PCA645 camera will get /dev/video1,
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and a PCVC680 /dev/video2.
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dev_hint=645.0123:3,645.4567:0 The PCA645 camera with serialnumber
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0123 goes to /dev/video3, the same
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camera model with the 4567 serial
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gets /dev/video0.
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dev_hint=750:1,4,5,6 The PCVC750 camera will get /dev/video1, the
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next 3 Philips cams will use /dev/video4
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through /dev/video6.
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Some points worth knowing:
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- Serialnumbers are case sensitive and must be written full, including
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leading zeroes (it's treated as a string).
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- If a device node is already occupied, registration will fail and
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the webcam is not available.
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- You can have up to 64 video devices; be sure to make enough device
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nodes in /dev if you want to spread the numbers.
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After /dev/video9 comes /dev/video10 (not /dev/videoA).
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- If a camera does not match any dev_hint, it will simply get assigned
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the first available device node, just as it used to be.
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trace
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In order to better detect problems, it is now possible to turn on a
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'trace' of some of the calls the module makes; it logs all items in your
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kernel log at debug level.
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The trace variable is a bitmask; each bit represents a certain feature.
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If you want to trace something, look up the bit value(s) in the table
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below, add the values together and supply that to the trace variable.
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====== ======= ================================================ =======
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Value Value Description Default
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(dec) (hex)
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====== ======= ================================================ =======
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1 0x1 Module initialization; this will log messages On
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while loading and unloading the module
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2 0x2 probe() and disconnect() traces On
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4 0x4 Trace open() and close() calls Off
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8 0x8 read(), mmap() and associated ioctl() calls Off
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16 0x10 Memory allocation of buffers, etc. Off
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32 0x20 Showing underflow, overflow and Dumping frame On
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messages
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64 0x40 Show viewport and image sizes Off
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128 0x80 PWCX debugging Off
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====== ======= ================================================ =======
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For example, to trace the open() & read() functions, sum 8 + 4 = 12,
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so you would supply trace=12 during insmod or modprobe. If
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you want to turn the initialization and probing tracing off, set trace=0.
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The default value for trace is 35 (0x23).
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Example::
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# modprobe pwc size=cif fps=15 power_save=1
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The fbufs, mbufs and trace parameters are global and apply to all connected
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cameras. Each camera has its own set of buffers.
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size and fps only specify defaults when you open() the device; this is to
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accommodate some tools that don't set the size. You can change these
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settings after open() with the Video4Linux ioctl() calls. The default of
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defaults is QCIF size at 10 fps.
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The compression parameter is semiglobal; it sets the initial compression
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preference for all camera's, but this parameter can be set per camera with
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the VIDIOCPWCSCQUAL ioctl() call.
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All parameters are optional.
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