Chapter 2. Getting started

First, make sure all the necessary kernel modules for your webcam or TV card are loaded. Most modern Linux distributions do this automatically for you, so chances are just plugging in the webcam will work. Then start CamStream from the command line, menu or “Run Command...” from your desktop.

CamStream will start up with a blank window. CamStream has a MDI (Multiple Document Interface): the streams are shown as subwindows of the main window. Initially, no devices are opened.

Click on File -> Open...; CamStream scans for the available video devices and then shows this dialog:

The Device dropdown box contains a list with all the names of the devices that were found. The Viewer dropdown box lists the available viewers; these are the ways in way CamStream can handle your video device.

Select the webcam or TV card of your choice, and the “Regular viewer”. Click Ok; a window should appear in the main window with a live image of the device on your screen.

Note

If you selected a TV card and you only see noise, click on the tuner icon to select a channel. See the paragraph on tuners>

You can change the size of the image, brightness and contrast, input selection and tuning with the first 4 buttons on the toolbar. The input selection and tuning are mostly relevant for TV cards. A TV card usually has multiple inputs (tuner, composite input, S-VHS, etc) and, of course, a tuner.

Note

You can not change the size of the image by dragging the corner or sides of the viewer window. The viewer window will resize, but the image will not; you must use the toolbar button for that.

Next, click on the Configure icon . A dialog will open where you can configure what CamStream will do when you take a snapshot.

Select Append timestamp to filename and Save to disk. Close the dialog, and first click on the button. Your viewer window will expand, and a black image with the text “Your last saved snapshot appears here” appears on the right.

Now click on the Save snapshot icon . The image on the right is replaced with the snapshot of the video stream at the moment you clicked on the button. At the same time, the snapshot is written to disk as a file, which should have a name like snapshot-20060219-040723.png.

Congratulations! You have just recorded your first image with CamStream!