It's worth noting that support for the Creative Webcam 5 (along with others based on the Philips pwc module) seems to have been dropped from the Linux kernel.

see http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/ for details.

The driver was never completely free - there was a binary module called pwcx required to use the camera fully, and this seems to have caused a philosophical disagreement with the kernel developers.

/james


Elliott-Brennan wrote:
James,

You're a gem! I'd already found the first link, but not the second. Thanks again.

I'd been looking at the Creative webcams. At the moment I think the cheapest, easiest way is the best (are these sometimes mutually exclusive options? :)))

When I've got the PC, I'm going to get all this together and start work on it. I'll certainly be back in touch ("No, no, no, Officer, I didn't say it as a threat!)

Happy New Year (to all)

Regards,

   Patrick



James Gregory wrote:

On Sun, 2005-01-02 at 21:25 +1100, Elliott-Brennan wrote:


Apologies for the delay in saying thanks James.

Dean has mentioned that I should look at a capture card instead. I think I'm definitely going to need some help in the coming months! :)


If you choose the right one, a capture card is a snap to setup. You'll
need an extra camera though, which is a bit of a pain.

I just remembered though that my previous place of employment bought a
few of the Creative webcams. I don't remember which particular models,
but they worked quite well. Capture cards are certainly nifty, but if
you don't need that functionality they're probably a little overkill.

Also, I just did a google search for "webcam linux" and found these two
relatively pertinent links:

   http://alpha.dyndns.org/ov511/cameras.html
   http://www.linux.com/howtos/Webcam-HOWTO/devices.shtml

The first one lists model names and numbers and tells you about driver
support. You could print that out and go to your local electronics store
and try your luck. A strategy which I found worked well when I was
looking for USB MIDI widgets.

HTH,

James.




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