GUVCviewer: Finally Webcam Recording Made Easy

By Nixie Pixel, Published February 7, 2011

For almost two years my primary recording device for YouTube videos has been with not a fancy camcorder, but a webcam.

So believe me when I tell you that I’ve tried a lot of different applications on different operating systems to get the most from my camera, both proprietary and open source. Out of everything I have tried, GUVCviewer packs the best blend of performance and features.

Check out the video for my full review:

GUVCViewer Video Review

I should mention that one problem web cameras face in Linux, as well as every other O/S, is that they are limited by the interface (to date). USB webcams, even USB 2.0, simply don’t have the ability to output 1080p (or even 720p) video at decent frame rates. It will be a while before we see high-bitrate video recorded at 30 fps in 1920x1080p.

This is not a software fault but a hardware limitation. The good news is that prices for camcorders that can handle 1080p video have come down quite a bit!

( Check out Nixie's blog here and follow her on Twitter! )

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  • Dominic Hasford

    I used to watch you back in the day when beryl was really popular! You tought me so much in the past, it’s great to see you here now.

  • http://miloslukic.blogspot.com/ Milos

    Nice review Nixie. I’ll give it a try with my camera tomorrow

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/fredrik.tykosson Scirocco

    Big fan aswell u got me more hooked on Ubuntu then I already was a couple of years ago

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QGUOKPDPIPMOPJK7RCCXIALHRI Ene Dene

    Could someone post the link where to get the software, I haven’t found it on google.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QGUOKPDPIPMOPJK7RCCXIALHRI Ene Dene

    Could someone post the link where to get the software, I haven’t found it on google.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QGUOKPDPIPMOPJK7RCCXIALHRI Ene Dene

    Of course I haven’t found it… its not guvcviewER, but guvcview.

  • Anonymous

    $fortune
    Everything looks fine today, readers/commenters will follow COC.

  • http://twitter.com/Aleixiguma Aleix iguma

    Use Kamoso! :D

    • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

      Kamoso used to work fine indeed, but it doesn’t install nor build since 10.04 :(

  • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

    Great user perspective review of software I’ve never heard of before.
    If there is something lacking in this site it is actual reviews where the software has been lived with for a while, rather than “wow, brand new” bleeding edge news.
    Nice to see a bit more of the former.

    • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

      True. And it’s easy to trust Nixie on this one because she’s reviewing something 100% related to an old and persistent hobby.

      I wonder if OMG could start a trend of inviting specialized authors to comment on specialized software. People who do video editing constantly to comment on the limitations of OpenShot, amateur photographers to comment on Shotwell, and so on.

      I’d advise against inviting professionals, though… It would only make sense for apps that are supposed to be for professional use (ex: ardour) but I’d guess that in those cases the review would be boring for the majority of readers.

      • http://www.nixiepixel.com nixiepixel

        Hmm.. I was thinking about doing a software comparison/review with OpenShot, KDEnlive and Cinelerra. Knowing how you all think about opinion-based articles is really valuable here, I’m glad you guys seem to like the review format! =)

      • http://www.nixiepixel.com nixiepixel

        I was thinking about doing a software comparison/review with OpenShot, KDEnlive and Cinelerra. Knowing how you all think about opinion-based articles is really valuable here, I’m glad you guys seem to like the review format! =)

        • http://twitter.com/danarossphoto danarossphoto

          Yes, yes, yes. I do think KDEnlive is going to kick butt. I use it for real serious work and it is getting really useful fast.

        • http://twitter.com/conscioususer Conscious User

          That would be useful because those editors had a lot of version bumps since the last time I saw a comparison article.

        • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

          Looking forward to it. Take a look at this new player as well: Auteur
          http://auteur-editor.info/

        • john smith

          Hey, looking at the review on GUVCviewer .. why does omgubuntusite peg my cpu and ram like no other site? I have a newish computer and 10.04LTS Ubuntu….?

        • john smith

          Hey, looking at the review on GUVCviewer .. why does omgubuntusite peg my cpu and ram like no other site? I have a newish computer and 10.04LTS Ubuntu….?

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/sasy360 Sasan

    I love you Nixie Pixel. hope we see more posts from you here on OMG! Ubuntu.

  • Anonymous

    great tips as always :D

  • Anonymous

    some review outtakes: http://yfrog.com/3tvv7z

  • Anonymous

    Nixie you are the hottest blogger around the web… ;)

  • http://twitter.com/freechelmi michel memeteau

    Just a Note : please use the new Iframe code to embed YT videos so people can watch them embedded in HTML5

  • http://twitter.com/hbayar_morph hbayar_morph

    OMG! Nixie on OMG! Ubuntu

  • http://www.manishsinha.net Manish Sinha

    That configuration window needs some *mpt* love

    If you need 1080p output then probably those webcams are not cheap. I don’t think USB 2 or USB 3 matters much in this case. The hardware and software is probably the bottleneck here.

    I am happy to see people talking about the post and not random things unlike other posts.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

    Great software, I’ve been a long time user.
    I have a Logitech Orbit/Sphere which supports pan/zoom/tilt and with guvcview (and libwebcam) I can have full control over the camera. You can just run it with –control_only option while you’re on skype (or similar) and do real time adjustments.

    • http://www.nixiepixel.com nixiepixel

      Wow, I had no idea it would respond with more features if I sudo used it. Thanks, wish I could bump this post!

      • http://www.google.com/profiles/panajotis pH7

        You’re welcome!

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/Yogotiss Yogotiss

    To bad no luck with iPod touch 4g yet still a good program for my web cam. Thanks!

  • aperson

    What about cheese? That’s always been able to record video.

    • http://twitter.com/lgblgblgb Gábor Lénárt

      I can only made “slideshow” with cheese and also the UI is totally frozen during the recording. I haven’t found any application which can do video recording at an acceptable level with my webcam, though it should be possible, since I used xawtv to display the video (then I used record my desktop – hmm or what its name was …) to capture the content of window (xawtv – afaik – can record to somehow but it never worked for me – but I can’t remember now what was the problem). Now it’s time to try with guvcviewer …

  • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

    Cheese anyone?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7VY4SKUJK6U25V22GBAZM3FPBE Toby Rogers

    I completely agree! I came to the same conclusion after my own adventure in testing webcam software for Linux. Cheese, Kamoso, Camorama, Wxcam… they all experienced the same issues for me. I went into gstreamer-properties and adjusted settings for Cheese but it still froze every second of the way on video capture. I experience no issues at the same resolution in Windows, and with GUVCViewer I can happily say the same. Everything works perfect for me with my built-in HP webcam. I must say, awesome review :).

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/CMGRIZNIPU6JAB5TXWGKSH2QXE U Will

    none of the ubuntu software support my webcam ‘night mode’ thing.. which really sucks..

  • http://twitter.com/danizmax Daniel

    Seems nice program, but it could use a nicer GUI refit, it’s style looks ancient xD

  • Anonymous

    Codec noob here — which video codec should I be using for things like YouTube?

    Are there any compatibility issues with the codecs and sending video to Windows/Mac users?

    Any other video settings worth tweaking?

  • http://www.yallstore.com/usb-webcams-c-1190_1297.html USB Webcams

    Finally Webcam Recording Made Easy. Is it ture?

  • http://www.yallstore.com/usb-webcams-c-1190_1297.html USB Webcams

    Finally Webcam Recording Made Easy. Is it ture?

  • http://twitter.com/Backtogeek Anthony Smith

    I have a list of tested linux compatible webcams on my bloghttp://backtogeek.com/2011/05/13/linux-compatible-webcams/

  • http://twitter.com/Backtogeek Anthony Smith

    I have a list of tested linux compatible webcams on my bloghttp://backtogeek.com/2011/05/13/linux-compatible-webcams/

  • Anonymous

    T%hanks a lot for the review. At least folks get to hear about the existence of this programm.

    When the GUVCView crashes on trying to record video – be sure to change the AIDIO(!!) setting to 16bit uncompressed.

 
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