In case anyone is curious, I was able to get a workaround going at least by using ffmpeg and a dummy video device to transform the video stream. I am using a Razer Blade 2014 with the following webcam: Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0bda:579f Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
1. Create a new file called /etc/profile.d/webcam.sh (note your video device may be different than video0) --contents-- alias webcam_fix="ffmpeg -an -f video4linux2 -video_size 640x480 -vcodec mjpeg -i /dev/video0 -input_format mjpeg -f v4l2 -pix_fmt yuv420p /dev/video1" ------------ 2.run 'source /etc/profile' in your terminal. 3.run 'webcam_fix' in your terminal. 4.You can now use your dummy video device without issue. When you want to use your webcam, it should now work if you select /dev/video1 in some applications (hangouts was the most important for me). Unfortunately, though, this also makes your webcam always on for as long as the process is running so you will want to terminate the script to ensure the camera actually turns off when you're not using it. Hope this helps someone else with the issue! -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of AIMS, which is subscribed to the bug report. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1295247 Title: [Logitech C170] Cheese says "There was an error playing video from webcam" Status in cheese package in Ubuntu: Incomplete Bug description: Whenever I open Cheese in Ubuntu 14.04 beta 1 (Unity), my external Logitech C170 webcam's light turns on once, then it turns off and Cheese turns black, written "There was an error playing video from webcam". This never happened in any previous versions of Ubuntu. The problem is reproducible. WORKAROUND: In Cheese preferences lower image resolution to 640x480. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: cheese 3.10.2-0ubuntu2 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-12.32-generic 3.13.4 Uname: Linux 3.13.0-12-generic i686 ApportVersion: 2.13.2-0ubuntu5 Architecture: i386 CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Thu Mar 20 22:29:57 2014 InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-20 (0 days ago) InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha i386 (20140225) SourcePackage: cheese UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cheese/+bug/1295247/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~aims Post to : aims@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~aims More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
