guvcview
GTK+ webcam viewer and capture application
TLDR
SYNOPSIS
guvcview [options]
DESCRIPTION
guvcview is a video capture and control application for UVC (USB Video Class) compatible webcams on Linux. It provides a live preview along with controls for camera settings such as brightness, contrast, exposure, and white balance, and can capture both video and still photos.Modern versions build against GTK3 or Qt6 for the interface (selectable with -g) and support multiple render backends (SDL, SFML) and audio APIs (PortAudio, PulseAudio) for recording video with sound.
PARAMETERS
-d, --device DEVICE
Video device to use (default: /dev/video0).-x, --resolution WxH
Request a capture resolution (e.g. 640x480).-f, --format FOURCC
Request a video format/FourCC (e.g. MJPG, YUYV).-F, --fps NUM[/DENOM]
Request a frame rate.-g, --gui API
Select the GUI toolkit: none, gtk3, or qt6.-r, --render API
Select the render API: none, sdl, or sfml.-m, --render_window FLAGS
Set render window flags (none, full, max, or WIDTHxHEIGHT).-a, --audio API
Select the audio API: none, port, or pulse.-k, --audio_device INDEX
Select the audio device index for the chosen audio API.-j, --video FILE
Filename for captured video.-u, --video_codec CODEC
Video codec to use (e.g. raw, mjpg, h264, vp80).-i, --image FILE
Filename for captured photo(s).-n, --photo_total N
Total number of photos to capture.-t, --photo_timer SECONDS
Time between captured photos.-p, --profile FILE
Load a saved control profile.-e, --exit_on_term
Exit the app after video or image capture ends.-z, --control_panel
Start in control-panel-only mode.-w, --verbosity LEVEL
Set verbosity level (default: 0).-v, --version
Print version information.-h, --help
Print help.
INSTALL
CAVEATS
Requires a UVC-compatible camera and a V4L2-capable kernel driver. Some controls and codecs are hardware/driver dependent. Command-line flags and defaults have changed across major guvcview releases; always check `guvcview --help` for the installed version.
HISTORY
guvcview was created by Paulo Assis in 2008 as a simple GTK+ webcam viewer for Linux using the V4L2 API. It has since gained Qt6 GUI support and multiple render/audio backends while remaining a lightweight alternative to full video-editing suites for quick webcam preview and capture.
