macOS Use iSight webcam as an input stream?

[Chris Corbyn]

From Terminal, with something like ffmpeg or vlc how do I refer to my iSight webcam? I've been searching for the past two days and all I find are linux tutorials saying to use /dev/video0 which doesn't exist on Leopard.

On Tiger, and on Leopard how do I refer to a webcam? video:// ? camera:// ? I'm at a loss here

 

[Xino]

I'm wondering about this too...?

 

[Krevnik]

If you can do it, it is likely under /dev/<something>.

But there is also the possibility that OS X doesn't offer up BSD devices for the iSight. And as ffmpeg tends to rely on these BSD devices to access the video data, it might not be possible.

 

[kainjow]

Maybe I'm misunderstood but I think in order to get low level access to a device like this you first have to go through IOKit to obtain access. Then you can get raw access but I may be wrong. I've done some picking around with serial devices and low-level iPod access before, and both required going through IOKit first to get low level access.

 

[Krevnik]

Maybe I'm misunderstood but I think in order to get low level access to a device like this you first have to go through IOKit to obtain access. Then you can get raw access but I may be wrong. I've done some picking around with serial devices and low-level iPod access before, and both required going through IOKit first to get low level access.

You can also go through the BSD way as well. However, the driver needs to make the BSD device available for access for it to work.

In this case where they are trying to use a CLI tool already written to use BSD device files, they are kinda stuck.

 

[Xino]

Maybe I'm misunderstood but I think in order to get low level access to a device like this you first have to go through IOKit to obtain access. Then you can get raw access but I may be wrong. I've done some picking around with serial devices and low-level iPod access before, and both required going through IOKit first to get low level access.

I tried to use IOKit and i'm able to select a device via the IO Registry but can you explain to me how I can speak to that device and getting frames of the camera?