6 months ago I was trying to get my webcam working in Racy 5.5:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=110563
Amongst the many suggestions that were gratefully received, watchdog proffered one which he said he always kept in reserve, as a last resort. When nothing else worked, this one always would. It's called VideoView.
It comes as a simple, pre-compiled binary, which you click on to start. It's also absolutely minute in size, and extremely easy to use. Compiled by a guy name of Luca Risolia, it utilises the Fast Light Toolkit library.
This got me thinking, because I do have one Pup (Racy 5.5) which I'm attempting to keep true to the spirit of Puppy.....very small, lean & lightweight. At the same time, I don't want to forgo too many useful apps & stuff.
![Image](https://i.imgur.com/zU3zezt.png)
I'm not keen on having to click on binaries to start things; I like to do things 'properly'. If I don't have it on the desktop as an icon, I prefer to have it in the Menu itself. So, I've put a .pet together .....comprising the VideoView binary itself, and a .desktop entry (so you can start it from the Menu.)
I've tried this in all my Pups, and, without exception, it always runs. If you start it by clicking on the binary in its own directory, it will save your recordings (in .avi format) to that directory. If you start it from anywhere else, it will save the recording to /root (your 'home' directory).
Having recorded it, you can play it back from within VideoView. After you've quit, you can play it back fine in VLC. SMPlayer, for some reason, doesn't seem to like .avi files. I'm guessing it's one of those options that need figuring into the 'mix' at compile time.
Anyway, for those of you running very lean Pups on elderly hardware.....enjoy.
Mike.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)