unicap is a library to access different kinds of ( video ) capture
devices.

It uses a .so loading mechanism for the device layers so new device
drivers can easily be added.

unicap provides a simple yet flexible and powerfull API. The capture
application is able to access very different kinds of capture devices
and set all of their properties ( such as brightness/contrast... )
without the exact knowledge of the device.

Currently unicap provides support for IIDC cameras, video-4-linux,
video-4-linux-2 and video-to-firewire converters.


 /Arne Caspari <arne@unicap-imaging.org>

------------------------------------------------

REQUIREMENTS: 

 * Gtk+ 2.0 or newer for libunicapgtk

 * libraw1394 0.10.0 or newer for dcam or vid21394 plugins


QUICKSTART: 

 * Have a look at the examples subdirectory!
  
   Note: Currently the examples expect the device to deliver UYVY
	 color format
   
 * run the sdl_display example at first to see if you can get a live
   video with your video capture device


EXAMPLES: 
  
 Note: unicap needs to be installed with 'make install' to be able to
       compile these examples

 * sdl_display: Display a live video image using the SDL library
 
 * xv_display: Displays a live video image using the Xv extension of
               the X server. This example comes in it's own .tar.gz
               archive and has it's own configure script. Untar the
               xv_display-x.y.z.tar.gz file in any directory after
               installing unicap and run the usual 
               './configure && make'

 * device_info: Lists all devices and properties. Use this to get an
                idea how properties ( ie. brightnes, contrast etc )
                work.

 * unicapgtk_*: These examples use the GTK+ widget.


KNOWN LIMITATIONS:

 * v4l and v4l2 support is rudimentary. Tuners are currently not
   supported.

 * Time stamping might be inaccurate, depending on the plugin used to
   access the device

 
QUESTIONS / FEEDBACK: 

 Provide feedback about working / not working devices and patches

 Please contact me at arne@unicap-imaging.org 


