v4l2-ctl Command Examples

Control video devices. More information: https://manned.org/v4l2-ctl.

• List all video devices:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

• List supported video formats and resolutions of default video device /dev/video0:

v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext

• List supported video formats and resolutions of a specific video device:

v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}}

• Get all details of a video device:

v4l2-ctl --all {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}}

• Capture a JPEG photo with a specific resolution from video device:

v4l2-ctl {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}} --set-fmt-video=width={{width}},height={{height}},pixelformat=MJPG --stream-mmap --stream-to={{path/to/output.jpg}} --stream-count=1

• Capture a raw video stream from video device:

v4l2-ctl {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}} --set-fmt-video=width={{width}},height={{height}},pixelformat={{format}} --stream-mmap --stream-to={{path/to/output}} --stream-count={{number_of_frames_to_capture}}

• List all video device's controls and their values:

v4l2-ctl {{[-l|--list-ctrls]}} {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}}

• Set the value of a video device control:

v4l2-ctl {{[-d|--device]}} {{path/to/video_device}} {{[-c|--set-ctrl]}} {{control_name}}={{value}}