Linux: How to play videos on your webcam? (virtual camera)

I don’t know why you would want to do this but In case you want to prank your friends/class or do something like this. I just had some fun as of late… 😁🤭

After all, now we use webcams for everything. From online classes to talking to friends.

All the commands you need:

sudo apt-get install v4l2loopback
sudo apt-get install v4l2loopback-dkms
sudo apt-get install v4l2loopback-utils

sudo modprobe v4l2loopback
v4l2-ctl --list-devices

ffmpeg -re -i video.mp4 -map 0:v -f v4l2 /dev/video2

You can also use OBS to play things in your camera using this plugin but it’s not being maintained and apparently, it is being incorporated directly into OBS.

After running the first 5 commands and installing the OBS obs-v4l2sink plugin you can open OBS and go to “Tools —> v4l2sink”, write the correct Device Path that you get by running line 6 (v4l2-ctl --list-devices) and hit “Start”.

Your browser, zoom, or other programs that is read the dummy webcam will start displaying whatever is being captured in OBS.

Let me know on Twitter what you use this for, I’m curious.