Request auto connection camera for alfacast

We released app with arm64 cpu support. We use gstreamer plugin with hardware accelerated h264 codec (v4l2h264enc / v4l2h264enc). Now we use sudo snap connect alfacast:camera :camera to turn on access to the /dev/videoXXX devices. The app does not work properly without hardware accelerated h264 codec. Actually we do not use camera devices in our app. Could you please turn on auto connect to camera feature for alfacast app users, because video streaming is main part of the app functionality.

Thanks!

I wonder if users would find it surprising that camera is auto-connected for alfacast which on the surface of it doesn’t appeart to use the camera - would it be better to not auto-connect this (especially since it seems to only be used on particular platforms) and instead to have alfacast detect when it is running on such a platform but does not have access to the device and then prompt the user to connect it manually? This allows them to make an informed decision and removes confusion etc.

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I wonder if users would find it surprising that camera is auto-connected for alfacast which on the surface of it doesn’t appeart to use the camera

Yes, we absolutely agree with your opinion, but the problem is not in camera access. The problem is camera feature also provide access to hardware accelerated codec features. Perhaps need to separate camera with video, but this is another issue. In any case thanks for advice, we think to add dialog box on the start app and inform user about hw codec configuration with /dev/video devices. Thank you Alex for solution :slight_smile:

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@RomanS,

Since @alexmurray’s advice seems to have been accepted, I am removing this request from our queue. Let us know if you have any further question.

Thanks!