Install using pip¶
Best option for easily getting stable VidGear installed.
Prerequisites¶
When installing VidGear with pip, you need to manually install following prerequisites:
Upgrade your pip
It strongly advised to upgrade to latest pip
before installing vidgear to avoid any undesired installation error(s).
There are two mechanisms to upgrade pip
:
You can use existing pip
to upgrade itself:
Install pip
if not present
- Download the script, from https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py.
- Open a terminal/command prompt,
cd
to the folder containing theget-pip.py
file and run:
More details about this script can be found in pypa/get-pip’s README.
Critical Prerequisites ¶
-
OpenCV¶
Must require OpenCV(3.0+) python binaries installed for all core functions. You easily install it directly via pip:
OpenCV installation from source
You can also follow online tutorials for building & installing OpenCV on Windows, Linux, MacOS and Raspberry Pi machines manually from its source.
Make sure not to install both pip and source version together. Otherwise installation will fail to work!
Other OpenCV binaries
OpenCV maintainers also provide additional binaries via pip that contains both main modules and contrib/extra modules
opencv-contrib-python
, and for server (headless) environments likeopencv-python-headless
andopencv-contrib-python-headless
. You can also install any one of them in similar manner. More information can be found here.
API Specific Prerequisites¶
-
FFmpeg¶
Require only for the video compression and encoding compatibility within StreamGear API and WriteGear API's Compression Mode.
FFmpeg Installation
- For WriteGear API's Compression Mode: Follow this dedicated FFmpeg Installation doc for its installation.
- For StreamGear API: Follow this dedicated FFmpeg Installation doc for its installation.
-
Picamera2¶
Required only if you're using Raspberry Pi Camera Modules (or USB webcams) with the PiGear API. Here's how to install Picamera2 python library:
Using Legacy
picamera
library with PiGear (v0.3.3
and above)PiGear API (version
0.3.3
onwards) prioritizes the newer Picamera2 library under the hood for Raspberry Pi camera modules. However, if your operating system doesn't support Picamera2, you can still use the legacypicamera
library. Here's how to easily install it using pip:You could also enforce the legacy picamera API backend in PiGear by using the
enforce_legacy_picamera
user-defined optional parameter boolean attribute.Picamera2 is only supported on Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye (or later) images, both 32 and 64-bit.
Picamera2 is NOT supported on:
- Images based on Buster or earlier releases.
- Raspberry Pi OS Legacy images.
- Bullseye (or later) images where the legacy camera stack has been re-enabled.
As of September 2022, Picamera2 is pre-installed on images downloaded from Raspberry Pi. So you don't have to install it manually.
- On Raspberry Pi OS images, Picamera2 is now installed with all the GUI (Qt and OpenGL) dependencies.
-
On Raspberry Pi OS Lite, it is installed without the GUI dependencies, although preview images can still be displayed using DRM/KMS. If these users wish to use the additional X-Windows GUI features, they will need to run:
If Picamera2 is not already installed, then your image is presumably older and you should start with system upgrade:
If you have installed Picamera2 previously using pip, then you should also uninstall this (
pip3 uninstall picamera2
).Thereafter, you can install Picamera2 with all the GUI (Qt and OpenGL) dependencies using:
Or, If you DON'T want the GUI dependencies, use:
This is NOT the recommended way to install Picamera2.
However, if you wish to install Picamera2 with all the GUI (Qt and OpenGL) dependencies with pip, use:
sudo apt install -y python3-libcamera python3-kms++ sudo apt install -y python3-pyqt5 python3-prctl sudo apt install -y libatlas-base-dev ffmpeg python3-pip pip3 install numpy --upgrade pip3 install picamera2[gui]
Or, If you DON'T want the GUI dependencies, use:
-
Uvloop¶
Required only if you're using the NetGear_Async API on UNIX machines for maximum performance. You can easily install it via pip:
uvloop is NOT yet supported on Windows Machines.
-
DXcam¶
Required only if you're using the ScreenGear API on Windows machines for better FPS performance. You can easily install it via pip:
FYI, DXcam is ONLY supported on Windows Machines.
Installation¶
Installation command with pip
has been changed in v0.2.4
The legacy pip install vidgear
command now installs critical bare-minimum dependencies only. Therefore in order to automatically install all the API specific dependencies as previous versions, use pip install vidgear[core]
command instead.
Similarly in your python project files like setup.py
or requirements.txt
or setup.cfg
, use vidgear dependency as vidgear[core]>=0.2.4
instead.
This change does not affects pip install vidgear[asyncio]
command.
Installation is as simple as:
Installing vidgear with only selective dependencies
Starting with version v0.2.2
, you can now run any VidGear API by installing only just specific dependencies required by the API in use(except for some Core dependencies).
This is useful when you want to manually review, select and install minimal API-specific dependencies on bare-minimum vidgear from scratch on your system:
-
Install bare-minimum vidgear as follows:
-
Then, you must install Critical dependencies(if not already):
-
Finally, manually install your API-specific dependencies as required by your API(in use):
APIs Dependencies CamGear yt_dlp
PiGear picamera
,picamera2
(see this for its installation)VideoGear Based on CamGear or PiGear backend in use ScreenGear dxcam
,mss
,pyscreenshot
,Pillow
WriteGear FFmpeg: See this doc ➶ StreamGear FFmpeg: See this doc ➶ NetGear pyzmq
,simplejpeg
WebGear starlette
,jinja2
,uvicorn
,simplejpeg
WebGear_RTC aiortc
,starlette
,jinja2
,uvicorn
NetGear_Async pyzmq
,msgpack
,msgpack_numpy
,uvloop
Stabilizer Class - APIs Dependencies CamGear pafy
,yt_dlp
,streamlink
PiGear picamera
VideoGear Based on CamGear or PiGear backend in use ScreenGear mss
,pyscreenshot
,Pillow
WriteGear FFmpeg: See this doc ➶ StreamGear FFmpeg: See this doc ➶ NetGear pyzmq
,simplejpeg
WebGear starlette
,jinja2
,uvicorn
,simplejpeg
WebGear_RTC aiortc
,starlette
,jinja2
,uvicorn
NetGear_Async pyzmq
,msgpack
,msgpack_numpy
,uvloop
Stabilizer Class -
Windows Installation
If you are using Windows, some of the commands given below, may not work out-of-the-box.
A quick solution may be to preface every Python command with python -m
like this:
# Install latest stable release with all Core dependencies
python -m pip install -U vidgear[core]
# Or Install latest stable release with all Core & Asyncio dependencies
python -m pip install -U vidgear[asyncio]
And, If you don't have the privileges to the directory you're installing package. Then use --user
flag, that makes pip install packages in your home directory instead:
# Install latest stable release with all Core dependencies
python -m pip install --upgrade --user vidgear[core]
# Or Install latest stable release with all Core & Asyncio dependencies
python -m pip install --upgrade --user vidgear[asyncio]
Or, If you're using py
as alias for installed python, then:
# Install latest stable release with all Core dependencies
pip install -U vidgear[core]
# Or Install latest stable release with all Core & Asyncio dependencies
pip install -U vidgear[asyncio]
And if you prefer to install VidGear directly from the repository:
# Install latest stable release with all Core dependencies
pip install git+git://github.com/abhiTronix/vidgear@master#egg=vidgear[core]
# Or Install latest stable release with all Core & Asyncio dependencies
pip install git+git://github.com/abhiTronix/vidgear@master#egg=vidgear[asyncio]
Or you can also download its wheel (.whl
) package from our repository's releases section, and thereby can be installed as follows:
# Install latest stable release with all Core dependencies
pip install vidgear-0.3.3-py3-none-any.whl[core]
# Or Install latest stable release with all Core & Asyncio dependencies
pip install vidgear-0.3.3-py3-none-any.whl[asyncio]
-
The
ensurepip
module is missing/disabled on Ubuntu. Usepip
method only. ↩