[ANNOUNCE] Firmware loader for Samsung TV cameras

[Ondrej Zary]

Hello,
I'm announcing samsung-tvcam-fwloader - Firmware loader for Samsung TV cameras that allows Samsung TV cameras to be used in Linux (and possibly other OSs).

Samsung used to sell webcams for their smart TVs for the purpose of running Skype. Skype was discontinued on these TVs in 2016 and these cameras became useless.

Model list:
CY-STC1100 - 04e8:2058
VG-STC2000 - 04e8:2059
VG-STC3000 - 04e8:205c
VG-STC4000 - 04e8:2061
VG-STC5000 - 04e8:2065

When connected to a PC, the camera identifies as unknown device or as an UVC webcam but does not work. That's because it's missing firmware. Camera contains only a bootloader and TV uploads firmware to camera's RAM each time it's plugged in.

VG-STC2000, VG-STC4000 and VG-STC5000 are tested to work.
VG-STC3000 should work as it should use the same code as 4000 and 5000.
CY-STC1100 is completely different, probably not UVC compatible even with firmware loaded and thus would require a driver.

https://github.com/ondrej-zary/samsung-tvcam-fwloader/

-- 
Ondrej Zary