From LQWiki

Video for Linux, or V4L, provides an interface between TV capture hardware and programs that display, record or otherwise use television content. Most TV cards are supported.

V4L comes built into most kernels, so if you have a TV card you probably only need to run a viewing program such as xawtv, xawdecode or qtvision. VideoLan can be used to broadcast content captured via V4L over a LAN.

Video for linux 2 (V4L2) now exists to improve on the original V4L.

See also

• Video