Video Streaming in PyQt using OpenCV

This tutorial shows how to build a desktop application with modern GUI for video streaming in python using PyQt and OpenCV.

Creating a virtual environment and installing the required packages

We assume that python, pip and virtualenv are already installed. For more details about Pip and Virtual Environment , please refer to this [link]: https://packaging.python.org/en/latest/guides/installing-using-pip-and-virtual-environments/ "Using Pip and Virtual Environment"

Creating a virtual environment

• Create an initial project directory and name it for example: Video-Streaming-in-PyQt-using-OpenCV

• Using Terminal (or cmd ...), navigate to your project root directory:

  cd path_to_your_project_directory

  In my case :

  cd /home/lotfi/Documents/vs-code-projects/Video-Streaming-in-PyQt-using-OpenCV

  Or simply, navigate to your project directory in your file manger -> mouse right click -> Open Terminal here.

• Create a virtual environment and name it for example env:

  python3 -m venv env

• Activate the virtual environment that we created:

  source env/bin/activate

  The output should be as in the following image, where you can see the name of your environment at the beginning of the line:

  

Installing the required packages:

After activating the virtual environment, to install the PyQt5 package, type in terminal:

python3 -m pip install PyQt5

and to install OpenCV

python3 -m pip install opencv-python-headless

Creating GUI using Qt5 Designer

The simplest way to create a PyQt GUI application is use Qt5 Designer.

Installation

If you have not yet installed Qt5 Designer, you can install it using pip:

python3 -m pip install pyqt5-tools

and to run it, type:

qt5-tools designer

You can also install Qt5-Designer globally in your system, for example, to install it on debian:

sudo apt install qttools5-dev-tools

and to run it using Terminal, enter :

designer

On Windows and Mac, one can download it from this [link]: https://build-system.fman.io/qt-designer-download, and then, install it.

Creating the GUI

• Run designer -> select Main Window -> Press Create

• In Object inspector, remove menu and statusbar:

• Drag two frames from the Widgets Box to the Main Window