Comment 67 for bug 1295247

In case anyone is curious, I was able to get a workaround going at least by using ffmpeg and a dummy video device to transform the video stream. I am using a Razer Blade 2014 with the following webcam: Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0bda:579f Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

1. Create a new file called /etc/profile.d/webcam.sh (note your video device may be different than video0)

--contents--
alias webcam_fix="ffmpeg -an -f video4linux2 -video_size 640x480 -vcodec mjpeg -i /dev/video0 -input_format mjpeg -f v4l2 -pix_fmt yuv420p /dev/video1"
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2.run 'source /etc/profile' in your terminal.
3.run 'webcam_fix' in your terminal.
4.You can now use your dummy video device without issue.

When you want to use your webcam, it should now work if you select /dev/video1 in some applications (hangouts was the most important for me). Unfortunately, though, this also makes your webcam always on for as long as the process is running so you will want to terminate the script to ensure the camera actually turns off when you're not using it.

Hope this helps someone else with the issue!