No streaming video

[cavaughan]

I am using ZM 1.20.x on a Debian kernel 2.6 box. I have a btx (something) video card and a non-name rca-cabled camera.

Using webcam I can get still pictures from the rca camera. However, all attempts to get a streaming video using ffmpeg on the same device show only some static image. I haven't really tried to get the usb camera to work as ultimately only rca cameras will be used.

How do I go about figuring out why I am only getting static with ffmpeg?

For webcam the device is on /dev/video0 which is what I address ffmpeg to.

The command I am using with ffmpeg is:
ffmpeg -vd /dev/video0 -an -s 326x288 /tmp/video_test.avi

I have also tried:
ffmpeg -vd /dev/video0 -an -r 10 -s 326x288 /tmp/video_test.avi
but the rate parameter seems to make little difference.

I have also tried using streamer, but with the same static video image as for ffmpeg.

[cordel]

First can you use a program like tvtime or xawtv to view video from your cameras?
Are there any errors in your logs that might help?
What version of ffmpeg and were there any errors compiling?
Are you sure the capture board you are using supports 326x288?

[cavaughan]

irst can you use a program like tvtime or xawtv to view video from your cameras?
Are there any errors in your logs that might help?
What version of ffmpeg and were there any errors compiling?
Are you sure the capture board you are using supports 326x288?

I've tried xawtv and just installed tvtime, but I still can't view video.

I don't see any entries in any logs that would clue me in to anything. Specifically which logs should I be looking at and for what kind of entries.

The ffmpeg version looks like 0.cvs20050121-1. As I recall there were no errors compiling, but then.... maybe I missed something. I can uninstall and reinstall if that would help.

Capture board? Uh, I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Thanks for your input so far.

[cordel]

What hooks the camera to the computer? You had mentioned you have a camera with a RCA jack so I assume that you have some type of board that supports video capture. If tvtime or xawtv don't work then you will want to look in to your messages log (not sure if thats in the same place as Fedora /var/log/messages) and maybe check your boot logs to see what the kernal thinks it should be loading as compaired to the capture device you have.
The big thing is if tvtime or xawtv can't see video, ffmpeg will have just as hard a time.

[cavaughan]

From dmesg I see the following information:

Linux video capture interface: v1.00
bttv: driver version 0.9.15 loaded
bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
bttv0: Bt848 (rev 17) at 0000:00:0a.0, irq: 5, latency: 32, mmio: 0xeb009000
bttv0: using: *** UNKNOWN/GENERIC *** [card=0,autodetected]
bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00ffffff [init]
bttv: readee error
bttv0: using tuner=-1
bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
bttv0: registered device video0
bttv0: registered device vbi0
bt878: AUDIO driver version 0.0.0 loaded
dvb_bt8xx_init: unknown card_id found 0
dvb_bt8xx_init: unknown card_type found 0, NOT LOADED
dvb_bt8xx_init: unknown card_nr found 0
attach: checking "bt848 #0 [sw]"
find by pci: checking "bt848 #0 [sw]"


In the messages log file, I don't see anything relevant.

Also, I wish to note that I don't understand why webcam can show pictures from the camera, but ffmpeg, xawtv and tvtime can't.

Note that ffmpeg and xawtv show some blurred mess at the top of the video display, while tvtime is showing a total blank.

[cordel]

So the system thinks it has a video capture board with a bt848 chip on it. If you can see the chip on the board it should say bt848. If it says bt878 you need to overide the settings in modprobe.conf with the correct settings. Also check your PM here on the forum.