Dual PV-149

[keyboardgnome]

Greetings all again!

So I've rebuilt the system to a new computer that now has two PV-149's. I've got them running with the following settings:

Max FPS: 30
Alarm Max FPS: 30

Video for linux verzion 2
NTSC M
RGB565
720x576

Image buffer: 40
Warmup: 25
Pre-event: 10
Post event: 10



A problem I see is that the all the images have random horizonal black lines wherever there is a scene change (IE, motion or something else). After a little while, they go away. But when motion comes back, it's all scatter again wherever there is motion. Attached is an example.

Any ideas as to what may be wrong?

[keyboardgnome]

No takers?

I doubt it is a card issue, since both cards have the same problem.

The higher the frame rate, the more noticeable it is. IE, 15 fps is when you start to see it like above. 30 fps, it's pretty much the entire screen. 1 fps... you dont see it, but why would I buy a 30 fps card per channel if I can only use it at 1 fps.

[alf]

Did you try working up from a smaller capture size?


Did you try different capture pallets?


Try starting at 320 X 240 and I think it's BGR24.


I'm a bit surprised that rgb565 works.


Whats the CPU usage?

[keyboardgnome]

Howdy all; update on the situation.

I tried the live linux zoneminder cd... it worked great. No problems.

I scratched Ubuntu for Debian 6 (trying to see if the root of the issue is in the Debian tree). I followed the instructions for compiling from scratch with 64 bit support to see if that would help.

The problem still exists.


I've noticed that when running the feeds on 640x480 with Grey, there are no problems. It's when I set them to any color palette that these issues crop up. I also figured out why they would seem to fade away, which was due to the image blending function. I've disabled it to better test right now.

If I drop all the images to 320x240, I don't see *any* problems with them at all.

I'm trying them out right now at 640x480 at 15fps. If I run them at 30 fps, the lines are all over the place.

Has anyone had any success, whatsoever, about using these cards at full resolution and capture rate?

CPU and Memory utilization is mid (Intel i5, total running is at about 50%-60%; memory is 33%).

[bb99]

Running only a single PV-149 but works great at specs you mentioned. Did have quality issues in the beginning but heatsinks took care of that. I found the best picture resolution to be 560*420 otherwise interlacing became much more noticable. Because the liveCD worked no problem (the best trouble shooting tool available, thankyou RDMelin) the issue isn't with your cards but with Debian. If your build is using shared memory try bumping that up by 50% just to eliminate it as a possible cause.

[keyboardgnome]

Thanks!

I'll try the lower resolution shortly. I also found this:

http://www.cctvforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=26635

Where they mentioned

"So you get the "comb-edge" effect images? Looks like horrible interlacing? I know exactly what your talking about...

You just need to play with some settings... I was in the same bind with my 4-camera ZM setup. BTW I have a PV-143 from Bluecherry. Set all cameras to 640x480.

Go into your settings (In Config tab), and set CAPTURES_PER_FRAME to 2. It was probably at 1 before? This allows it to "settle down" and produce better images. You will no longer have crappy, extremely interlacing/combing. Your frame rate will be effectively cut in half if you don't have headroom - because it is capturing twice per frame, and choosing the right one."

That's very similar to what I'm experiencing- the "comb-edge" sort of effect. I increased it to 2 right now, and it seems to be working better. I'll try reducing the resolution after seeing how the system performs for a little while.

[keyboardgnome]

I dont know why I didnt do this earlier:

v4l2-ctl --all | more
Driver Info:
Driver name : bttv
Card type : BT878 video (ProVideo PV150)
Bus info : PCI:0000:03:08.0
Driver version: 2322
Capabilities : 0x05000015
Video Capture
Video Overlay
VBI Capture
Read/Write
Streaming
Format Video Capture:
Width/Height : 640/480
Pixel Format : 'BGR3'
Field : Interlaced
Bytes per Line: 1920
Size Image : 921600
Colorspace : Unknown (00000000)
Format Video Overlay:
Left/Top : 0/0
Width/Height: 320/240
Field : Any
Chroma Key : 0x00000000
Global Alpha: 0x00
Clip Count : 0
Clip Bitmap : No
Format VBI Capture:
Sampling Rate : 28636363 Hz
Offset : 244 samples (8.52064e-06 secs after leading edge)
Samples per Line: 2048
Sample Format : GREY
Start 1st Field : 10
Count 1st Field : 16
Start 2nd Field : 273
Count 2nd Field : 16
Framebuffer Format:
Capability : Clipping List
Flags :
Width : 0
Height : 0
Pixel Format : ''
Bytes per Line: 0
Size image : 0
Colorspace : Unknown (00000000)
Crop Capability Unknown (00000000):
Bounds : Left 68, Top 22, Width 838, Height 504
Default : Left 128, Top 46, Width 768, Height 480
Pixel Aspect: 910/780
Crop: Left 128, Top 46, Width 768, Height 480
Video input : 0 (Composite0: ok)
Audio input : 0 (audio)
Frequency: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Video Standard = 0x0000b000
NTSC-M/M-JP/M-KR
Streaming Parameters Video Capture:
Frames per second: 29.970 (30000/1001)
Read buffers : 0
Priority: 2


640x480- it says it is interlaced. hmmmm