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Epiphan VGA2USB (USB VGA Framegrabber)

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:40 pm
by lost
I have an Epiphan VGA2USB frame grabber (http://www.epiphan.com/products/product.php?ppid=3)

I am running zoneminder 1.22.3 on gentoo

The grabber shows up in /dev and I've tried setting the source to local with the correct resolution (in this case 1280x1024), I've tried all the device format options. Have the channel set to 0 and the palette set to RGB24, but I get nothing.

I ended up using transcode to convert the feed into jpegs. I then wrote a little python script to serve up the latest frame on port 81. I then set the monitor up as an IP camera and it works OK, except for the fact that it locks the whole machine up if it is running on the same machine as ZM (sometimes in a few minutes, sometimes in a few days).

I know there has to be a cleaner solution. The driver for the grabber uses v4l just like ZM. Some have suggested using vloopback/vpipe like in this thread (http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10766). I'm not exactly sure how this would work. I don't know how I would have ffmpeg interact with the grabber.

Here are some examples of mplayer/mencoder and transcode working with the device.

Code: Select all

transcode -x v4l,null --use_rgb -i /dev/video8 -f 3 -g 1280x1024 -y raw,null -z -r 2 -f 10 -o /test999.mpeg

transcode -x v4l,null --use_rgb -i /dev/video8 -g 1280x1024 -y jpg,null -k -o /pictures/pic

mplayer -tv driver=v4l:outfmt=rgb24:device=/dev/video7 -flip tv://

mplayer -tv driver=v4l:outfmt=rgb24:device=/dev/video8 -flip -vo jpeg /var/www/localhost/htdocs/framgrabber/

mencoder \
        -oac lavc \
        -ovc lavc \
        -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:keyint=100:vbitrate=8000:vhq \
        -noaspect -flip \
        -o test.avi \
        -tv noaudio:driver=v4l:outfmt=bgr24:device=/dev/video0 \
        tv://
I've looked around on the forum and been working on this for months. Hope someone can help. I'm a newb when it comes to video/ZM.

Thanks

Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:43 pm
by lost
I tried transcode with the ffmpeg export module and ffmpeg itself with vpipe, but no luck.

It looks like the the bttv driver doesn't like either the vga2usb device, my script or transcode, because everything works fine when I turn off the monitors for my bt848 cards in ZM. I'm pretty sure it's not a memory or processor issue. I don't think the bttv driver likes my onboard video either, but I usually remote into it so that doesn't matter much.

Re: Epiphan VGA2USB (USB VGA Framegrabber)

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 8:25 am
by rasha
I'm also sure that it's not a memory or processor issue. http://techmagzine.com/bottled-and-jarr ... ged-goods/