ZoneMinder Forums

Posted: **Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:18 pm**

Hello, I'm trying to setup zoneminder with a BT878 card but can not get any signal from my camera via zoneminder, xawtv, or cheese.

When running lspci | grep Bt878 I get the following output.

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01:08.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
01:08.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)

And when running xawtv -hwscan

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his is xawtv-3.95.dfsg.1, running on Linux/x86_64 (2.6.38-8-server)
looking for available devices
port 63-94
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : NV40 texture adapter

port 95-126
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : NV40 high quality adapter

port 127-142
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : NV Video Blitter

/dev/video0: OK                         [ -device /dev/video0 ]
    type : v4l2
    name : BT878 video (GrandTec Multi Cap
    flags: overlay capture

I added the following lines to modprobe.conf according to the wiki.
options bttv card=77 tuner=4 radio=0 triton1=0 vsfx=0 autoload=0

And I also added the following lines to /etc/modprobe.d/options according to a forum I found about the cheap chinese capture cards having the grandtec chip.
bttv radio=0 card=77 tuner=-1

Also when I run tvtime-scanner I recieve

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Reading configuration from /etc/tvtime/tvtime.xml
Reading configuration from /home/media-server/.tvtime/tvtime.xml
Scanning using TV standard NTSC.
/home/media-server/.tvtime/stationlist.xml: No existing NTSC station list "Custom".
videoinput: Can't get tuner info: Invalid argument
videoinput: Can't free frame 0: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 1: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 2: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 3: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Driver refuses to start streaming: Device or resource busy.
videoinput: Driver refuses to stop streaming: Invalid argument.
videoinput: Can't free frame 0: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 1: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 2: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 3: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Driver refuses to start streaming: Device or resource busy.
videoinput: Can't get tuner info: Invalid argument

    No tuner found on input 0.  If you have a tuner, please
    select a different input using --input=<num>.

videoinput: Driver refuses to stop streaming: Invalid argument.
videoinput: Can't free frame 0: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 1: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 2: Device or resource busy
videoinput: Can't free frame 3: Device or resource busy

Additional information. In zoneminder if I set my camera up as source /dev/Video0 it looks like a missing image when I check the camera within zoneminder. However if I point to /dev/v4l/by-path/pci-0000:01:08.0-video-index0 I will get a black screen.

If anyone can help me get this working or offer start to finish instructions for setting up this card I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Posted: **Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:06 am**

Also, can anyone confirm if the PV-143 from Bluecherry is easier to setup? I think it is also a BT878 but judging from the picture it looks like a much better card. If it will work with minimal setup I think it would definitely be worth the extra few bucks to me. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Posted: **Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:01 am**

Sorry to keep updating my own thread bit I had a development I wanted to share. Typically I get a blue screen in cheese but after unhooking everything and rehooking it up the camera showed up in cheese but was a double image and blurry. I think it may be a bad cable? Both the cable and cam are new from monoprice. Anybody have any thoughts?

Posted: **Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:24 pm**

Can nobody offer any insight? I'm really lost. I can get one port to show an image in cheese but is black and white and off vertical center. It's one of the cards purchased from eBay when searching for pico CCTV. I really need to know if my settings are correct or if this appears to be a hardware problem. I tried a different cable with the same result, I was under the impression these cards worked well in Linux so I'd like to assume my setting are fine however I'm by no means an expert and would like an opinion of the problem. Thanks

Posted: **Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:42 pm**

Add this:

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options bttv card=77 tuner=4 radio=0 triton1=0 vsfx=0 autoload=0

Not to modprobe.conf, but to /etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf

Type this to re-load bttv after this:

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modprobe -r bttv
modprobe bttv

mastertheknife.

Posted: **Thu Jun 16, 2011 2:21 pm**

Thanks so much for the reply. I will try this as soon as I get home from work and post results. Is the issue I'm seeing typically a setting problem you think?

Posted: **Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:31 pm**

I tried your suggestion but did not get any improvement. I've been trying this on ubuntu server. I just tried a zmlarch live cd and everything worked fine with no effort. What is this distro doing differently that I can't replicate on my server? Any thoughts?

Posted: **Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:06 pm**

I'm going to reinstall ubuntu server and install zoneminder from source anybody willing to help me out if I'm still having trouble I'm willing to pay either directly or as a donation to the project. Anyone interested please pm me or reply to this thread letting me know any information you need. Thanks

Posted: **Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:49 am**

Reinstalling Ubuntu Server and installing Zoneminder from source solved my problem. The camera is working fantastic now.

Posted: **Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:33 pm**

might be handy to add some more details as Ubuntu version, zm version and more info in the topic next time. this isnt very useful to anybody.

Posted: **Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:02 pm**

Thank you. I will be more precise in the future. I am an inexperienced forum user and appreciate everyones willingness to help and understand I should give those willing to volunteer ad much info as possible to make it easier and less frustrating.

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