ZoneMinder Forums

Hi

I just bought a pair of PV-143 capture cards from the Bluecherry website. I am not able to get anything except a white box to show up in Zoneminder when I try to view the picture. I try to use mplayer to view the picture by running the following command:
I get an image, but it appears a bit distorted and I get a weird green stripe at the bottom. I would attach a screenshot, but this forum doesn't allow me to upload pictures nor will it allow me to link to one on imgur. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing the image to show up incorrectly?

A 143 is about as basic as it gets for ZM, usually very easy. I'd be interested in what's in your bttv.conf and what settings you used on the monitor source tab.

I never intentionally edited a bttv.conf file. Where can I find it? Here's what I've got in my source tab:

Device path: /dev/video1 (I have two cards, I change this depending on which one I'm plugging into)
Capture method: Video For Linux version 2
Device Channel: 0
Device Format: NTSC
Capture Palette: GREY (I changed this from YUYV to troubleshoot)
Capture width (pixels): 510
Capture height: 492 (These are the dimensions specified for NTSC in the booklet that came with the camera)
Preserve Aspect Ratio: Unchecked
Orientation: Normal

etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf You didn't say what you're running (distro); could make a difference. Some use modprobe.conf....

I don't have a /etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf or a /etc/modprobe.conf or a /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf. Sorry, I totally forgot to mention my system information. I'm running Debian Squeeze. My uname -a: (I just noticed the date and time were never set)

The two PV-143's are /dev/video0 and /dev/video1

FYI - I won't physically be at the machine until Monday, so I'm stuck doing everything via SSH and through the web browser until then.I hope that won't be a problem. Thanks for your help!

Try creating bttv.conf with "card=105" as an entry. Reboot

Even before that, try lowering the resolutions to 320*240 and set your palette to BGR24. Since this is a single chip card all resolutions and palettes must be set the same. Also V4L_MULTI_BUFFER needs to be unticked and CAPTURES_PER_FRAME should be set to 2.

Sorry for the late reply.

I've tried making your suggested changes in zoneminder, still no luck. Just a white square shows up. I then created an /etc/modprobe.d/bttv.conf file with "card=105". Still no changes in zoneminder nor mplayer. Is that the only line I need to put in bttv.conf? Am I even putting it in the right place?

I'm going to try uploading attachments now. Here is what I see in Zoneminder.

Here is what I see in mplayer.

Yes, generically, you put the bttv.conf exactly where it should be. But you need to check for your distribution if it's correct. Did you reboot after making the changes? Assuming yes: pull one card out of machine (run with only one installed at a time) and use only one camera on the installed card, configure your device and channel. Leave machine off for at least 5 minutes; boot, check results. Looks like a symptom of chip overheating I'd almost forgotten about. I've had to install a heat sink on the 2 I'm using (4 on the PV-149 I'm using).

According to http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Bttv , I don't need the .conf at the end of the file. I tried moving it to /etc/modprobe.d/bttv and rebooted. No luck. I then did what you suggested. I took out one of the cards, turned of the computer and left it off for a little more than 5 minutes, then tried again. No luck.

There's one thing I just remembered. At one point when it randomly worked, it looked like the video driver hadn't started properly and the screen resolution wasn't right. I'm using a board with an Intel graphics chipset and I'm using the stock drivers that came with Debian. Do you know how I could try and temporarily disable the video driver to see if that changes anything?

Update: I just tried the camera in xawtv and it seems to work flawlessly. It's only mplayer and zoneminder where I have problems.

I gave some bad advice: bttv.conf line should look like this - options bttv card=105

That's my fault. For some distros the .conf is mandatory

I changed the line and rebooted. In mplayer the green went away but the distortion is still there. ZoneMinder still shows nothing but that white square. xawtv still works. Why would xawtv work but not the other two programs?

Rather then waist more time back and forth try: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/search.php and seach for "pv143 settings"

Please do post if you find the result