Colours not working on cameras but they are coloured cameras

viriio · Post by **viriio** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:17 am

Hi,

My cameras are colour cameras, they work on windows fine in colour, whenever I use ZoneMinder i can't seem to get any colour, I've tried all different "formats" PAL-N PAL-M etc and the most i ever can get is grey scale.

I've tried editing some config files, but no luck. (not actually sure what to edit to be honest).

Below is an output from hwscan

[/home/user]# xawtv -hwscan
This is xawtv-3.93, running on Linux/i686 (2.6.7-2.tmb.6mdk)
looking for available devices
port 56-56 [ -xvport 56 ]
type : Xvideo, video overlay
name : video4linux

port 57-57
type : Xvideo, image scaler
name : SIS 5597/5598/6326/530/620 Video Overlay

/dev/video0: OK [ -device /dev/video0 ]
type : v4l2
name : BT878 video ( *** UNKNOWN/GENER
flags: overlay capture tuner

The card is a 4 port one. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get colour?. I have changed the setting in the ZM browser to RGB 24bit, and xawtv I have tried all different settings.

any help would be much appreciated.

Post by **zoneminder** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:11 am

Are you saying the cams are grey in xawtv as well as ZM? The main reason I see things like this is when I have capture hardware set to NTSC and PAL cams, or the other way round but it sounds like you have checked this.

viriio · Post by **viriio** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:18 am

zoneminder wrote:Are you saying the cams are grey in xawtv as well as ZM? The main reason I see things like this is when I have capture hardware set to NTSC and PAL cams, or the other way round but it sounds like you have checked this.

Hi Phil,

Grey in both ZM and xawtv. Yea first thing i thought it was that linux had it in the wrong format, but after trying the 12 odd different formats it didn't get any colour. TVTIME doesn't load.

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:36 am

If you read your hwscn post it says unknown generic bt878. Although sometimes the generic will work, i find they rarely work properly. What you need to do is modify yourmodprobe.conf file (under /etc/) and add
options bttv card=??
where ?? is the correct number for your card.
Do you know what card you have?
I usually try 77 and then investigate when this doesnt work

ANyways let me know how you get on

viriio · Post by **viriio** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 11:25 am

will try, whats the 77 business mean?
I'm not sure on the card, was an ebay job. Any other numbers i should try?

jameswilson · Post by **jameswilson** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:27 pm

can you show me a pic of the card?

And the 77
edit modprobe.conf located in the etc folder
add
options bttv card=77 to it but there are 140 diferent card numbers so you will have to find the right one