ZoneMinder Forums

Posted: **Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:44 am**

Hi everyone.

I just bought a PV-143 4 port capture card from bluecherry. I couldn't find good config directions in the wiki. If you all would be kind enough to help me figure out how to get this thing working i'll go and write it up as I bet that lots of people will want this card (it's the cheap one linked from the front page).

Please let me know if any other info is required and i'll post it right-quick.

Thanks a lot!

Problem:
Source is red, and the logs show the capture daemons crashing (can be posted if necessary). I'm not getting anything from the camera feeds.

modprobe.conf
I've been googling around and see varied and conflicting advice as to configuration options to put in modprobe.conf. Mostly "card=x" and "tuner=y". I'm not sure what to put here if anything. I've tried each of the following two lines (not at the same time) (i use "sudo update-modules" after each change)...
options bttv card=77
options bttv card=105

Linux: Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty"
Capture Card: ProVideo PV-143

Screenshot of monitor general tab

Screenshot of monitor source tab

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lspci

00:06.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11)
00:06.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)

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dmesg | grep "bttv"

[   38.493510] bttv: driver version 0.9.16 loaded
[   38.493518] bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
[   38.493586] bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
[   38.493643] bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:06.0, irq: 17, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfb001000
[   38.493680] bttv0: detected: Provideo PV143A [card=105], PCI subsystem ID is aa00:1430
[   38.493686] bttv0: using: ProVideo PV143 [card=105,autodetected]
[   38.493724] bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00ffffff [init]
[   38.494213] bttv0: using tuner=-1
[   38.494217] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
[   38.494994] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
[   38.495770] bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9887 @ 0x86... not found
[   38.496574] bttv0: registered device video0
[   38.496601] bttv0: registered device vbi0
[   38.496620] bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok

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zmu -d /dev/video0 -q -v

Video Capabilities
  Name: BT878 video (ProVideo PV143)
  Type: 171
    Can capture
    Can tune
    Overlay onto frame buffer
    Can clip
    Scalable
  Video Channels: 4
  Audio Channels: 0
  Maximum Width: 924
  Maximum Height: 576
  Minimum Width: 48
  Minimum Height: 32
Window Attributes
  X Offset: 0
  Y Offset: 0
  Width: 320
  Height: 240
Picture Attributes
  Palette: 4 - 24bit RGB
  Colour Depth: 24
  Brightness: 32768
  Hue: 32768
  Colour :32768
  Contrast: 32768
  Whiteness: 0
Channel 0 Attributes
  Name: Composite0
  Channel: 0
  Flags: 2
    Channel has audio
  Type: 2 - Camera
  Format: 0 - PAL
Channel 1 Attributes
  Name: Composite1
  Channel: 1
  Flags: 2
    Channel has audio
  Type: 2 - Camera
  Format: 0 - PAL
Channel 2 Attributes
  Name: Composite2
  Channel: 2
  Flags: 2
    Channel has audio
  Type: 2 - Camera
  Format: 0 - PAL
Channel 3 Attributes
  Name: Composite3
  Channel: 3
  Flags: 2
    Channel has audio
  Type: 2 - Camera
  Format: 0 - PAL

Posted: **Sat Jun 09, 2007 4:48 am**

Oh I should mention that this install already has a usb webcam working, so I know zm is working.

Posted: **Sun Jun 10, 2007 9:24 pm**

Now I'm in a bit of a time crunch. I have to get this working before I leave town Wednesday morning and nothing I do seems to work. Since bluecherry said this card is "tested with zoneminder" I have to believe the problem is something easy.

Tell you what: If anyone out there would be so kind as to help me get this working before Wednesday I'll donate 25$ to zoneminder

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:54 am**

Did you pickup one of our LiveCD's when you purchased the card?

Telemann wrote:Now I'm in a bit of a time crunch. I have to get this working before I leave town Wednesday morning and nothing I do seems to work. Since bluecherry said this card is "tested with zoneminder" I have to believe the problem is something easy.

Tell you what: If anyone out there would be so kind as to help me get this working before Wednesday I'll donate 25$ to zoneminder

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:50 am**

I meant to and managed to forget to check the box. (Wow was that stupid of me.)

Is it possible for me to get hold of one? I suppose it can't get here before Wed though.

How about the modprobe.conf file? Would it be possible for someone to take a peak and let me know if any special config is necessary for this card?

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:03 am**

switch it to ntsc instead of pal

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:56 am**

Re: NTSC

I did try this with a restart of ZM. No luck. I have not tried any of the other format settings though.

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:28 am**

you need a number for each chip
sjv1:/etc/php4/apache2# cat /etc/modprobe.d/bttv
options bttv card=77,77,77,77
this is for a 16 channel 4 chip gen tec board i have used the bluecherry and
they worked pretty well can't get to the config on that machine but i'm pretty sure it was 105

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:26 am**

If your machine is available over the net, you can PM the ssh and zm login info and I can take a look.

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:54 pm**

I'm almost there!

I hit on it simply by sitting down for a few hours and trying every combination of settings I could think of.

modprobe.conf needs....
options bttv card=77,77

Note that linux detected the card as 105, I noticed that when i got this right the monitor for the usb camera i have went green (was orange). Odd that the card config affects a monitor that isn't using the card.

In the monitor:
PAL
RGB24
5 fps max (don't know if that matters)

Only one more thing wrong now. I havn't got the dimensions right. I'm getting the PAL wierd screen wrap thing. Hmmm, there seem to be different PAL standards...... time for some trial and error i guess.

As soon as I get that right I'll send in that donation. Thanks a bunch everybody!

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