I have problems with xawtv on two boxes.

Box 1 - Mandrake 9.1, matrox G400 dual-head, Philips Toucam webcam. I canuse gnomemeeting, but if I launch xawtv I get a green screen, with 4 mini monochrome, lined, images from the webcam in the top section.

Box 2 - Mandrake 10.0 Official, Radeon 9200, Pinnacle DC10+ capture card. Attempting to launch xawtv causes a reboot. This is the same whether I use the Mandrake default driver for the video card, or the proprietary drivers.

Also, on box 2 - a problem that I think may be related. When using mjpegtools I can capture and playback in totem or xine, but I cannot see the video while capturing. I understand that getting xawtv to launch properly is directly related to this isse.

Can anyone help, or can you point me at a better place to ask?

AnneW

Hi Anne!

I'm not sure what's happening with xawtv, but did you try other programs? After a while trying to make xawtv work, I switched to tvtime, and now i'm happy.

By the way, can you capture video with mjpegtools? Is it good? Is it easy?

TVtime says it 'cannot open device /dev/video0'. Motv crashes X. KWinTV simply does not start Camstreams lists DC10+ as a device, but then closes when I select any size. Camorama and GnomeMeeting both say they can't connect to video device /dev/video0

The device is /dev/video0. The permisions are 770 and the group is video. I belong to the video group.

Using lavrec I can record very easily through mjpegtools, and glav plays the recording back. The tools are CLI, but Linux Video Studio is an attractive front-end. Unfortunately until I get this problem sorted it doesn't help me much.

I don't know whether it is relevant, but I had video on recording under Mandrake 9.2 with a 2.4 kernel, although xawtv didn't work. The big problems started when I moved to Mandrake 10 with a 2.6 kernel.

Anne

Hi,

I've got Mandrake 10 Official, and I couldnt get xawtv/tvtime working until I installed and used kernel 2.4.

Ger.

Hmm - I did wonder if I should do that. Has anyone else had problems like that with 2.6?

Anne

Try to run tvtime as root.

I did try that, and it made no difference. I found the config file yesterday and made a few changes to the settings (ntsc to pal). That has stopped it crashing X at least, but still nothing displays. I've looked for other config files and made sure that they are changed to pal, but I'm still getting an inability to open device /dev/video0.

I made sure that perms were 770 and that I am a group member, since it looked like a perms problem. I'm stuck now.

Anne

Just a suggestion what about putting it in your fstab?

Matt3333

I don't follow, Matt. What should I put in the fstab? Are you saying that I could mount the device?

Anne

I've reinstalled the latest 2.6 kernel, it works. How? I dunno....

I still get kernel panics while capturing with ffmpeg though...

I have 2.6.3-13, Vorik. Is that the one you're using?

Have you tried capturing with lavrec? I think it only works with certain capture boards, though.

Anne

That's the same kernel i'm using.

Yeah, I've tried lavrec. Cant get it to work though, if you can help me with that, it'll be great too. I get the following messages:
-----------------------------------------------------------
[root@apeldoorn torrent]# lavrec -i t -B -v 2 /80gig/Videos/test.avi
INFO: [lavrec] Recording parameters:
INFO: [lavrec] Output format: AVI
INFO: [lavrec] Input Source: PAL TV-tuner

INFO: [lavrec] Decimation: 4
INFO: [lavrec] Quality: 50
INFO: [lavrec] Recording time: -1 sec
INFO: [lavrec]
INFO: [lavrec] MJPEG buffer size: 256 KB
INFO: [lavrec] # of MJPEG buffers: 64
INFO: [lavrec] Audio parameters:
INFO: [lavrec] Audio sample size: 16 bit
INFO: [lavrec] Audio sampling rate: 44100 Hz
INFO: [lavrec] Audio is MONO
INFO: [lavrec] Audio input recording level: Use mixer setting
INFO: [lavrec] Level of correction for Audio/Video synchronization:
INFO: [lavrec] Lost frame compensation and frame drop/insert
--DEBUG: [lavrec] Maximum size per file will be 1739 MB
INFO: [lavrec] Using mmap(2) system call for capture
++ WARN: [lavrec] Sound card told us it's using rate 44101Hz instead of 44100Hz
INFO: [lavrec] Auto detecting input and norm ...
INFO: [lavrec] Unmuting tuner audio...
**ERROR: [lavrec] Error getting video parameters: Invalid argument
Segmentation fault
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try
lavrec -f a i P -d 2 -q 80 -s -l 60 -R l -U filename.avi

Which capture board are you using?

Anne

Hi, thanks for the fast responses!!

I get:

[root@apeldoorn Videos]# lavrec -f a i P -d 2 -q 80 -s -l 60 -R l -U filename.avi
++ WARN: [lavrec] Sound card told us it's using rate 44101Hz instead of 44100Hz
**ERROR: [lavrec] Error getting video input status: Invalid argument
++ WARN: [lavrec] Not ready for capture (state = 0)!
Press enter to start recording>Segmentation fault

Which capture board, Vorik, and are you using composite or s-video? Also pal, ntsc or secam?

Anne