On Sun, 6 Dec 2009, Chuck Hast wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 03:33, Eben King <eben01@verizon.net> wrote:
>> On Sat, 5 Dec 2009, Chuck Hast wrote:
>>
>>> As to capture I would probably start out with VLC, the good old swiss
>>> army tool of video... I have used it to capture video off of USB cams, I
>>> am assuming that is what you have.
>>
>> OK, I installed VLC and tried to make it DTRT. It prints a few errors to
>> stdout. One is
>>
>> [00000296] pulse audio output error: Failed to connect to server: Connection
>> refused
>> [00000296] pulse audio output error: Pulse initialization failed
>>
>> Not a biggie, but how do I tell it not to use pulseaudio?
>
> Grief, good old Pulse Audio, it will bit your backside somewhere, I ended up
> on some machines just removing the bugger and using the regular audio stuff.
Can't, Synaptic tells me that to do so I have to remove "ubuntu-desktop".
Apparently it's one of their blessed^Wstandard packages. As much as
possible I don't use it however. Most, if not all, apps are configured to
ignore it. However, since they're all precompiled and linked against pa's
libs, I couldn't remove it even if Ubuntu didn't mind.
>> The other sounds bad:
>>
>> [00000300] v4l demuxer error: cannot get capabilities (Invalid argument)
>>
>> Where can I go to enter my webcam's capabilities? The mplayer command I use
>> is:
>>
>> mplayer -tv fps=15:noaudio:width=640:height=480 tv://
>
> When you plug the cam into the USB (I assume it is USB)
It is, 17a1:0128 .
> how does it show up in the /dev? Mine shows up as /dev/video0,
Mine too.
> I just go into VLC as follows
> Media>Open Capture Device
> In Device Selection
> Video Device Name:
> I enter /dev/video0
> At the bottom of the Open Capture Device screen is the [Play] button click on
> that and you should get a opening screen of what your cam is seeing.
We must have different versions of VLC. I have "0.8.6e Janus (wxWidgets
interface)". Here's what I see:
eben@pc:~$ vlc
(stdout) VLC media player 0.8.6e Janus
I go to File -> Open Capture Device...
Settings are as follows:
Tab=Video4Linux
Video Device Name=/dev/video0
Audio device name=/dev/dsp
Norm=Automatic
Frequency=-1
[ ] Stream/Save [ ] Caching=300
Customize: (a big dynamically-generated command)
Under "Advanced Options":
Options=(blank)
Caching value in ms=300
Video input chroma format=(blank)
Framerate=-1.000000
Samplerate=44100
Channel=0
Tuner=-1
Audio channel=-1
[X] Stereo
Width=0
Height=0
Brightness=-1
Color=-1
Hue=-1
Contrast=-1
[ ] MJPEG
Decimation=1
Quality=100
If I cancel "Advanced Options" and OK the Open,
(stdout) [00000300] v4l demuxer error: cannot get capabilities (Invalid argument)
(stdout) [00000308] pulse audio output error: Failed to connect to server: Connection refused
(stdout) [00000308] pulse audio output error: Pulse initialization failed
and the vlc window looks as if it's already playing, but no image or image
window appears -- there are Stop and Pause buttons, but not Play.
> About the same thing holds for Skype. I use Skype with a camera quite often,
> even the little camera on my Netbook.
Skype used to sorta-work, but now it waits a long time after I click "Sign
In" and then it tells me "P2P connect failed". Bad port forwarding on my
router?
> What distro are you running?
Ubuntu something LTS
I think these are some of the oldest files that came with my distro, if that
helps date it:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 320 2006-08-15 18:23 /etc/defoma/hints/ttf-lao.hints
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 89 2006-06-19 15:14 /etc/cron.daily/logrotate
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 580 2006-06-17 11:54 /etc/defoma/csetenc-xenc.data2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1261 2006-06-17 11:54 /etc/defoma/loc-cset.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3983 2006-06-17 11:54 /etc/defoma/ps-cset-enc.data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 530 2006-06-17 11:54 /etc/defoma/xenc-cset.data
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 748 2006-01-23 13:47 /etc/init.d/loopback
> I am running SuSE 11.1 and Ubuntu 9.10 on these boxes and all of them seem
> to be able to see both my USB cams and my IP cams (the last are in my view
> easier to deal with because there are so many ways to handle that TCP
> stream with the video in it)
>
> I even have some firewire cams, but I have to use something else for
> those, and I have a problem getting the video beyond a file, because the
> loop piece does not seem to want to work, that allows you to link the
> camera to other apps that are looking for /dev/video rather than the
> firewire driver which most of them know nothing about. I want to get that
> last piece going because the firewire cams I have a industrial inspection
> cams and the produce NICE video.
losetup doesn't do it, huh? Would catting to a pipe (and having the
viewing program read from the same pipe) help? (mknod p filename)
I just found
http://deaglecito.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-sensor-merge-faq-tascorp-17a10128.html
which contains the intriguing phrase "In the last two days, a new sensor was
added to the t613 subdriver". This is worth investigating. It also has the
troubleshooting item "Camorama, gcam, skype, etc, etc do not work!" with
several possible solutions.
-- -eben QebWenE01R@vTerYizUonI.nOetP http://royalty.mine.nu:81 SCORPIO: Get ready for an unexpected trip when you fall screaming from an open window. Work a little harder on improving your low self esteem, you stupid freak. -- Weird Al, _Your Horoscope for Today_----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
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