V4L TV Viewing: Difference between revisions

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The following provides commands for adjusting common configuration settings for a [[What is V4L or DVB?|V4L device]]; which are useful for, say, enhancing the end user's experience while watching analogue TV or webcam viewing.
The following provides a list of applications for watching analogue TV and commands for adjusting common configuration settings.
==Applications for watching Analogue TV==
* [http://fftv.sf.net fftv] -- tv/radio viewer/recorder -- [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71197 sourcecode]
* [http://www.kdetv.org kdetv] -- for the KDE desktop -- [http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/extragear/multimedia/kdetv sourcecode]
* [[MPlayer]] [http://www.mplayerhq.hu] -- the movie player
* [http://tvtime.sourceforge.net tvtime] -- high quality video for Linux -- [http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/usage.html user manual]
* [http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC] -- media player and streaming server
* [http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/ xawtv and motv] -- original TV viewers for bttv by Gerd Knorr
* [http://xawdecode.sourceforge.net/ XdTV] -- XdTV is a software that allows you to watch record & stream TV [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=67268 sourcecode]
* [http://xinehq.de xine] -- a multimedia player that also reads from v4l devices
* [http://zapping.sourceforge.net zapping] -- for the Gnome desktop


==Common configuration and control commands==
==Common configuration and control commands==
1. [[v4l2ucp]] -- universal control panel for v4l2 devices


2. Command-line control the V4L device
1. [[v4l2ucp]] -- universal control panel for v4l2 devices (available for Debian from [http://debian.video.free.fr/ Marillat])
:a. v4lctl (part of the [[Xawtv#Associated_Utilities|xawtv package]])

2. Command-line control of the TV card
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video1 list
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video1 list
:* v4lctl setnorm ntsc-m
:* v4lctl setnorm ntsc-m
Line 29: Line 19:
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video2 contrast "45%"
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video2 contrast "45%"
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video0 color "50%"
:* v4lctl -c /dev/video0 color "50%"

:b. [http://www.vanheusden.com/dov4l2/ dov4l2]
:* Console tool that sets the parameters of a Video4Linux-device
:* You can set picture size, brightness, contrast, tuner frequency, and so on.
:* You can also retrieve a complete list of all current settings.

==Test the video==


3. Test the video
3. Test the video

Latest revision as of 03:37, 1 October 2011

The following provides commands for adjusting common configuration settings for a V4L device; which are useful for, say, enhancing the end user's experience while watching analogue TV or webcam viewing.

Common configuration and control commands

1. v4l2ucp -- universal control panel for v4l2 devices

2. Command-line control the V4L device

a. v4lctl (part of the xawtv package)
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video1 list
  • v4lctl setnorm ntsc-m
  • v4lctl setfreqtab us-cable
  • v4lctl setfreqtab us-bcast
  • v4lctl setchannel 3
  • v4lctl volume mute off
  • v4lctl volume 100
  • v4lctl audio stereo
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video0 setattr 'chroma agc' on (bttv only)
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video0 hue "100%" (or "0%" -- same thing)
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video1 bright "50%"
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video2 contrast "45%"
  • v4lctl -c /dev/video0 color "50%"
b. dov4l2
  • Console tool that sets the parameters of a Video4Linux-device
  • You can set picture size, brightness, contrast, tuner frequency, and so on.
  • You can also retrieve a complete list of all current settings.

Test the video

3. Test the video

  • xawtv -hwscan
  • xawtv -remote -noxv -c /dev/video0 -vbidev /dev/vbi0

4. Test overlay mode (capture card controls display -- easy on CPU)

  • xawtv -noxv -capture overlay
  • xawtv -v4l1 -capture overlay
  • xawtv -xvtv -capture overlay
  • xawtv -xvtv_overlay on -capture overlay
  • xawtv -xvtv_overlay off -capture overlay

5. Test grabdisplay mode (application controls display -- required for deinterlacing and other effects)

  • xawtv -noxv -capture grabdisplay
  • xawtv -v4l1 -capture grabdisplay
  • xawtv -xvtv -capture grabdisplay
  • xawtv -xvtv_overlay on -capture grabdisplay
  • xawtv -xvtv_overlay off -capture grabdisplay

6. Test streamer

  • streamer -i "S-Video Input"

7. Determine the characteristics of a recorded video file

  • mplayer -vo dummy -identify <filename> 2>&1 | grep -E "VIDEO:|AUDIO:"

You can put this into a script and for instance call it reveal:

mplayer -vo dummy -identify $1 2>&1 | grep -E "VIDEO:|AUDIO:"

Now you can issue "reveal <filename>" and see something like this:

VIDEO:  [h264]  576x432  24bpp  29.970 fps  495.5 kbps (60.5 kbyte/s)
AUDIO: 32000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 64.0 kbit/6.25% (ratio: 8000->128000)

This command also gives you details:

  • tcprobe -i <filename>

However, at this point (transcode 1.0.2) it doesn't show you video bitrates.