Streaming CPIA frequency and format question

[urbansond]

• Sytem is Linux Slackware 9.1 on 233 586 machine
  
  Have installed and running, vlc-0.7.2, but as yet am unable to view streams with VLC win32 client on another node, running 98SE. Depending on stream config, I may get a grey box that represents video, but no data and once I had sound come through, but no picture.
  
  ffmpeg stable was previously running OK using an old CPIA VLSI ltd 0553 linux indexed camera on v4l. ffmpeg had previously identified a YUV format as is the standard for this camera.
  
  My ffmpeg is now at rev cvs-2004-05-25, as of the VLC installation. (seeing notes today, that this version of ffmpeg is having problems too).
  
  From the ffmpeg mailing list, today...
  

  To: ffmpeg-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
  Subject: Re: [Ffmpeg-devel] grab from v4l device no longer works
  Reply-To: ffmpeg-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
  
  To: ffmpeg-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
  Subject: Re: [Ffmpeg-devel] grab from v4l device no longer works
  Reply-To: ffmpeg-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
  
  On Wed, 26 May 2004, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
  
  > Hi
  >
  > On Wednesday 26 May 2004 01:38, cp76 wrote:
  > > I am using the latest CVS.
  > >
  > > It was still ok one week ago.
  > does it work with ffmpeg -sync 0 ... ?
  
  Yes '-syn~c 0' helps. Should '-sync 0' be turned on by default for v4l
  device ? Thank you.
  
  Edward Liu

  Does anybody know if this has affected VLC?
  
  This is one of the configs I have tried for vlc...
  

  vlc -vvv v4l:/dev/video0:norm=pal:frequency=543250:size=qsif:channel=0:adev=/dev/audio0 --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,acodec=mpga,vb=3000,ab=256,vt=800000,keyint=80,deinterlace}:std{access=udp,mux=ts,url=192.168.1.3}' --ttl 12

  I've tried switching between PAL and SECAM and no luck, but I see some using different frequency settings...
  
  1. ) What format should this cam run at, PAL, SECAM, NTSC?
  2. ) How should I determine the correct frequency?
  3. ) How is Frames Per Second controlled in VLC?
  4. ) Should I be at channel 0 (no tuner on cam) or 1 for composite?
  5. ) Is there a script or location for tuning the ffmpeg parameters interface with VLC, allowing other common ffmpeg features to be tweeked?
  
  Thank you in advance,
  Mike

[urbansond]

I also tried setting the acodec parameter to use huffyuv.

When the VLC starts, it shows the huffyuv codec being called, but then switches back over to MPEG, automatically, stating it cannot find encoder.

The Huffyuv source is present in the ffmpeg libavcodec subdir of ffmpeg and I found no explicite config options to select huffyuv on or off.

?????

[Sigmund]

huffyuv is a video codec. It cannot be used for acodec.

[urbansond]

I actually did use vcodec=huffyuv

But for some reason it's kicking it back out

Almost like me pulling all my hair out. HAHAHA

Mike

[Sigmund]

my suggestion: First figure out how to play it locally, the figure out the stream out settings.

[urbansond]

Understood.

However, on the Slack 9.1 I'm running, I don't use GTK or Gnome.

I launch the sequence in an xterm and get and X gives me a GUI for VLC, but I haven't been able to make it play yet.

Is GTK or Gnome mandatory, or do I need to just fiddle with the stream local aspect. The stream item shows up in the play list, but "play" does nothing.

Are you saying to move from a stream effort to just playing a file locally?
And if so, can I do this from X only, or do I need one of the other GUI systems?

If you advise, then I'll try it immediately, but I'm new to VLC, so I'll have to figure out the play sequence in that GUI, apparently.

Mike

[Sigmund]

I'm saying that in your setup there are two things that can be incorrect. Either the v4l mrl can be incorrect (wrong mode channel etc) or the stream out settings can be incorrect (wrong codec, mux, protocol combination). Since the second can't possibly work unless the first work you should make sure the first work well first.

So you should try your command line, without the --sout part. If this give you the tv in a window and some audio in the speakers then all is well and you can go on to fiddling with the streamout settings. Gui has nothing to do with this, and is totally not mandatory

[urbansond]

OK, now I understand I'm doing this from command line and see how it operates locally.

I managed to find I have a bad sector and journel problem showing up on the drive, so I need to remedy that before I go further, or it could be part of the problem.

Thanks Sigmund. Once, repaired I will try this and come back to this thread. Continue to keep the thread flagged if you could, please.

Thank you.
Mike