Ubuntu 11.10 VLC and Easycap DC60

[mcaramb]

Been fighting this one for days. Trying like crazy to get an Easycap DC60 to work with VLC on Ubuntu 11.10 (DC60 driver now part of the kernel build)

I'm trying to run the following command line to create an MJPEG video stream for an analog camera:

cvlc -I dummy v4l2:///dev/video0:width=640:height=480:norm=ntsc:standard=5:pixelformat=2 --aspect-ratio=4:3 --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mjpg,scale=1,fps=1,vb=272}:standard{access=http{mime=multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=--7b3cc56e5f51db803f790dad720ed50a},mux=mpjpeg,dst=192.168.1.55:5000/stream.mjpeg}'

This runs, except the video is all garbled as if it's in the adaptor's default PAL mode. The video source is NTSC. It's as if vlc is incapable of setting the adapter to NTSC. Resolution settings are functional, the video will change size if I alter width and height, but standard, norm and pixelformat options seem to have no effect whatsoever.

Has anyone ever been able to get VLC to work with the Ubuntu driver for the EasyCap DC60 from the command line? Incidentally, it doesn't display properly from the GUI in Gnome in VLC either.

I've also tried using v4l2-ctl to manually set the format and standard, but the settings immediately revert back to default for some reason. Such an annoying adapter!

Lastly, running the testNTSC.sh script in the original easycap driver package does indeed run properly using the mplayer demo in the script. Nice beautiful picture. You know, I may be able to pipe the mplayer video into vlc... anyone have any ideas on how to do that?

Here's a stripped down (video only) version of that mplayer command that displays on the screen (for some reason 640x480 is cropped. I was only able to get full video going to 720x486)

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:norm=NTSC_443:width=720:height=486:outfmt=rgb24:device=/dev/video0:input=0:fps=30:buffersize=16

Details:
----------

EASYCAP DC60 USB-0000:00:1d.7-1 Driver version 0.9.1
vlc version 1.1.12

Thanks for any help
-Mike

[mcaramb]

Figured it out!

Apparently, the easycap doesn't like being sent an INDEX number for setting the standard. You need to specify ntsc instead of 5,6, etc...

Working happily now. Here's the final working command line for those that would like it

cvlc -I dummy v4l2:///dev/video0:width=720:height=480:norm=ntsc:standard=ntsc:pixelformat=2:aspect-ratio=4\:3:channel=0 --sout '#transcode{vcodec=mjpg,scale=1,fps=1,vb=272}:standard{access=http{mime=multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=--7b3cc56e5f51db803f790dad720ed50a},mux=mpjpeg,dst=192.168.1.55:5000/stream.mjpeg}'

-Mike

[Wheeladrew]

Hello! First of all, I would like to thank you for figuring this out, because it is beyond me. Or at least seems to be. I got my easycap DC60 yesterday and have been struggling to get it to work (well) on windows and to work at all on Ubuntu. I too am putting in an NTSC source, so I figured I would try your command. This was the result:

VLC media player 1.1.12 The Luggage (revision exported)
Warning: call to srand(1330885074)
Warning: call to rand()
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_ADDRESS")
Blocked: call to unsetenv("DBUS_ACTIVATION_BUS_TYPE")
[0x211dcc0] dummy interface: using the dummy interface module...
[0x214c9c0] main access out: creating httpd
[0x214c9c0] main access out error: socket bind error (Permission denied)
[0x214c9c0] main access out error: cannot create socket(s) for HTTP host
[0x214c9c0] access_output_http access out error: cannot listen on 192.168.1.55 port 5000
[0x2146720] stream_out_standard stream out error: no suitable sout access module for `http{mime=multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=--7b3cc56e5f51db803f790dad720ed50a}/mpjpeg://192.168.1.55:5000/stream.mjpeg'
[0x21460b0] main stream output error: stream chain failed for `transcode{vcodec=mjpg,scale=1,fps=1,vb=272}:standard{access=http{mime=multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=--7b3cc56e5f51db803f790dad720ed50a},mux=mpjpeg,dst=192.168.1.55:5000/stream.mjpeg}'
[0x7fab9c000b70] main input error: cannot start stream output instance, aborting

Could you pleasepleaseplease help me, oh great and wise linux user? I'm a total noob XD

[Wheeladrew]

Update:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:norm=NTSC_443:width=720:height=486:outfmt=rgb24:device=/dev/video0:input=0:fps=30:buffersize=16

Worked after I swapped video0 with video1, though it was in black and white.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The error says you have configured VLC to listen to TCP port 5000 and your operating system does not allow that for security reasons.

If you only want to view the stream locally, drop all the --sout=... stuff.