(i've sent a copy of this to gerd already)
ok. i've been doing video capture with xawtv for the past week. I'm
still getting 'choppy/jerky' recording! yuk!
sound is ok tho. even if i bump the video quality to a "way lower
quality" or even "no sound" or even to using compression. still jerky
video capture.
I did notice that when recording video within linux, the drive light
would turn on/off intermittently. In windows, when recording video, the
hdd light would stay on at a 'dim light' but when the writes would
occur, the light would turn on. So, in windows, the hdd light would
never entirely 'turn off' but stay at a 'dimly lit'.
I also noticed that cdrecord also started doing this in the past years.
Instead of grabbing the drive data intermittantly when needed by the
cd-rw buffer, the hdd now stays "fully spinning" and never spins-down
until the 20-40min cd-rw burn completes.
also, i noticed that even bumping the "gbuffers" up in the mondules.conf
cuased system freezes if using an inappropriate driver :) I was using
card=1 but could only max to gbuffers=8 w/o crashing. now, with card=4,
i can go up to 32, but i have yet to try a higher value. ...i don't see
much written on these buffer values, neither did a see a performance
increase from anything above a value of 8.
here's a tail of my /var/log/messages:
Nov 26 12:23:51 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: unloading
Nov 26 12:23:51 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c detach [client=NoTuner,ok]
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv: driver version 0.7.83 loaded
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv: using 32 buffers with 2080k
(66560k total) for capture
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv: Host bridge is Intel
Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv: Host bridge needs ETBF enabled.
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: Bt848 (rev 18) at 00:10.0,
irq: 16, latency: 64, memory: 0xfc5ff000
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: using: BT848A(Pinnacle PCTV
Studio Pr) [card=52,insmod option]
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: enabling ETBF (430FX/VP3
compatibilty)Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c attach
[client=(unset),ok]
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c: checking for MSP34xx @
0x80... not found
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: miro: id=14 tuner=2 radio=no
stereo=noNov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c: checking for
MSP34xx @ 0x80... not found
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @
0xb0... not found
Nov 26 12:24:26 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @
0x8a... not found
Nov 26 12:24:47 localhost2 kernel: bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 ...
oops
/etc/modules.conf
#original
alias char-major-81 bttv
#remove the following if i experience crashes!
#1,39,52, (no tuner =4)
options bttv gbuffers=32 card=52 tuner=4 radio=0
My system specs:
Mandrake 8.1
2x750 P3
256MB
Nvidia 32MB Geforce DDR w/ nvidia's drivers
PCTV
xawtv-*3.64-1mdk
kernel-smp-2.4.13-4mdk (cooker kernel of 2.4.13smp - rebuilt on this
i686 arch for speed)
When recording, I'm getting nice 3MB (w/ compression) to 8-10MB (wo
compression) while writing video. cpu usage ranges from <50-60% with
compression to <30% w/o compression.
My system seems to be well within specs. I can't stand Pinnaclesys'
Studio s/w for recording because it uses it's compression to record and
the video qaulity sux. I'm recording in 320x240 in both this and in
linux. With xawtv, i'm getting nice clean crisp pixels. When this
video capture card records in winxp pro with the studio s/w, i'm seeing
very very little cpu usage also when comparing to linux. Pinnacle uses a
the following codecs from what i read: pclepim1.dll, pclepixl.dll
Apperantly, the card records to a type of .avi file. From there, a user
needs to use a converter prg to convert it to mpeg format (ie the highly
famed tmpgenc prg)
Studio PCTV Pci version (not a PRO)
Bus 0, device 16, function 0:
Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt848 TV with DMA
push (rev 18).
IRQ 16.
Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=16.Max Lat=40.
Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc5ff000 [0xfc5fffff].
for specs on this card:
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docloader.asp?templ=10&doclink=/Files/MainPage/HomeVideo/TopTabItems/products/PCTV/Specifications/PCTVTecSpecs.htm&product_id=6&Langue_ID=7
I've also posted my experiences over at www.mandrakeuser.org with video
capture. i'm going to try avifile (it's been awhile since i've tried
this, but there has been apperant steady dev on it for the past few
months.)
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