[ale] TV in/out - Now getting ALE mail again...

[Jeff Hubbs]

I have a Voodoo3 3500TV, and it is my understanding that work has been done
in the Video For Linux realm for that.  The Matrox G200TV/G400TV is supposed
to be even better.  

I have not gone there yet, okay?  I'm still trying to get my CD-RW to work
reliably (and I have an NCR810-based SCSI card on the way in replacement of
my Initio-based card toward just that end!)

- Jeff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph A. Knapka [mailto:jknapka at earthlink.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 12:56 PM
> To: Chris Fowler
> Cc: 'James CE Johnson'; hirsch at zapmedia.com; ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] TV in/out - Now getting ALE mail again...
> 
> 
> Egad. So much negativity, man...
> 
> OK, well I must admit that all this is very theoretical for
> me at this point, because I don't actually have the hardware
> available to start playing and I have basically no
> experience in this area. But here are my thoughts:
> 
> First, requirements:
> 
> - Stage 1: get frames off the TV input at a minumum of
> 24 fps and display them on the TV in real time, with
> audio. Build a simple UI for tuning, volume control, etc.
> If instead of a TV I need to use a SVGA monitor, that
> is not too terrible, but I'd prefer to get TV-out
> working.
> 
> - Stage 2: record the TV input in MPEG-2 format and
> play it back. Once that's done, building a scheduler to
> record whatever I want automatically is easy. I'll
> have to blow some $ on a giant economy-size ATA66
> HD. I'd like to be able to keep 12 hours or so of
> recorded material on-line.
> 
> If those 2 are all that I can get working, I'll be
> happy.
> 
> - Stage 3: Display and record simulataneously.
> 
> - Stage 4: Record n minutes of the input at all times,
> and support freeze-frame, rewind, fast-forward of
> the real-time input stream.
> 
> Next, plan of attack:
> 
> - I'll probably go with an ATI card, because even though
> all the features I need are not currently supported, with
> ATI's active support they doubtless will be before long.
> According to ATI's web page, they are "currently
> investigating TV-out support under Linux."
> 
> - For MPEG encode/decode, I will either (a) invest in a
> badass Athlon motherboard, or (b) blow $400 on an MPEG
> codec board (there's a company whose web page escapes
> me at the moment that's currently shipping a codec at
> about that price, and it's designed with Linux in mind).
> About the same cash outlay in either case.
> 
> - For option (a) to be feasible, I'll need to find an
> encoder/decoder package that handles audio well. Or
> write one :--)))) So far I've found a couple of packages
> that handle video reasonably on my 400Mhz K6-2, and this
> has encouraged me that there ought to be one out there
> that does everything I want. Possibly I can hack audio
> support into one of the freebies that only supports
> video. The MPEG format looks pretty scary, but it's well-
> documented, so I can eventually figure it out.
> 
> - If necessary, I'll write code to grab frames and audio
> from the TV input and feed them straight to the MPEG
> encoder. It sounds like going through a separate
> input format causes a lot of grief.
> 
> It may be that I am hopelessly naive and doomed to fail,
> but what the hell. Idle hands are the Devil's plaything,
> and all.
> 
> -- Joe
> 
> > Chris Fowler wrote:
> > 
> > I've been wrking on this and have given up.  I purchased a 
> Zoran based
> > card that I have drivers for in Windows and none in Linux.  I have
> > downloaded the Linux drivers.  I want to take a 60 minute tape to
> > VCD.  Here are my problems
> > 
> > 1. 320x200 is the best I can do at 15fps with audio and video.
> > 2. at full screen the avi captured looks poor at that resolution.
> > 3. The biggest file that I can make on FAT32 file system is around
> > 4GB.
> > 4. Due to number 3, I can not capture the whole tape.
> > 5. MPEG converters cost money.  Too much money.
> > 
> > For short cuts, the zoran is great.  For real conversion, 
> don't waste
> > your time.  I purchased this card because I have a 1.5 hour 
> home video
> > that is over 10 years old. It is VHS.  I want tp preserve 
> it as a VCD.
> > 
> > Chris
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: James CE Johnson [mailto:jcej at tragus.org]
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2000 8:56 AM
> > To: hirsch at zapmedia.com
> > Cc: ale at ale.org
> > Subject: Re: [ale] TV in/out - Still not getting ALE mail...
> > 
> > hirsch at zapmedia.com wrote:
> > 
> > > Joseph A. Knapka writes:
> > >
> > >  > Anyway, some time ago someone on the list was
> > >  > talking about recording Babylon-5 in MPEG
> > >  > format. I'd like to do something similar -
> > >  > basically I want to build a TiVo-like system.
> > >  > I think I have a handle on getting the TV
> > >  > signal into my Linux box and doing the MPEG
> > >  > encode/decode, but I haven't been able to find
> > >  > any solid data on video cards with TV-out
> > >  > supported under Linux. Does anyone have any
> > >  > recommendations for that, or for this kind of
> > >  > thing in general?
> > 
> > Have you found a method for capturing and converting to MPEG yet?
> > I've been
> > trying for a long time and have had, shall we say, "imperfect"
> > success...
> > 
> > Using a Hauupauge card I can capture to AVI.  (Anything over 15fps
> > causes the
> > audio & video to get out of sync.)  The next step, apparently, is to
> > break the
> > AVI into a file full of audio frames and another of video frames.
> > Those are in
> > MPEG format and then get glued back together into a single 
> file.  The
> > problem is
> > that they're never quite in sync when everything is done.
> > 
> > The tools I've been using (or investigating) are avi2yuv, 
> mpeg2codec,
> > mpegUtil,
> > mplex, ulib and vcdtools.  And, of  course, xawtv's record 
> application
> > to capture
> > an AVI in the first place.
> > 
> > If you get this thing working or you want someone to test things for
> > you, by all
> > means let me know.
> > 
> > As for TV out, I haven't tried that yet.  My VooDoo 3 has an S-Video
> > out but I've
> > never tried to jack it into the TV.
> > 
> > Later,
> > J
> > 
> > --
> > To unsubscribe: mail majordomo at ale.org with "unsubscribe ale" in
> > message body.
> 
> -- Joe Knapka
> --
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