video capture cards for FreeBSD laptop

[Juergen Lock]

On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 10:41:16AM +0200, Lars Engels wrote:
> Quoting Juergen Lock <nox at jelal.kn-bremen.de>:
> 
> > On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 06:47:52PM +0200, Juergen Lock wrote:
> >> On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 04:16:04PM +0200, Lars Engels wrote:
> >> > On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 01:41:41PM +0200, Matthias Apitz wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > > Hello,
> >> > >
> >> > > I've Google'd around a bit but I don't see any real solution. My wife
> >> > > has a FreeBSD laptop with 8-REL and wants to watch TV from time to time.
> >> > > Any solution via USB or PCMCIA cards? Or even a small network box which
> >> > > could be connected via LAN/WLAN by mplayer...
> >> > >
> >> > > Thanks in advance
> >> >
> >> > Hi Matthias,
> >> >
> >> > the "Freecom DVB-T USB Stick" works nicely with webcamd + vlc.
> >>
> >> That one no longer seems to be sold tho, or only at pretty high prices...
> >> If I look at e.g.
> >>
> >> 	http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?cat=vidext&xf=800_USB
> >>
> >> I find usb dvb-t tuners for as cheap as 9 eur tho I don't know which
> >> of those work with webcamd, but if you want to experiment and maybe use
> >> the 14-day return policy if one doesn't work...  (or look up an usb tuner
> >> on sites like
> >>
> >> 	http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hardware_Device_Information
> >>
> >> , maybe ask on freenode irc #linuxtv, find out which linux driver it
> >> uses and check
> >>
> >> 	/usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd/work/webcamd-0.1.12/Makefile
> >>
> >> after `make extract' in /usr/ports/multimedia/webcamd to see if
> >> webcamd builds that driver, and hope it works too...)  But how ever
> >> you try, don't forget to post your findings here!
> >>
> >>  If you want hdtv in Germany you'll need dvb-s2 (if you have a
> >> satellite dish) or dvb-c (if you have cable, but remember often
> >> otherwise fta `private' channels are crypted on cable unless you
> >> stick to analog transmissions which I don't know for how much longer
> >> they'll be around and also you won't get hdtv that way), and dvb-c
> >> and dvb-s(2) tuners are more expensive than dvb-t ones tho the picture
> >> quality (bandwidth) also often is better than with dvb-t.  Oh and
> >> the hdtv versions of the german `private' channels are `paytv'
> >> everywhere (i.e. crypted), even on satellite, the only fta hdtv
> >> chanels on Astra 19.2E atm are Das Erste, ZDF, arte, Anixe and
> >> Servus TV.  (And EinsFestival HD but that one only plays test loops
> >> most of the time.)
> >>
> >>  I use a PCTV 452e Sat HDTV Pro USB dvb-s2 tuner which works pretty well
> >> now with vdr (as well as kaffeine, mplayer, and szap-s2 with most any
> >> player, only vlc's builtin dvb support seems to be broken for this tuner
> >> but that I can live with.)
> >>
> >>  If you want full pvr functionality (epg, timers, recordings,
> >> client/server network playback/streaming/webinterface, osd, teletext,
> >> multiple tuners...  only using a remote may still be a problem) you
> >> can try mythtv from ports or my preliminary vdr ports (which still
> >> have loose ends but are very much functional at least for me tho
> >> a lot of `less important' plugins aren't ported yet, some manual
> >> tweaking may still be required and I don't know if anyone has tested
> >> xineliboutput's vdpau support on FreeBSD yet), see here:
> >>
> >> 	http://people.freebsd.org/~nox/dvb/
> >>
> >> and the threads linked from there like:
> >>
> >> 	http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-multimedia/2010-June/011154.html
> >>
> >> (most Linux users I know prefer vdr over mythtv. :)
> >>
> >> > Jun 23 16:13:25  root: Unknown USB device: vendor 0x14aa product   
> >> 0x0225 bus uhub7
> >> > Jun 23 16:13:25  kernel: ugen7.2: <vendor 0x14aa> at usbus7
> >> >
> >> > There should also be some other Sticks with the same chip.
> >> >
> >> > The only issue I have is that it is also recognized as a ukbd, so I had
> >> > to remove the ukbd entries in /etc/devd.conf.
> >>
> >>  That's probably the remote...  (which other usb tuners often have extra
> >> code for in their drivers, but webcamd doesn't support those parts yet
> >> so you'd need to play with an extra receiver and lirc most likely if
> >> you want to use the remote.)
> 
> Yes, probably the remote. It used to be recognized as a uhid device.  
> raaf has written a little tool to use the remote:
> http://raaf.atspace.org/dvbusb/ Scroll down to "dvbremote" there.
> Perhaps it is also usable with other DVB-T devices.
> 
Ah yeah, for those that attach as uhid maybe.  (which not all do as I said,
and for vdr you'd probably need to connect to lirc instead...)
> 
> >>  Oh and if any u.s. people are still reading, vdr seems to support atsc
> >> now too, tho I dunno if anyone tried that with webcamd yet.
> 
> 
> 
> > Oh and btw I was watching the soccer worldcup in 720p hd today using vdr
> > and xine on FreeBSD, Germany won 4-1 against England...
> 
> 
> Yeah, I watched it in a club and we had a lot of fun! :)
> In the evening I watched Argentina vs. Mexico in the backyard using my  
> DVB-T device.
> Thanks to the vuvuzelas I found out, that there seems to be a buffer  
> problem in the driver. Every n seconds the sound stops for a short  
> time and theres a little distortion in the picture.
> 
> Hans: Do you know where I could look in the code? The device can be  
> found here:
> http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/DVB-T_USB_Devices#WideView.2FYakumo.2FHama.2FTyphoon.2FYuan_Boxes_and_Pens  (Freecom DVB-T USB Stick (25451  
> rev3))

 Hmm I had something like that once after weeks of uptime and
restarting vdr and (I think) webcamd too, colorful sqare artefacts
in the picture once in a while accompanied by a sqeaky sound...
A reboot fixed that so I guess it was just memory fragmentation
causing the usb stack not to get enough contiguous buffers anymore?
(This box has 8 GB RAM so maybe if you have less it may happen after
a shorter uptime depending on how your box is used...)

 HTH,
	Juergen