Video Capturing in Linux

[bradleybz]

What software out there for Linux for capturing video from a capture card ready to edit and eventually burn to DVD?

[courtrrb]

Oh were to start. Lets see.
Gv4l - front-end to transcode
streamer - front-end to xawtv.
ffmpeg - command line
Kmediagrab
avicap

All have different capture qualitys all have some draw back but all work.

I preferr ffmpeg because it will enccode straight to mpeg2 at svcd resulotion.
I then use avidemux to convert to dvd and qdvdaurthor to do the DVD aurthoring.

[DaveQB]

Great post!! thanx so much.

Been looking everywhere for a list of capture apps.
So easier to find players and editors but capture apps.......

[BlkPoohba]

when trying to capture video from my sony camcorder hooked up thru wintv go i can only capture at the most 600x480 and thats only with ffmpeg. with streamer I can't even do that. I can't specify a size with streamer.

[BlkPoohba]

I am not able to capture at resolutions higher than 480x348. Every once in a while I can get 600x480 for some reason but not all the time. is there something else I need to set?
This is the output.
$ffmpeg -vd /dev/video0 -vcodec mpeg2video -s 600x480 -b 5000 -acodec mp2 -ab 128 -t 00:44:05 tt.mpg
ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1, build 4718, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
built on Jul 11 2004 21:26:09, gcc: 3.3.2 20040108 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.2-6)
File 'tt.mpg' already exists. Overwrite ? [y/N] y
Input #0, video4linux, from '':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 600x480, 25.00 fps
Input #1, audio_device, from '':
Duration: N/A, bitrate: N/A
Stream #1.0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 44101 Hz, mono, 705 kb/s
Output #0, mpeg, to 'tt.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video, 600x480, 25.00 fps, q=2-31, 5000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 44100 Hz, mono, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #1.0 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame= 319 q=2.0 Lsize= 552kB time=12.6 bitrate= 357.7kbits/s
video:200kB audio:198kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 38.688703%

$mplayer tt.mpg MPlayer 1.0pre5-RPM-3.2.2 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP Thoroughbred 1515 MHz (Family: 6, Stepping: 1)
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection - WARNING - this is not optimal!
To get best performance, recompile MPlayer with --disable-runtime-cpudetection.
Reading config file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
Reading config file /home/poohba/.mplayer/config
Reading /home/poohba/.mplayer/codecs.conf: Can't open '/home/poohba/.mplayer/codecs.conf': No such file or directory
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: 73 audio & 180 video codecs
font: can't open file: /home/poohba/.mplayer/font/font.desc
font: can't open file: /usr/share/mplayer/font/font.desc
Linux RTC init error in ioctl (rtc_irqp_set 1024): Permission denied
Try adding "echo 1024 > /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq" to your system startup scripts.
Using usleep() timing
Can't open input config file /home/poohba/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or directory
Input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf parsed: 53 binds

Playing tt.mpg.
Cache fill: 6.74% (565248 bytes) MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG2 600x480 (aspect 1) 25.000 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
MP3lib: init layer2&3 finished, tables done
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 16000->176400 (128.0 kbit)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm:mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
================================================== ========================
vo: X11 running at 1024x768 with depth 24 and 32 bpp (":0.0" => local display)
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 600 x 480 (preferred csp: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.3.1
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm:libmpeg2 (MPEG 1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
================================================== ========================
Checking audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/16bit -> 44100Hz/2ch/16bit...
AF_pre: af format: 2 bps, 2 ch, 44100 hz, little endian signed int
AF_pre: 44100Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian)
AO: [oss] 44100Hz 2ch Signed 16-bit (Little-Endian) (2 bps)
Building audio filter chain for 44100Hz/2ch/16bit -> 44100Hz/2ch/16bit...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 608 x 480 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [xv] 600x480 => 600x480 Planar YV12
A: 12.6 V: 12.6 A-V: 0.010 ct: 0.091 318/318 4% 13% 0.4% 0 0 0%

Exiting... (End of file)

[courtrrb]

here my command for capturing with streamer to svcd:

streamer -n ntsc -b 24 -p 2 -j 90 -t 65:00 -s 480x480 -r 25 -o stargate.avi -f mjpeg -C /dev/dsp -F stereo -c /dev/video0

[BlkPoohba]

I can capture video but only in size up to 600x480. I've captured video using$ffmpeg -vd /dev/video0 -vcodec mpeg2video -s 600x480 -b 5000 -acodec mp2 -ab 128 -t 00:44:05 tt.mpg and it plays fine on mplayer in linux but when i ftp it to my laptop (win2000) its choppy with the video but the sound is ok. Is this normal? Is there a way to fix it?

[courtrrb]

it would be my guess it a codec problem with the windows machine. I havn't used windows for over 3yrs now. All videos I capture under linux and author to svcd or dvd play fine on my TV top DVD player.

[BlkPoohba]

Why is capturing different in linux than in windows? If I can understand the difference, maybe I can correct it and get the video that i want. I have wintv go card and when I had it on windows the video would come in crisp and clear. The audio had a lot more trebble or air or something but it was ok and again the video was great. With linux I get the same audio but the video is not as smooth. I am unable to access windows for some reason but I am able to access all the windows files. Anyway, what do I need to do to get the best quality video. Even when viewing video in tvtime its a little snowy. It shouldn't be because it is cable. It isn't bad, but it isn't cable.

[DaveQB]

maybe check out arguments to pass when loading the module for your card. v4l2 apprently isnt the best in detecting the card so you need to tell it what card it is. My card is listed as #37 so i pass

modprobe bttv card=37 pll=1 radio=1
modprobe tuner type=5

There's a list on ya system somewhere but i have forgotten

[BlkPoohba]

When I try to capture my sound is about 1sec behind the video. How do I fix this? It doesn't matter if I capture with streamer or ffmpeg.

[Gozar_]

I noticed mencoder is not mencioned here?

Here is my command line to capture useing mencoder!

mencoder -endpos 01:00:00 -tv driver=v4l2:input=2:mjpeg:normid=0:decimation=1:adevice=/dev/dsp0:amode=1:fps=25 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mjpeg -oac mp3lame -o capture.avi tv://

[dforsyth]

I'm using mencoder to record to mpeg2. I'm getting a drift in my audio to video sync, an hour into the show and the video and sound are 5 seconds out of sync. After updating my system I had to add the "-fps 30" to get the encoding to work. I think this is the cause of the drift. Anyone else using mencoder to record off of NTSC TV?

# $1 = channel
# $2 = Length in hh:mms
# $3 = Name of file
/usr/local/bin/mencoder tv:// -tv
driver=v4l2:input=0:normid=1:channel=$1:chanlist=u s-bcast:\
width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:\
adevice=/dev/dsp0:forceaudio:forcechan=2:buffersize=64\
-fps 30 \
-quiet \
-of mpeg \
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vbitrate=4500:keyint=15 \
-oac mp3lame -lameopts br=128:cbr:mode=0 \
-ffourcc mpg2 \
-endpos $2 \
-o $3

for mpeg4 I use the following, it works perfoect. I want to record in mpeg2 so I can view shows using my Hauppauge MediaMVP. Can only view the mpeg4 on my PC.

/usr/local/bin/mencoder tv:// -tv
driver=v4l2:input=0:normid=1:channel=$1:chanlist=u s-bcast:\
width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0:adevice=/dev/dsp0:\
audiorate=32000:forceaudio:forcechan=2:buffersize= 64\
-quiet \
-oac mp3lame -lameopts preset=medium \
-ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=3000:keyint=132 \
-vop pp=lb \
-endpos $2 \
-o $3

[Garibaldi]

You can also download dyne:bolic, a live-cd distro that comes with a bunch of free video editing/capture software preinstalled.
http://www.dynebolic.org/