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VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 26. Oct 2012, 16:40
by Valiant
Hi Salix folk. I have an old Hauppage PVR USB2 external TV capture unit. What I like to do is hook this up via its composite input to a Freeview digital box, and then with the aid of V4L2 and V4L-utils, I can watch Freeview TV via the PVR "open capture device function" in VLC media player.

What I'm getting with Salix (LXDE 13.37) is:

The red neon indication on the PVR unit is lit when connected to the PC and powered on.

When I switch the V4L2 input to composite, which on this computer is "1" using the terminal command

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v4l2-ctl -i 1
it gives the message

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No such file or directory
if I go to su it's the same......

When I go to VLC media player media/open capture device then select PVR-play, I get the following error message....

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Your input can't be opened:
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'pvr://'. Check the log for details
Help would be appreciated with this please. I haven't checked the log because I don't know which one they mean or where it is.

Cheers!

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 27. Oct 2012, 10:47
by gapan
Can you try with wxcam?

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 27. Oct 2012, 19:30
by Valiant
gapan wrote:Can you try with wxcam?
Thanks for getting back gapan. No luck with wxcam either unfortunately. Spits out error message.....

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Cannot open /dev/video0.
Please check if your system has the correct driver for your webcam, or change the webcam device in settings->preferences.
I have tried different settings to no avail. Still getting the same error message at LXTerminal when I try and alter the device input to composite -like its trying to find file or directory < /dev/video0> which isn't there.

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 27. Oct 2012, 21:34
by Valiant
Sorry, the full error message I get in LXTerminal is.........

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Failed to open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
Noticed on re-checking.
Ive tried out the procedure on Linux Mint and it works. However, I get above error message if the PVR unit's USB lead is disconnected.

Cheers

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 27. Oct 2012, 21:36
by gapan
Could it be that your device is not supported by the kernel in 13.37?

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 27. Oct 2012, 22:14
by Valiant
gapan wrote:Could it be that your device is not supported by the kernel in 13.37?
You could be right gapan. I see from my system info I've got kernel Linux 2.6.37.6-smp (i686). On checking wikipedia video4linux they say "V4L1 support was dropped in kernel 2.6.38", which could also mean possibly that "V4L2 support was adopted in kernel 2.6.38"

I really like both Salix and LXDE. Is there a way I can update to a newer kernel gapan?

Re: VLC video capture problem.

Posted: 28. Oct 2012, 00:17
by Valiant
It's OK gapan, I've found the Salix OS page to upgrade the kernel. I rate myself as an intermediate linux'er so I'm chewing over whether to attempt the process and risk b***ering the system, or waiting for Salix 14.

Cheers.