Re: how to make bt878 + ccd b/w camera work together

Dr. Michael J. Chudobiak wrote:

Can someone give me some guidance on viewing the output of CCD surveillance/astronomy cameras?

I have a low-light PC164C-EX black and white "high resolution" CCD camera that I would like to use with a bt878-based PV-143PA 4-port capture card. More info here:

http://www.supercircuits.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4167

http://www.bluecherry.net/store/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=33_44&products_id=130

How can I use mplayer or something similar to view the composite video output of this camera? Do I need special modprobe.conf entries? I've tried commands like:

mplayer -tv driver=v4l:norm=ntsc:input=3:width=352:height=240 -double -vo sdl tv://

but all I get is static. (input=3 is correct, and all other choices give a screen of mostly blue).

Some diagnostics:

[root@server2 ~]# dmesg | grep bttv
bttv: driver version 0.9.15 loaded
bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
bttv: Bt8xx card found (0).

bttv0: Bt878 (rev 17) at 0000:00:04.0, irq: 201, latency: 32, mmio: 0xfeb01000

bttv0: detected: Provideo PV143A [card=105], PCI subsystem ID is aa00:1430
bttv0: using: ProVideo PV143 [card=105,autodetected]
bttv0: gpio: en=00000000, out=00000000 in=00ffffff [init]
bttv0: using tuner=-1
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9875 @ 0xb0... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA7432 @ 0x8a... not found
bttv0: i2c: checking for TDA9887 @ 0x86... not found
bttv0: registered device video0
bttv0: registered device vbi0
bttv0: PLL: 28636363 => 35468950 .. ok

[root@server2 etc]# ll -a /dev/video0
crw-rw----  1 root root 81, 0 Jul 22 16:28 /dev/video0

[root@server2 ~]# lspci | grep 878

00:04.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 11) 00:04.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 11)

[root@server2 ~]# mplayer -tv driver=v4l:norm=ntsc:input=3:width=352:height=240 -double -vo sdl tv://

MPlayer 1.0pre7-4.0.0 (C) 2000-2005 MPlayer Team
......[snip].....
Selected device: BT878 video (ProVideo PV143)
 Capabilites: capture tuner overlay clipping scales
 Device type: 171
 Supported sizes: 48x32 => 768x480
 Inputs: 4
  0: Composite0: audio camera  (tuner:0, norm:ntsc)
  1: Composite1: audio camera  (tuner:0, norm:ntsc)
  2: Composite2: audio camera  (tuner:0, norm:ntsc)
  3: Composite3: audio camera  (tuner:0, norm:ntsc)
Using input 'Composite3'
Selected input hasn't got a tuner!
SDL: Using driver: x11
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-VidModeExtension" missing on display ":1.0".

vo: X11 running at 1024x768 with depth 16 and 16 bpp (":1.0" => local display)

==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
VDec: vo config request - 352 x 240 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [sdl] 352x240 => 352x240 Planar YV12
Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm:raw (RAW YV12)
==========================================================================




Any suggestions would be appreciated!


- Mike

Serge