Digitizing Analogue Revisited

system · March 17, 2014, 10:34pm

Hi Guys

I’m back at a project I tried with help on here a while ago which had to be abandoned due to hardware failure, the hardware in question being a Betamax Video recorder, however as fate would have it I spotted one at a boot sale on Sunday and bought it, the object of this exercise is to digitize old footage I took of my daughters when they were children, I really want to do this as it’s the only chance I have of preserving the footage.

I have 2 video capture cards one is a PCI and the other is usb

PCI:
Code: [Select]
02:02.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt848 Video Capture (rev 12)

USB:
Code: [Select]
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0573:4d29 Zoran Co. Personal Media Division (Nogatech) Hauppauge WinTV-USB Model 40205 rev B298

I’ve so far tried connecting the recorder to each of the capture device but I cannot get a picture to show up, I’ve tried Cheese, TVtimer, VLC & xawtv, can anyone tell me what I might need to do to get this working

Many thanks

Graeme

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 5:39pm

Probably best waiting for SeZo with this … he’s way ahead of me in this kinda stuff

SeZo · March 18, 2014, 7:46pm

No idea how I gained that honour.
@Emegra

I take it that you are getting no picture at all (not just picture with artefacts).
To look at the state of the PCI card run the following:

dmesg | grep bttv
lsmod | grep bt

to see if the card is recognised (or not)

system · March 18, 2014, 8:20pm

Hi SeZo

No idea how I gained that honour. ;)

Your reputation comes before you SeZo

I take it that you are getting no picture at all (not just picture with artefacts).

That’s correct, no picture at all

graeme@Linux1 ~ $ dmesg | grep bttv
[   23.690828] bttv: driver version 0.9.19 loaded
[   23.690836] bttv: using 8 buffers with 2080k (520 pages) each for capture
[   23.691722] bttv: Bt8xx card found (0)
[   23.691755] bttv: 0: Bt848 (rev 18) at 0000:02:02.0, irq: 19, latency: 64, mmio: 0xfdfff000
[   23.691831] bttv: 0: using:  *** UNKNOWN/GENERIC ***  [card=0,autodetected]
[   23.724411] bttv: 0: detected by eeprom: Hauppauge (bt848) [card=2]
[   23.756882] bttv: 0: Hauppauge eeprom indicates model#60114
[   23.756885] bttv: 0: tuner type=0
[   24.057281] bttv: 0: registered device video1
[   24.057402] bttv: 0: registered device vbi0
[  375.928013] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=1014 irq=13042/18717, risc=3028306c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[  420.644014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=1359 irq=16799/22574, risc=3009b04c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[  453.172016] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=1596 irq=19544/25380, risc=301080c4, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[  682.056020] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=3232 irq=38750/45010, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[  787.276013] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=4002 irq=47538/53993, risc=3014505c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 1138.004015] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=6546 irq=76878/171065, risc=301452c4, bits: HSYNC OFLOW 7 FBUS FDSR
[ 1237.040014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=7262 irq=85165/179790, risc=301080a4, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 2438.948019] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=15999 irq=185936/284040, risc=302830ac, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 2782.172012] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=18522 irq=214790/313551, risc=3010909c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 2876.424020] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=19184 irq=222671/321638, risc=3009b04c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 2984.064018] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=19957 irq=231703/330902, risc=3028203c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW 7 FDSR
[ 3084.200017] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=20687 irq=240065/339438, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FBUS FDSR
[ 3584.872014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=24238 irq=282126/382510, risc=3028207c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW 7 FDSR
[ 4103.952020] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=28077 irq=325786/427221, risc=3010901c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 4127.220015] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=28232 irq=327714/429190, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FBUS FDSR
[ 4239.128014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=29063 irq=337147/438829, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FBUS
[ 4318.744018] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=29660 irq=343813/445635, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 4462.168012] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=30715 irq=355918/458022, risc=3014608c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 4752.988016] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=32842 irq=380344/483017, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 4755.480014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=32866 irq=380555/483234, risc=3014606c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 4816.828012] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=33319 irq=385730/488530, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 4982.564017] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=34529 irq=399582/502696, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 5024.876014] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=34831 irq=403139/506340, risc=3010805c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 5065.296017] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=35129 irq=406519/509812, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 5132.696016] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=35601 irq=412202/515639, risc=3009b02c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
[ 5513.832020] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=38253 irq=444124/548287, risc=3210d03c, bits: HSYNC OFLOW
[ 5520.168012] bttv: 0: timeout: drop=38306 irq=444646/548819, risc=301450ac, bits: HSYNC OFLOW FDSR
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ lsmod | grep bt
bttv                  116243  0 
btcx_risc              13400  1 bttv
tveeprom               17009  1 bttv
videobuf_dma_sg        18746  1 bttv
rc_core                21266  1 bttv
v4l2_common            20543  5 bttv,tuner,saa7115,usbvision,msp3400
videobuf_core          25097  2 bttv,videobuf_dma_sg
videodev               95806  6 bttv,tuner,saa7115,usbvision,msp3400,v4l2_common
i2c_algo_bit           13197  2 bttv,i915
graeme@Linux1 ~ $

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 9:13pm

How is this thing set up … over composite ?

and which distro/version ?

What’s the output from:

v4l2-ctl -n

?

@SeZo

I’m sure I’ve seen you help people with capture before … and it’s all just scabbling in the dark to me

system · March 18, 2014, 9:17pm

How is this thing set up .. over composite ?

I’m not really sure what that means Mark :-[

and which distro/version ?

Peppermint 4

graeme@Linux1 ~ $ v4l2-ctl -n
The program 'v4l2-ctl' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install v4l-utils
graeme@Linux1 ~ $

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 9:21pm

Install v4l-utils:

sudo apt-get install v4l-utils

and try:

v4l2-ctl -n

again.

system · March 18, 2014, 9:24pm

g

raeme@Linux1 ~ $ v4l2-ctl -n
ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT
	Input       : 0
	Name        : Television
	Type        : 0x00000001
	Audioset    : 0x00000001
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x0000000000FFB1FF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K/M NTSC-M/M-JP/M-KR SECAM-B/D/G/H/K/K1/L/Lc)
	Status      : 0x00000000 (ok)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SD presets)

	Input       : 1
	Name        : Composite Video Input
	Type        : 0x00000002
	Audioset    : 0x00000000
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x00000000000000FF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K)
	Status      : 0x00000000 (ok)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SD presets)

	Input       : 2
	Name        : S-Video Input
	Type        : 0x00000002
	Audioset    : 0x00000000
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x00000000000000FF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K)
	Status      : 0x00000000 (ok)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SD presets)
graeme@Linux1 ~ $

SeZo · March 18, 2014, 9:37pm

You could try xawtv as it seems to be detecting the card as card 2 (though this might not be correct):

[ 23.691722] bttv: Bt8xx card found (0) [ 23.691755] bttv: 0: Bt848 (rev 18) at 0000:02:02.0, irq: 19, latency: 64, mmio: 0xfdfff000 [ 23.691831] bttv: 0: using: *** UNKNOWN/GENERIC *** [card=0,autodetected] [ 23.724411] bttv: 0: detected by eeprom: Hauppauge (bt848) [card=2] [ 23.756882] bttv: 0: Hauppauge eeprom indicates model#60114 [ 23.756885] bttv: 0: tuner type=0 [ 24.057281] bttv: 0: registered device video1

xawtv -hwscan

You could start VLC and from menu “Media/Open Capture Device” dialog switch “Capture Mode” to “Video for Linux 2” and choose “/dev/video1” and hit “play” button…

system · March 18, 2014, 9:40pm

So I take it you want me to do this with the PCI card ?

SeZo · March 18, 2014, 9:45pm

Sorry, I thought that was first on your list…

system · March 18, 2014, 9:52pm

Sorry, I thought that was first on your list..

Sorry I should have been clear on that the USB was first on the list I have now switched over to the PCI card

graeme@Linux1 ~ $ xawtv -hwscan
This is xawtv-3.102, running on Linux/i686 (3.8.0-35-generic)
looking for available devices
port 87-102
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : Intel(R) Textured Video

port 103-103
    type : Xvideo, image scaler
    name : Intel(R) Video Overlay

/dev/video0: OK                         [ -device /dev/video0 ]
    type : libv4l
    name : BT848A video (Hauppauge (bt848)
    flags: overlay capture tuner 

graeme@Linux1 ~ $

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 10:04pm

How are you connecting the Betamax to the capture card ?

system · March 18, 2014, 10:07pm

How are you connecting the Betamax to the capture card ?

Betamax “ANT OUT” to the only RF connector on the card

SeZo · March 18, 2014, 10:10pm

So you need the tuner then…

system · March 18, 2014, 10:12pm

So you need the tuner then..

I don’t know but that’s what it looks like, I get a lot of interference like it just needs to be tuned in

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 10:17pm

Are there no composite outputs on the betamax ?

Ususaly red, white, and yellow RCA sockets ?

SeZo · March 18, 2014, 10:17pm

So you do get a picture (interference). Try tuning it in then.

system · March 18, 2014, 10:25pm

Are there no composite outputs on the betamax ?

There are only 2 composit sockets on the back of the Betamax one is red (Audio Input) the other is black (Audio Output)

So you do get a picture (interference). Try tuning it in then.

How do I tune it ?

Mark_Greaves_PCNetSp · March 18, 2014, 10:29pm

For now ignore what I said about composite.

As SeZo says, if you’re getting static, you’re getting a picture … the capture card just needs to be tuned in to whatever channel the Betamax is outputting to.

How do I tune it ?

Dunno … which software are you using ? … xawtv ?