Usb Video Capture (and Web Cam)

[Just17]

As I don't use Wine or Windows I will step back from this ......  I have no idea how to get things functional in Wine. 

Hopefully between the two of you, ye can figure out how to get this working.   

[thorper]

Because this is such a hassle I will do a reinstall on xp  on my old laptop and do the vhs tape captures on that but I will persist with trying to get this device working on my Linux laptop.

[Pussycat]

(Sorry - but I've been away from this issue for a few days wrestling with a different media problem and the previously mentioned usb port!)

parnote: Not quite sure what you mean by "step #3".  If we're referring to the same page ("Getting Started") in the wiki, there is a step 3 in each section, so which section do we consider to be the third (especially as anything about debian is deemed irrelevant to pclos)?

If step 3 is "somagic-capture source package" then is <1> an actual instruction - in which case I give up - or just a preamble?

Incidentally the pictures of the dc60 packaging and cd match mine exactly (but haven't prized it open to compare innards).  I suppose that is not surprising for a "clone" but presumably the cd contents have been modified to include an appropriate driver - or not.

Anyway, I'm with thorper on this.  I had hoped to get it operating under linux because I'm not entirely happy with the capture apps that I've tried so far in xp which may be the result of unreliability issues with the driver!  But will persevere with my efforts in linux if the usb port problem is resolved (don't want to risk losing another one)!

[In the meantime another little problem has arisen with pclos which will be posted as a new thread...]

[Just17]

https://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted#Extracting_firmware
How to extract the firmware .....

Extracting firmware
1. Using wine, run "Drivers/Setup.exe" (or sometimes "Driver/Setup.exe"), on the EasyCAP installation CD. For the EasyCAP DC60, this should create a file named "Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3C/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3C.sys". For EasyCAP002 this should create a file named either "Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3E/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3E.sys" or "Program Files/Common Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3F/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3F.sys".

2. Run "cp ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/Common\ Files/Somagic/SmiUsbGrabber3*/xp/SmiUsbGrabber3*.sys SmiUsbGrabber.sys".

3. Run as root "somagic-extract-firmware SmiUsbGrabber.sys", to create "/lib/firmware/somagic_firmware.bin".

[Pussycat]

Call me Mr Picky but hasn't <2> got a couple of incorrect slashes and spaces (if it is dos path syntax) - and does drive_c assume that xp is on drive C which it isn't on my system (Vista on C sees xp as D but xp sees itself as H - don't ask!)?

but...

Where would the command place the sys file?

and/or

Where would the command in <3> expect to find it (bearing in mind it is currently sitting in home from my earlier efforts)?

[Just17]

Did you miss this? 

1. Using wine

[Pussycat]

No - I didn't miss it, it's just not necessary since the file is already copied to home (and also available in the given path) so using wine for steps <1> and <2> is redundant in my case - but still question the syntax of <2> which is merely copying the file from where setup instals it (step <1>) in xp to somewhere, which I assume to be home by default since no other path is defined?

[So whilst I have no experience of wine, was merely questioning to what extent it uses the dos \ and linux / for paths and/or parameter use]

But that shouldn't matter so long as I know where the (non wine) command in <3> expects to find SmiUsbGrabber.sys. Is it home since no path is defined?

[Just17]

2. The copy command will copy the file to the location from where you run it, as no path is given for its destination.

3. This command will extract the somagic_firmware.bin file from the SmiUsbGrabber.sys file.

[Tony]

Sorry to butt in, just to say I found this all very interesting having kind of successfully used an 'el cheapo' Logitech webcam to record Video/Audio with Cheese.
The USB power issue mentioned seems to explain why the recording started off Dark, and crashed after around two minutes of recording, maybe.

Aside: VLC is a lot more capable than I ever imagined, I took(captured) the Audio off a Youtube .Mp4 yesterday, was an Album 45 mins.

excuse me, ...

[Just17]

Tony, if you have a video file there are very lightweight & easy methods of extracting the audio from it without playing the video. PACPL will produce an audio file in almost any format you wish - launched via right click menu.

In truth I have never used VLC for this 

Sorry to butt in, just to say I found this all very interesting having kind of successfully used an 'el cheapo' Logitech webcam to record Video/Audio with Cheese.
The USB power issue mentioned seems to explain why the recording started off Dark, and crashed after around two minutes of recording, maybe.

Maybe .....  but try VLC & Guvcview before you blame anything other than Cheese for the problem.
Kamoso update should be hitting the repo soon, so there will be a third app to do audio+video from a webcam.
It is already available in the 64bit RC1 release.

[Pussycat]

Extracted both somagic-easycap_1.0.tar.gz and somagic-easycap-tools_1.0.tar.gz.
In each case switched to directory then applied make && sudo make install.

Unfortunately each resulted in

Code: [Select]

[chris@localhost user]$ make && sudo make install
cc -s -W -Wall somagic-init.c -o somagic-init -lusb-1.0 -lgcrypt
somagic-init.c:35:20: fatal error: gcrypt.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make: *** [somagic-init] Error 1

Rechecking the prerequisites (as define in the step <1>s) I find a slight discrepancy which is consistent with the error.  On my system libusb-1.0-0 is called libusb1.0_0 (note the subtle but obviously crucial differences).  Presumably the required header file has the same nomenclature.

How can this be surmounted?

UPDATE

Re-ensured all header files were installed gives a more promising(?) result

Code: [Select]

[chris@localhost user]$ make && sudo make install
cc -s -W -Wall somagic-init.c -o somagic-init -lusb-1.0 -lgcrypt
cc -s -W -Wall somagic-capture.c -o somagic-capture -lusb-1.0 -lgcrypt
bash: sudo: command not found

It seems sudo is not understood.  Could I get passed this by simply doing su and then make install?

UPDATE 2

That seemed to work

Code: [Select]

[root@localhost user]# make install
mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
install somagic-init somagic-capture /usr/local/bin/
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/man1
install man/somagic-init.1 man/somagic-capture.1 /usr/local/share/man/man1/

I'll press on...

[Tony]

It seems sudo is not understood.  Could I get passed this by simply doing su and then make install?

PCLinuxOS uses su, and sudo, in a slightly different manner to many distros I believe.
Read this PussycatTopic: SUDO - Use and Abuse.
(http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,90479.msg758079.html#msg758079)

*Sorry guys, I probably shouldn't have posted in this thread. Reading through a few things caught my attention.
Seeing you replied Just17, I'll try to keep it brief.
If I want Audio off a Video (file was a .Mp4) generally 'Avidemux-GTK2' works very well for me. It didn't in this case, so I used VLC.

PACPL will produce an audio file in almost any format you wish - launched via right click menu.

Could you please 'expand' PACPL, thanks, not sure what it is.

Maybe .....  but try VLC & Guvcview before you blame anything other than Cheese for the problem.
Kamoso update should be hitting the repo soon, so there will be a third app to do audio+video from a webcam.

Fair enough, thankyou will do so.The only apps I've tried for live Audio/Video capture are Cheese, and Kamoso (= better - on my system), glad to hear it'll be in Repo soon. I make live music clips for Youtube. Will try VLC & Guvcview first, thankyou.

[Pussycat]

Tony - as you observe, this thread is not about software but setting up video capture hardware.  However, if you want info on PACPL try http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=712064.  Not sure about the right click bit - perhaps in vlc.  Ripping/converting audio from video files is not an envisaged need for me.

Anyway. continuing my saga, I think everything is now installed correctly except...

Should somagic-init be entered after each boot (and if so could it be automated)?

and...

Is somagic-capture -c also necessary each time?  All that seems do is invoke a continuous stream of characters.  Does that represent a video stream?

Either way, although everything else seems to be ok, the easycap (smi grabber) is still not made available in vlc or guvcview?

[Just17]

Could you please 'expand' PACPL, thanks, not sure what it is.

It is available in the repo.

********

Anyway. continuing my saga, I think everything is now installed correctly except...

Should somagic-init be entered after each boot (and if so could it be automated)?

and...

Is somagic-capture -c also necessary each time?  All that seems do is invoke a continuous stream of characters.  Does that represent a video stream?

Either way, although everything else seems to be ok, the easycap (smi grabber) is still not made available in vlc or guvcview?

I would not have expected Guvcview to see the stream .....  but VLC should .....  but I have never attempted to see such a stream with Guvcview, so .......

Sorry I cannot answer your questions .....  the grabber I use has no such difficulties as you have experienced 

[Pussycat]

The stream of characters is shown in the terminal from the somagic-capture -c command.

My main point was do I have to do anything more to make the device visible to gucview and vlc (ie still only webcam available)?