4 channel linux support for Easycap

[Sreejith CK]

Hi All,

I am using easycap DC60 with Ubuntu. detection of single channel video was successful with the driver. Is that possible to get 4 input video streams simultaneously as like Windows ? How can I modify the driver for this ?

Thanks in advance,

Sreejith

[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

I don't have the 4 channel version, but I didn't know that you could
stream from all 4 channels simultaneously in windows?

If this is possible in windows, you should get a usb packet capture
when doing this in windows.
That capture will tell you what to change in the driver to get the
functionality.

Also, you don't specify if you are testing with the somagic-capture
program or the kernel driver.
You should be able to select input with both sollutions.
Doesn't the channel selection work?

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[Sreejith CK]

Thanks Jonarne,

Yes, in windows it is possible with the application provided by Easycap on purchase.

I am using somagic-capture to test the device, Only in channel 2 of Easycap I am getting a video output on my screen, so video selection is also doesn't work. :(

Regards

Sreejith

On Friday, January 10, 2014 11:09:26 AM UTC+5:30, Jon Arne wrote:

I don't have the 4 channel version, but I didn't know that you could
stream from all 4 channels simultaneously in windows?

If this is possible in windows, you should get a usb packet capture
when doing this in windows.
That capture will tell you what to change in the driver to get the
functionality.

Also, you don't specify if you are testing with the somagic-capture
program or the kernel driver.
You should be able to select input with both sollutions.
Doesn't the channel selection work?


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 6:23 AM, Sreejith CK <sree...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I am using easycap DC60 with Ubuntu. detection of single channel video was
> successful with the driver. Is that possible to get 4 input video streams
> simultaneously as like Windows ? How can I modify the driver for this ?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Sreejith

Jonarne
http://jonarne.no

[tosiara]

I have 4-channel model and in windows I can't have 4 streams simultaneously using vendors application: it only switches between 4 inputs and show frame one-after-another.

[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

That was mine impression as well (even tho I don't have this device).

But shouldn't the channel switching work in the somagic-capture application?
Are you running an old version?

[tosiara]

When I was lookig this device to buy I saw there are two versions: with single input and with 4 inputs. Price was the same. Which would you chose? Of course everyone wants more for less money :) After I couldn't get video from more than 1 input I googled and found that this device does not stream 4 inputs at the same time (pretty logical, most 4-ch devices have 4 decoding chips onboard, does Easycap have? I doubt)
 
I have had no windows to test vendors capture software so I installed Windows Home Premium which does not require license or activation for 30 days. Installed that vendor's software and tested "all 4 inputs simultaneously" - fail! What software does is only switches inputs in a loop every second. So while 1 input streams video you see 3 still pictures of previously captured video of another cameras.

> email to easycap-somagic-linux+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

[Richard Legge]

So I've got the 4 channel device working on Ubuntu. Ive got a good signal on channel 2. I'm interested in getting all 4 channels working. Also working out whether I can then create a Web page/application where I can display all four channels.. Maybe build a Java application to do so?  There must be a way to interact with the device and control it somehow? (programming APIs possibly). anyone know whether this is the case?

Rgds
Richard

[Bartek Zdanowski]

Richard,

can you give some details about how you managed to run this device under Ubuntu?

I'm interested in

* version of ubuntu and kernel

* how did you build modules

Thank you.

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[Richard Legge]

Sure..  I spent a long time trying to get this to work..   Im rnow unning Ubuntu 13.10

I did download 3.12 of Kernel and tried compiling that with the SMI driver, but it didnt work.. so I went back 3.11 version in the main Saucy distribution

I used this website to get all the somagic packages (and got .deb versions)
http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted

However I used the 13.10 13.10 Saucy image available here: git://kernel.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-saucy.git  rather than an other images or kernel sources.

Then I used this website to patch the source (Saucy) with the smi module and supporting modules.
http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/BuildingKernelModule

However when I got to the point of compiling the kernel, I stopped using this guide, and used the guide here
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel

I started at the point where it says modifying the configuration. when I ran the editconfigs command I got a bunch of errors and realised you have to say yes, and edit all configs. go to the submenu

Device drivers --->
Multimedia support --->

Media USB Adapters --->

and add support for the somagic driver.

Then continue with the steps in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel

finally I had my .debs to install a new kernel. in the directory above my saucy directory as per instructions. However, I installed them and rebooted and nothing happened. I realised it was still loading another kernel and not the one Id just created. so I downloaded grub-customizer which allowed me to select which kernel to load at startup.

finally when rebooted, it was still not recognising the usb stick and giving me an error, so the last thing i did was rename smi2021_3e.bin   file to somagic_firmware.bin in lib/firmware  (check in your log file with dmesg) to see what errors you may have..

rgds
Richard

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[Jon Arne Jørgensen]

On Wed, 29 Jan 2014, 14:02:09 CET, Richard Legge <richard....@gmail.com> wrote:

> Sure..  I spent a long time trying to get this to work..    Im rnow unning
> Ubuntu 13.10
>

[...]sip

> finally when rebooted, it was still not recognising the usb stick and
> giving me an error, so the last thing i did was rename smi2021_3e.bin
> file to somagic_firmware.bin in lib/firmware  (check in your log file
> with dmesg) to see what errors you may have..
>

If you had rename the firmware to "somagic_firmware.bin", you are either running a really old version of the smi kernel module, or you are using the somagic-capture cli program?
(Or did you do the oposite, i.e. rename the file to "smi2021_3e.bin"?)

> rgds
> Richard
>
>
best regards
Jonarne

> > > > > > email to easycap-somagic-...@googlegroups.com.
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> > > > >
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> >
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[Bartek Zdanowski]

Thank you for exhausting explanation.

I built only modules and tried to load them but no success. I'm kernel-dummy so I don't know if I always should rebuild the whole kernel when making new modules from current kernel's sources.

I'll again to run this and this time I will do whole kernel.

Thanks!

[Richard Legge]

Hi Jon, you'll need to be a bit more explicit.. I downloaded the somagic tools and software from the website I mentioned.. (http://code.google.com/p/easycap-somagic-linux/wiki/GettingStarted)

Then got the original windows driver SmiUsbGrabber3E.sys from my windows machine.. (i didn't extract it using the extract tool).. then ran create firmware on it..

Either way it all works, both using Somagic-Capture and passing it to mplayer, or via loading the drivers into the kernel and running via dev/video0 and running using VLC. (but only channel 2 on the card has any input)

What I really want to do, is capture from more than one port on my 4 channel  SMI USB ... ultimately create an application similar to superviewer, (in Java) that will let me view the 4 channels via a Web browser.

I've read that the single chip on the adapter polls the channels and updates the various receivers of these channels, rather than concurrently sending channel information to the receivers.

Whoever created somagic-capture must know how to get to the function calls for it.. (and have header files), so it must be possible.. but where / how etc.

Rgds

Richard