<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Recording Video and Sound with Bttv</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The BTTV HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Cards and Features by Manufacturer" HREF="mfgr.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Enabling The FM Radio for Radio-Equipped Cards" HREF="fm.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="APPENDIX" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The BTTV HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="mfgr.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="fm.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="APPENDIX" ><H1 CLASS="APPENDIX" ><A NAME="RECORDING" ></A >D. Recording Video and Sound with Bttv</H1 ><P >In addition to the applications referenced in <A HREF="apps.html" >Section 5</A >, recording can be managed from the command line. The issues discussed here with regard to sound capture deal only with the default kernel-2.6 and higher sound system: the <A HREF="http://www.alsa-project.org/" TARGET="_top" >Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</A >.</P ><P >The easy part is grabbing the video, for which we will use <B CLASS="COMMAND" >streamer</B >, available with the <A HREF="http://linux.bytesex.org/xawtv/" TARGET="_top" >Xawtv suite</A >. Sound is another matter, however. You will need to access your mixer settings using <B CLASS="COMMAND" >amixer</B >, the ALSA command-line mixer that should be available in the ALSA-tools package available from your Linux distributor. See <B CLASS="COMMAND" >man amixer</B > to follow the command line options. </P ><P >Your recording can be managed either using your primary soundcard if you have your Bt8x8 audio output connected to a mixer conduit that allows for capture (e.g. the 4-pin analog CDROM input slot), or the Bt8x8 card itself using the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >btaudio</B > module. The following steps utilize the latter. First, identify the individual cards on your system (requires <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/proc</TT > filesystem): <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ cat /proc/asound/pcm 00-00: Intel ICH : NVidia CK8S : playback 1 : capture 1 00-01: Intel ICH - MIC ADC : NVidia CK8S - MIC ADC : capture 1 00-02: Intel ICH - IEC958 : NVidia CK8S - IEC958 : playback 1 01-00: Bt87x Digital : Bt87x Digital : capture 1 01-01: Bt87x Analog : Bt87x Analog : capture 1</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > The first column indicates the system numbering of your available sound devices, i.e., card 0 is the soundcard and card 01, or 1, is the Bt8x8.</P ><P >Next, identify the mixer controls for the Bt8x8 card. <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ amixer -c 1 controls numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Source' numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Boost' numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume'</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > Then identify the item settings of each: <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ amixer -c 1 cget name='Capture Source' numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Source' ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw---,values=1,items=3 ; Item #0 'TV Tuner' ; Item #1 'FM' ; Item #2 'Mic/Line' : values=1 $ amixer -c 1 cget name='Capture Boost' numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Boost' ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1 values=on $ amixer -c 1 cget name='Capture Volume' numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume' ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=15,step=0 : values=0</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > Use <B CLASS="COMMAND" >cset</B > for the capture source: <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ amixer -c 1 cset name='Capture Source' 0</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > ...and to set the volume: <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ amixer -c 1 cset name="Capture Volume' 15</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > ...and you should be ready.</P ><P >Now try to record something: <TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > $ streamer -p 4 -t 1:00 -r 24 -q -o test.avi -j 90 -f mjpeg -F mono16</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > ...and you should be recording a sound-enabled avi file. Press [Ctrl]-C to cancel early. Next step is to automate the recording for your very own home-brewed <SPAN CLASS="TRADEMARK" >Tivo</SPAN >™!</P ><P >I offer the following script as an example program for automating recording; you can copy and paste it into a file and make it executable (<B CLASS="COMMAND" >chmod u+x record-tv.sh</B >).</P ><DIV CLASS="WARNING" ><P ></P ><TABLE CLASS="WARNING" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="25" ALIGN="CENTER" VALIGN="TOP" ><IMG SRC="../images/warning.gif" HSPACE="5" ALT="Warning"></TD ><TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" ><P >This script (and any recording from your Bttv device for that matter) generates extremely large files, on the order of several GB per hour, so be sure you have lots of free disk space available.</P ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ><P ><TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" > #!/bin/bash # ================= record-tv.sh ============================ # = copyright 2003 by Greg Watson gwatsonATlinuxlogin.com = # = GPL2 License, minor modifications by Howard Shane = # = hshaneATaustin.rr.com , under same license = # = usage record-tv.sh prefix-filename record-time channel = # = Example: ./record-tv.sh enterprise 61:00 20 = # ============================================================ # Version 0.9 # Last Mod: Wed Feb 20 11:27 CST 2005 # Output directory OUTPUT=$HOME/vcr # Streamer location STREAMER=/usr/bin/streamer # Alsa Mixer AMIXER=/usr/bin/amixer # v4lctl path V4LCTL=/usr/bin/v4lctl # Capture Volume to ensure sound is recorded (80%) CAPTURE_VOLUME=100 # Tvtime settings file for color/brightness/contrast values TVTIME=$HOME/.tvtime/tvtime.xml # End of Config ############### # check if I'm running TV, if so just exit if [ `ps -C tvtime | grep -c tvtime` -gt 0 ]; then echo "TVtime is running, aborting recording." exit fi # If the filename prefix wasn't given, set it to 'recording' if [ -z $1 ]; then PREFIX="recording" else PREFIX=$1 fi # if time is blank, record for 30 minutes if [ -z $2 ]; then TIME="30:00" else TIME=$2 fi if [ ! -z $3 ]; then $V4LCTL setchannel $3 fi # Check for vcr dir if [ ! -x $OUTPUT ]; then mkdir $OUTPUT fi DATE=`date +%m-%d-%Y-%H:%M` # Set the AC97 volume to 0 (so we don't hear the sounds) # Get mixer values first PLAY_VOL=`$AMIXER -c 0 cget name='Master Playback Volume' | grep : | sed 's/^.*=\([^,]*\).*$/\1/'` CAP_VOL=`$AMIXER -c 0 cget name='PCM Playback Volume' | grep : | sed 's/^.*=\([^,]*\).*$/\1/'` # $AMIXER -c 0 -q cset name='CD Playback Volume' 100 $AMIXER -c 0 -q cset name='Capture Volume' 1 # if tvtime.xml is set, then grab settings out of it if [ -f $TVTIME ]; then CONTRAST=`cat ${TVTIME} | grep DefaultContrast | sed 's/^.*value="\([^"]*\).*$/\1/'` BRIGHTNESS=`cat ${TVTIME} | grep DefaultBrightness | sed 's/^.*value="\([^"]*\).*$/\1/'` COLOR=`cat ${TVTIME} | grep DefaultColour | sed 's/^.*value="\([^"]*\).*$/\1/'` HUE=`cat ${TVTIME} | grep DefaultHue | sed 's/^.*value="\([^"]*\).*$/\1/'` $V4LCTL bright ${BRIGHTNESS}% color ${COLOR}% contrast ${CONTRAST}% hue ${HUE}% fi $STREAMER -p 4 -q -t ${TIME} -r 24 -q -o ${OUTPUT}/${PREFIX}-${DATE}-${TIME}.avi -j 90 -f mjpeg -F mono16 # Sometimes streamer doesn't always re-mute audio, mute it again just to be sure $V4LCTL volume mute on # Restore volumes $AMIXER -q cset name='Master Playback Volume' $PLAY_VOL $AMIXER -q cset name='PCM Playback Volume' $CAP_VOL # # EOF </PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="mfgr.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="fm.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Cards and Features by Manufacturer</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Enabling The FM Radio for Radio-Equipped Cards</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >