[mythtv-users] Re: Simple video tests are failing -- what other tests are helpful?

[Joseph Caputo]

See comments inline...

Justin Gombos wrote:
> * Justin Gombos <mindfuq at fairfieldi.com> [2005-03-16 19:23]:
> 
>>The mplayer test I've seen folks use to test also fails:
>>
>>  root at mythtv:/home/mythtv# mplayer /dev/video0
>>  MPlayer 1.0pre5-3.3.4 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team
> 
> 
> I got a slightly better failure with the following:
> 
>   # mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l
>   # mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2

Try specifying a channel, as in "mplayer tv://3"

> 
> Instead of seg faulting, it at least pops up a window, but nothing
> appears in the window.  The terminal window fills with the error:
> 
>   v4l2: ioctl dequeue buffer failed: Input/output error, idx = 0
> 
> This is the complete terminal window output:
>   
>   MPlayer 1.0pre5-3.3.4 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team
>   

[snip]

>   
>   Playing tv://.
>   TV detected! ;-)
>   Selected driver: v4l2
>    name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
>    author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski at zpr.uni-koeln.de>
>    comment: first try, more to come ;-)
>   Selected device: AVerMedia DVD EZMaker
>    Tuner cap:
>    Tuner rxs:
>    Capabilites:  video capture  video overlay  VBI capture device  tuner  read/write  streaming
>    supported norms: 0 = PAL; 1 = PAL-BG; 2 = PAL-I; 3 = PAL-DK; 4 = NTSC; 5 = SECAM; 6 = PAL-M; 7 = PAL-Nc;

>    inputs: 0 = Composite1;

Hmmm, interesting.  MPlayer is only detecting one input: Composite1.  It 
doesn't appear to be detecting the tuner.

>    Current input: 0

So, your current input is Composite1.  I'll be if you had some input 
going into the composite connector on your TV card, you'd see some 
video.  You want the input to be TunerX (probably "Tuner0"), but MPlayer 
isn't auto-detecting it.  You could try passing the "-input" option to 
MPlayer, as: "mplayer tv://[channel] -tv device=/dev/video0:input=X",
where "X" is a number (typically 0 - 4 or so).  Right now it's 
defaulting to "0", try 1,2,3 & 4.

>    Current format: BGR24
>   v4l2: current audio mode is : MONO
>   vo: X11 running at 1600x1200 with depth 24 and 32 bpp ("192.168.2.16:0.0" => remote display)
>   It seems there is no Xvideo support for your video card available.
>   Run 'xvinfo' to verify its Xv support and read DOCS/HTML/en/devices.html#xv!
>   See 'mplayer -vo help' for other (non-xv) video out drivers. Try -vo x11

You'll definitely want to address this eventually; for now you could try 
"-vo sdl", "-vo gl" or "-vo gl2".  Use "-vo x11" as a last resort.

>   ==========================================================================
>   Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
>   VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred csp: Planar YV12)
>   VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
>   Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
>   VO: [x11] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12 
>   Shared memory not supported
>   Reverting to normal Xlib
>   SwScaler: using unscaled Planar YV12 -> BGR 32-bit special converter
>   Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm:raw (RAW YV12)
>   ==========================================================================
>   Audio: no sound
>   Starting playback...
>   v4l2: ioctl dequeue buffer failed: Input/output error, idx = 0
> 

My guess is that MPlayer is not able to see/handle your tuner.  Perhaps 
the kernel module for your tuner needs to be configured.  Depending on 
your distro, this would be done in /etc/modules.conf or 
/etc/modprobe.conf.  As to why Xawtv works, perhaps it's better at 
auto-detecting things.

-JAC