Video-capture-box

How to use the video capture box we got from Golm:

Some good documenation how to use VLC for capturing multiple devices and creating a mosaic with them can be found here:

• VLC streaming howto
• Mosaic Doku at videolan wiki

You can find the important configuration files for vlc at /home/streaming:

• vlmmmshtrans.conf should look somehow like that:

new camera1 broadcast enabled
setup camera1 input v4l:/dev/video0:norm=PAL:channel=1:adev=/dev/dsp
setup camera1 output #transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=512,acodec=mp3,ab=192,scale=1}:duplicate{dst=mosaic-bridge{id=1,height=170,width=170},select=video,dst=bridge-out{id=1},select=audio}

new camera2 broadcast enabled
setup camera2 input v4l:/dev/video1:norm=PAL:channel=1
setup camera2 output #transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=512,scale=1}:duplicate{dst=mosaic-bridge{id=2,height=100,width=100},select=video,dst=bridge-out{id=2},select=audio}

new camera3 broadcast enabled
setup camera3 input v4l:/dev/video2:norm=PAL:channel=1
setup camera3 output #transcode{vcodec=WMV2,vb=512,scale=1}:duplicate{dst=mosaic-bridge{id=3,height=600,width=700},select=video,dst=bridge-out{id=3},select=audio}

new background broadcast enabled
setup background input fake:
setup background output #transcode{sfilter=mosaic,vcodec=WMV2,vb=1024,acodec=mp3,ab=192,scale=1}:bridge-in{delay=400,id-offset=400}:duplicate{dst=std{access=file,mux=asf,dst="/local_data_streaming/streaming.avi"},dst=std{access=http,mux=asf,dst=:8080}}

control background play
control camera1 play
control camera2 play
control camera3 play

• Streaming is started by the command (cf. run.sh)

  vlc --color -I telnet --vlm-conf vlmmmshtrans.conf --ttl 12 --fake-file Background.gif --fake-aspect-ratio 16:9 --mosaic-width 1240 --mosaic-height 800 --udp-caching 1800 --mosaic-keep-picture --mosaic-rows 2 --mosaic-cols 2 --mosaic-position 1 --mosaic-order 3,1,4,2 

• Viewing the output should be possible with vlc or any other player by opening the network-stream http://10.117.96.188:8080

• View one cam:

  xawtv -c /dev/video2

Set the video source

  After the command xawtv -c /dev/video2, I set the video source to s-video to see the cam, otherwise blue screen.

How to set the camera for chasing (The test is done on Camera 2. Open VLC, File-> Open Capture Device->/dev/video1,click ok)

1. Use the Remote to set camera to the proper number by pressing the camera 2 button
2. Press the AT button. (AT will appear at the top left corner of the screen)
3. Press the Chase button until "Chase2" appears on the lower left corner of the screen.
4. Press the AE button. (AE will appear on the screen)
5. Press the Auto Zoom Button( Zoom will appear on the screen)
6. Center the frame around your face (using the remote directions buttons, place the box that 
   appear on the screen so that your face is mostly inside the box)

7. Press the Start/Stop button to begin and stop chasing.
8. You can press the Data Screen button once and the Frame Display button once to remove the 
   overprinting and zoning box that are displayed on the screen.

Audio test

The sound card on the motherboard is used for the audio function. Make sure the sound card is enabled in the BIOS setting. Its device name is /dev/dsp. So the setting for audio in the vlmmmshtrans.conf file is fine, that is:

setup camera1 input v4l:/dev/video0:norm=PAL:channel=1:adev=/dev/dsp

Todo

• Find out howto change the alignment of the images more precisely and choose a good order
• Choose a better background image...
• Play with the cameras. Howto use the 'chase' button
• Test audio output
• should we be able to access the cams from network, eg, http://IP address:8080,