VideoCaptureAdapters

A brief guide on how-to install the Conceptronics Composite to USB interface under Ubuntu.

1. Plug-in the USB stick. Check if it is properly connected:

lsusb

Check for 'Afatech'. Example: 'Bus 001 Device 005: ID 1b80:e34e Afatech'.

2. The next steps need to be done as root. Insert the em28xx module, with configuration card 9. This is the configuration for the 'Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90', which works well for the Conceptronics USB stick.

modprobe em28xx card=9

3. Insert the device type:

echo 1b80 e34e > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/em28xx/new_id

4. Now /dev/video0 is created, and can be used by video capture applications. An example is given below:

mplayer tv: //-tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480

If you have multiple devices (for example a webcam), the USB device will not be the default /dev/video0 and you have to explicitly mention the device path when opening the video stream. For example:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:device=/dev/video1:width=640:height=480

Note that if you use the NTSC standard, you will get a green overlay over the image. The composite video must be PAL standard to work properly.

5. Video can be recorded uncompressed by adding the following option:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480 -vo pnm

The individual frames are then saved as *.pnm files. Deinterlacing options can be viewed by typing:

mplayer -pphelp

An example of a deinterlacing filter when recording raw video:

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480 -vf pp=ci -vo pnm