I am mostly a newbie - I used LiVES a few years back to convert some VHS tapes
(made originally from 8/16mm home movies) into computer friendly forms.
At that time, I could enter a URL for mplayer (tv:// ...) and LiVES would
capture that output. But now, I can't seem to find that functionality in this
version (1.1.2).
So, simple(?) question: how do I do that now?
TIA
ken
BTW: this is a great piece of software. I tried many other video editors -
both on linux and windoz, and this works the best for me. The only thing
missing - at least for me - is adding in DVD structures (titles, menus, etc.).
Perhaps a link to DVDAuthor? Then again, it really isn't that necessary, since
QDVDAuthor does that, and fairly well.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
This works with standalone mplayer, giving me a window w/ audio. But when I
use it in LiVES, all I get is rgb snow, and no audio.
I was thinking it might be something with the video format output by mplayer -
any suggestions would be appreciated. But then there is the no audio problem.
FWIW: I tried to capture from an external window, but the video was the same,
and jack audio complained about everything and turned into a rogue unkillable
process (where's keannu reeves when you need him? :-( ).
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
still the same "snow", with no audio. BTW: the "snow" is
more like vertical lines of the spectrum (different colors). I have seen this
before, but can't remember how to fix it.
As for the audio, these were needed by mplayer to get sound to capture with my
capture card.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Okay, I think I got it figured out (I must be turning into a guru to even
think of this:-) ).
I started up LiVES in a terminal window. When I tried to run my capture URL, I
got this mplayer command string (won't go into details):
mplayer {bunch of LiVES generated options} "my URL"
My URL is tv:// {my options}
Apparently my options were conflicting with the generated options. I assume
the LiVES generated mplayer options come mainly from the preferences, as well
as some other assumptions made by the app. My options are needed specifically
to get both video and audio off of my card.
IMHO, I see a somewhat simple solution: have an advanced option for the Open From Stream selection (like a check box in the enter URL dialog) that
displays the entire generated mplayer command, and then
allows the user to add/edit his/her own options (caveat emptor, though,: the
user must know what LiVES is expecting from mplayer; hence the advanced
label).
Another more complicated solution, that probably isn't needed as much, is to
have a Capture From TV Card selection that would let the user select the
specific options for his/her card (this would also work for DV camcorders,
webcams, etc.). That would take a lot more development work, and I don't know
if enough people would want to use LiVES to capture video directly to make it
worthwhile.
Anyways, that is where I am at. For now, I will just get mplayer to capture
the video/audio to a file, and import that file into LiVES (that is what I was
hoping to avoid).
But the edit URL option I think would still be useful :-).
Thanks,
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
It will now capture video, but the sound it captures is all noise. I added audiorate=48000 to the mplayer open command, but that didn't help.
I think this has something to do with the way I had to software wire things to
get my capture card to route its audio to pulse audio. I have to use oss and
not alsa - hence the /dev/dsp I used before (it took serveral weeks of
googling and forum posts to get that to work).
Jack also messes up sound on my system, so I try to avoid it.
I am going through all the steps I did originally to make the audio capture
work. But if you have any ideas, please feel free to tell me.
BTW: When I capture a video cliip (usally about 60 secs) and then try to play
it (Play->Play All), it shows (in the preview window) the first few frames,
then jumps to the last frame and ends. If I have it loop continuously, then it
will play all frames, repeatedly, though. Is there something I am missing?
Thanks for your help, and great software.
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
can you capture a short clip - say about 10 seconds, then in LiVES
File->Backup and attach the resulting .lv1 file here. I can then take a
look at the audio and try to figure out what the problem is and how to solve
it.
Cheers,
Gabriel.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I finally got it to work! I played around with mplayer options (actually
SMPlayer since it uses similar options to LiVES), scouring over log files,
until I got both video and sound captured.
The main problem - with the sound - was knowing where the capture card's audio
gets routed to. In my case it was /dev/dsp1. At first, it may not seem logical
to you (or me), but what I had to do originally to get to the capture audio
was to use oss, and via various options to the snd_oss modules, alias that
audio output (fromt the card) to /dev/dsp1.
Therefore, after adding adevice=/dev/dsp1 to the mplayer command line, the
audio and video caputred perfectly.
I would send you the backup .lv1 file, but I couldn't figure out how to attach
a file in this forum.
Thanks for the help, though.
As I mentioned in my last post, I am still having problems playing back the
captured clips in the editor preview wiindow. The preview window pops up and
may show a frame or two, then closes. Any ideas about this?
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hazarding a guess about the playback problem - most likely you are using sox
as your audio player and it is failing because something else is using the
soundcard. I would recommend that you upgrade to LiVES 1.1.3 and use the pulse
audio player as it is the easiest to set up.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Note the double '/' after /usr/lib. I did verify that libvis.so is in the
proper directory.
As for the preview/sound problems: I am not using sox. I think I mentioned
earlier, but Jack doesn't play well with my capture card (bad Jack, bad Jack).
For the card (Pinnacle based on Conexant cx288xx chip), I need to use oss to
capture audio. I would love for someone to figure out how to get alsa to work
with it, but I spent months googling, posting, and experimenting and this is
the only thing that worked.
Maybe I should try sox?
One other thing (isn't there always?): I captured a video from VHS (with both
video and stereo audio). Lives reported that it changed the frame rate (from
29.97 - standard NTSC) to 29.00 fps. When I encoded the clip as XVid/MP3, the
video was sped up, although the audio was in real time (ie, out of sync with
the encoded video). I am using the followng options to mplayer to capture:
the double back slash still exists in 1.1.5. I've only seen it when lives starts up, as shown in previous message
preview does play: I switched the player from mplayer to jack (mplayer can't open output device - /dev/dsp1 - if jack is runniing)
When encoding a clip captured from video (captured using mplayer options in previous message), the first 50 seconds are okay, but after that, the video speeds up. This happens with several different encoding formats
when playing an AVI back with VLC, VLC will "fix the indexing" before playing.
ffmpeg encoding to divx w/ mp3 audio fails: error message is that ffmpeg can't find mp3 encoder, although my ffmpeg is built with mp3lame. It is the stock version from the fedora repo.
I have a backup (.lv1) of a very short clip (about 1 minute). If you let me
know how to attach it to a message here (I am using the lives sourceforge
forum) I will do that. Else, if you let me know your email address, I will
attach it and send it that way.
If I seem needy about this, I am trying to put together a dvd of clips from
several home video VHS tapes of my nephew for his 18th birthday coming up
soon.
I've played around with other video capture/editing apps - both for linux and
windoz - but lives is by far the most complete and best that I have found. The
VJ stuff adds a little extra to my dvd present :-).
Thanks to everyone involved for great OPEN software.
ken
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
(Thanks for the heads-up, I will include it in the next release).
This will then let you select mp3lame as the audio format.
3) You can email the .lv1 file to me @ salsaman@gmail.com
4) Just FYI, after encoding, you will find a file called encoder_log_*.txt in
the LiVES temp directory. This will have the output of the encoder which you
can examine for errors.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi all,
I am mostly a newbie - I used LiVES a few years back to convert some VHS tapes
(made originally from 8/16mm home movies) into computer friendly forms.
At that time, I could enter a URL for mplayer (tv:// ...) and LiVES would
capture that output. But now, I can't seem to find that functionality in this
version (1.1.2).
So, simple(?) question: how do I do that now?
TIA
ken
BTW: this is a great piece of software. I tried many other video editors -
both on linux and windoz, and this works the best for me. The only thing
missing - at least for me - is adding in DVD structures (titles, menus, etc.).
Perhaps a link to DVDAuthor? Then again, it really isn't that necessary, since
QDVDAuthor does that, and fairly well.
Hi Ken,
I am not sure how this would work, but perhaps File -> Open Location/Stream
would do the trick.
Regarding your second point, this is planned as a future enhancement (post-
encoding activities)
: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2818291&group_id=6
4341&atid=507142
I tried that with the following stream:
tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:input=1:amode=1:immediatemode=0:audio
rate=48000:adevice=/dev/dsp1
This works with standalone mplayer, giving me a window w/ audio. But when I
use it in LiVES, all I get is rgb snow, and no audio.
I was thinking it might be something with the video format output by mplayer -
any suggestions would be appreciated. But then there is the no audio problem.
FWIW: I tried to capture from an external window, but the video was the same,
and jack audio complained about everything and turned into a rogue unkillable
process (where's keannu reeves when you need him? :-( ).
ken
The sound part should be easy to solve - you need to remove some of your
settings, ie.
tv:// -tv device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:input=1:amode=1:immediatemode=0
You may be getting snow because the framerate is too high to encode properly,
so try a lower fps setting, e.g.
tv:// -tv
device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:input=1:amode=1:immediatemode=0:fps=10
No luck.
still the same "snow", with no audio. BTW: the "snow" is
more like vertical lines of the spectrum (different colors). I have seen this
before, but can't remember how to fix it.
As for the audio, these were needed by mplayer to get sound to capture with my
capture card.
Okay, I think I got it figured out (I must be turning into a guru to even
think of this:-) ).
I started up LiVES in a terminal window. When I tried to run my capture URL, I
got this mplayer command string (won't go into details):
mplayer {bunch of LiVES generated options} "my URL"
My URL is tv:// {my options}
Apparently my options were conflicting with the generated options. I assume
the LiVES generated mplayer options come mainly from the preferences, as well
as some other assumptions made by the app. My options are needed specifically
to get both video and audio off of my card.
IMHO, I see a somewhat simple solution: have an advanced option for the
Open From Stream selection (like a check box in the enter URL dialog) that
displays the entire generated mplayer command, and then
allows the user to add/edit his/her own options (caveat emptor, though,: the
user must know what LiVES is expecting from mplayer; hence the advanced
label).
Another more complicated solution, that probably isn't needed as much, is to
have a Capture From TV Card selection that would let the user select the
specific options for his/her card (this would also work for DV camcorders,
webcams, etc.). That would take a lot more development work, and I don't know
if enough people would want to use LiVES to capture video directly to make it
worthwhile.
Anyways, that is where I am at. For now, I will just get mplayer to capture
the video/audio to a file, and import that file into LiVES (that is what I was
hoping to avoid).
But the edit URL option I think would still be useful :-).
Thanks,
ken
OK, thanks - that has calrified things a bit. What you are suggesting is kind
of possible already.
First, go into Preferences and find the Decoding tab. Then, where you see
Video Open Command, with an entry something like:
/usr/bin/mplayer
I want you to edit this and replace it with:
/usr/bin/mplayer -tv
device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:input=1:amode=1:immediatemode=0
then click OK.
Now go to File/Open location or stream, for the URL just enter: tv://
also select "Do not send bandwidth"
I think this should work. After capturing your clips, you will need to reverse
the process and set the command back to /usr/bin/mplayer
or you will not be able to open ordinary video clips.
You may also need to enter videorate=48000 option, if the audio is coming out
at the wrong rate.
The option adevice=/dev/dsp should not be used, as this will cause the audio
to be sent to your soundcard, and LiVES needs to send it to a file.
Also, you can see the format of the command by editing the file
/usr/bin/smogrify, and near the beggining of the file adding: $DEBUG_OPEN=1;
Hope this helps !
Okay, that helped - mostly.
It will now capture video, but the sound it captures is all noise. I added
audiorate=48000 to the mplayer open command, but that didn't help.
I think this has something to do with the way I had to software wire things to
get my capture card to route its audio to pulse audio. I have to use oss and
not alsa - hence the /dev/dsp I used before (it took serveral weeks of
googling and forum posts to get that to work).
Jack also messes up sound on my system, so I try to avoid it.
I am going through all the steps I did originally to make the audio capture
work. But if you have any ideas, please feel free to tell me.
BTW: When I capture a video cliip (usally about 60 secs) and then try to play
it (Play->Play All), it shows (in the preview window) the first few frames,
then jumps to the last frame and ends. If I have it loop continuously, then it
will play all frames, repeatedly, though. Is there something I am missing?
Thanks for your help, and great software.
ken
Ken,
can you capture a short clip - say about 10 seconds, then in LiVES
File->Backup and attach the resulting .lv1 file here. I can then take a
look at the audio and try to figure out what the problem is and how to solve
it.
Cheers,
Gabriel.
Gabriel,
I finally got it to work! I played around with mplayer options (actually
SMPlayer since it uses similar options to LiVES), scouring over log files,
until I got both video and sound captured.
The main problem - with the sound - was knowing where the capture card's audio
gets routed to. In my case it was /dev/dsp1. At first, it may not seem logical
to you (or me), but what I had to do originally to get to the capture audio
was to use oss, and via various options to the snd_oss modules, alias that
audio output (fromt the card) to /dev/dsp1.
Therefore, after adding adevice=/dev/dsp1 to the mplayer command line, the
audio and video caputred perfectly.
I would send you the backup .lv1 file, but I couldn't figure out how to attach
a file in this forum.
Thanks for the help, though.
As I mentioned in my last post, I am still having problems playing back the
captured clips in the editor preview wiindow. The preview window pops up and
may show a frame or two, then closes. Any ideas about this?
Great news that you got it working !
Hazarding a guess about the playback problem - most likely you are using sox
as your audio player and it is failing because something else is using the
soundcard. I would recommend that you upgrade to LiVES 1.1.3 and use the pulse
audio player as it is the easiest to set up.
I rebuilt and installed 1.1.5.
But apparently the same issues. Here is the startup messages:
LiVES 1.1.5
Copyright 2002-2009 Gabriel Finch (salsaman@xs4all.nl) and others.
LiVES comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see the file COPYING for details.
error loading plugin /usr/lib//lives/plugins/effects/realtime/weed/libvis.so
Note the double '/' after /usr/lib. I did verify that libvis.so is in the
proper directory.
As for the preview/sound problems: I am not using sox. I think I mentioned
earlier, but Jack doesn't play well with my capture card (bad Jack, bad Jack).
For the card (Pinnacle based on Conexant cx288xx chip), I need to use oss to
capture audio. I would love for someone to figure out how to get alsa to work
with it, but I spent months googling, posting, and experimenting and this is
the only thing that worked.
Maybe I should try sox?
One other thing (isn't there always?): I captured a video from VHS (with both
video and stereo audio). Lives reported that it changed the frame rate (from
29.97 - standard NTSC) to 29.00 fps. When I encoded the clip as XVid/MP3, the
video was sped up, although the audio was in real time (ie, out of sync with
the encoded video). I am using the followng options to mplayer to capture:
-tv adevice=/dev/dsp1:device=/dev/video0:amode=1:immediatemode=0:audiorate=48000:mjpeg:decimation=1
(the 'mjpeg' option just pulls the mjpeg frame straight from the card so no
transformation should be needed; 'decimation=1' sets the size to 704x480).
Any suggestions?
Thx for all the help, tho.
ken
Couple of quick notes
I have a backup (.lv1) of a very short clip (about 1 minute). If you let me
know how to attach it to a message here (I am using the lives sourceforge
forum) I will do that. Else, if you let me know your email address, I will
attach it and send it that way.
If I seem needy about this, I am trying to put together a dvd of clips from
several home video VHS tapes of my nephew for his 18th birthday coming up
soon.
I've played around with other video capture/editing apps - both for linux and
windoz - but lives is by far the most complete and best that I have found. The
VJ stuff adds a little extra to my dvd present :-).
Thanks to everyone involved for great OPEN software.
ken
Hi again Ken.
1) The double backslash/warning message is not relevant.
2) You should be able to get around the ffmpeg/divx problem as follows:
edit /usr/lib/lives/plugins/encoders/ffmpeg_encoder and change the following
line (93):
if ($otype eq "flv"||$otype eq "flv-youtube"||$otype eq "flv-youtubex") {
to:
if ($otype eq "flv"||$otype eq "flv-youtube"||$otype eq "flv-youtubex"||$otype
eq "divx") {
(Thanks for the heads-up, I will include it in the next release).
This will then let you select mp3lame as the audio format.
3) You can email the .lv1 file to me @ salsaman@gmail.com
4) Just FYI, after encoding, you will find a file called encoder_log_*.txt in
the LiVES temp directory. This will have the output of the encoder which you
can examine for errors.