[MEncoder-users] Fwd: record from my VHS camera

[Moritz Barsnick]

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 23:39:40 +0200, ivo.linux wrote:
> *mencoder tv:///2 -tv
> driver=v4l2:input=1:norm=pal:width=480:height=360:outfmt=yuy2:device=/dev/video0:adevice=/dev/dsp:audiorate=32000:forceaudio:forcechan=1:buffersize=80
> -ovc lavc -lavcopts threads=3:vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1200:keyint=30 -oac
> mp3lame -lameopts br=128:cbr:mode=3:vol=8 -ffourcc divx -endpos 120 -o
> VHS.avi*
> 
> the output is bad I obtained low resolution video and no audio....

You need to check your syslog to see if V4L is choosing the requested
resolution. If you request to use a resolution setting which is not
supported, either mencode3r or V4l (I don't know which) will silently
fall back to something else.

Regarding the audio: You need to ensure that the audio device is not
muted. ALSA is really tricky and almost a pain. I do something like
this in my capture script:

CARD="0" # main ALSA ICH audio device for input
amixer -c ${CARD} set Capture cap
amixer -c ${CARD} set Capture 8%
amixer -c ${CARD} set Capture unmute
amixer -c ${CARD} set Line cap
amixer -c ${CARD} set Line 30%
amixer -c ${CARD} set Line unmute

Furthermore, I use the real ALSA device:
...:alsa:audiorate=48000:amode=1:forcechan=2:adevice=hw.${CARD},0,0:...

Hope this helps,
Moritz