[MPlayer-users] BT878A and PAL

[James Fagan]

Hello list,

I am trying to display a PAL signal through a BT878A chip. 
I do live in the USA and all the equipment I have is NTSC as far as I
know maybe this is the problem?

Here is the hardware I am using: 

Conexant Fusion bt878A
http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/Surveillance/MP-878D2.htm

Digital Video Conversion System
http://www.world-import.com/cmd1500.htm

I am running the signal from a NTSC digital camera to a conversion box
and from there to the capture card.

Camera [NTSC] > Conversion Box > [PAL] > BT878A  > MPlayer [PAL] >
Display

The version of mplayer I am using is MPlayer dev-CVS-060501-09:01-3.4.4

Here is the NTSC line that works, without the conversion box:
mplayer -quiet -slave -display :0.0 -fs -vf screenshot -tv
device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:norm=NTSC:input=2 -vo xv tv://

When I use the conversion box (set to convert from NTSC to PAL) and want
to display PAL I use almost the same command;
mplayer -quiet -slave -display :0.0 -fs -vf screenshot -tv
device=/dev/video0:driver=v4l2:norm=PAL:input=2 -vo xv tv://

The PAL one displays this image:
http://www.jfworks.net/image/20070306_092212.png

If I set the "norm" in Mplayer and the conversion box to both be PAL-N
or PAL-M the image displays fine. 
PAL-Nc gives me black and white when the conversion box is set to PAL-N
(not too worried about that).

Here is the output from running the command as root.

MPlayer dev-CVS-060501-09:01-3.4.4 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Pentium M Dothan (Family: 6, Stepping: 8)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2


Playing tv://.
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: BT878 video ( *** UNKNOWN/GENER
 Tuner cap:
 Tuner rxs: MONO
 Capabilites:  video capture  video overlay  VBI capture device  tuner
read/write  streaming
 supported norms: 0 = PAL; 1 = NTSC; 2 = SECAM; 3 = PAL-Nc; 4 = PAL-M; 5
= PAL-N; 6 = NTSC-JP; 7 = PAL-60;
 inputs: 0 = Television; 1 = Composite1; 2 = S-Video; 3 = Composite3;
 Current input: 2
 Current format: YVU420
v4l2: current audio mode is : MONO
Opening video filter: [screenshot]
========================================================================
==
Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
SwScaler: using unscaled Planar YV12 -> BGR 24-bit special converter
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12  [fs]
Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm: raw (RAW YV12)
========================================================================
==

Are there some other options I should consider? 

Will it not display because of the NTSC monitor? 

Why would PAL-M/N display and not PAL?


James