Hi Sezo
Sorry if I’ve jumped the gun but while I was waiting on a reply, I uninstalled xawtv, Cheese, tvtime & vlc, I then rebooted and re-installed xawtv, and it’s now opening up and tuning into the VHS on channel 60 PAL-DK, picture quality is good but I have no sound, I’m not able to tune in the Betamax but I only tried one scan
In view of that should i still try to remove graphics acceleration as you suggested in your last post ?
Many thanks
Graeme
It is up to you, though it might get rid of the framebuffer error.
If you can tune in the betamax then find out the frequency for later:
v4l2-ctl --get-freq
Ok I got the Betamax tuned into Channel 26 and I’ve taken a note of the frequencies for both machines
I still have no sound and I get this error when I try to record
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ xawtv
This is xawtv-3.102, running on Linux/i686 (3.5.0-17-generic)
xinerama 0: 1600x900+0+0
vid-open-auto: using analog TV device /dev/video0
WARNING: No DGA direct video mode for this display.
WARNING: keeping fbuf pitch at: 6400, as no base addr was detected
WARNING: couldn't find framebuffer base address, try manual
configuration ("v4l-conf -a <addr>")
v4l2: WARNING: framebuffer base address mismatch
v4l2: me=(nil) v4l=(nil)
Alsa devices: cap: (null) (/dev/video0), out: default
oss: open /dev/dsp: No such file or directory
Many thanks
Graeme
The audio problem seems to affect xawtv recording function as it tries to use OSS which is legacy now.
is I think you need alsa-oss which provides /dev/dsp.
sudo apt-get install alsa-oss
You might still not get sound though as it is possible that the audio output on your card requires hard wired connection to your sound card
(instead of using the PCI bus as the video does.)
Get list of audio inputs:
arecord -l
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
graeme@Linux1 ~ $
There should be a distinct audio input for your card if it was coming via the bus.
It might be worth to open up the case and see if there is a connector (internal) on your card for audio output.
Have you tried xawtv after (if) you have installed alsa-oss?
There should be a distinct audio input for your card if it was coming via the bus.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean there, but in pulse audio volume control settings i can see under “Input Devices” that i am getting an input, but I dont appear to be getting anything under “Output Devices”
It might be worth to open up the case and see if there is a connector (internal) on your card for audio output.
Ok I can have a look tomorrow to see if I have a connector
This might be a stupid question, but does it mean because I can’t hear the output the it wouldn’t record the output if I could get record to work ?
Have you tried xawtv after (if) you have installed alsa-oss?
yes and it has made no difference I can see
Anyway it’s getting late but I can try again tomorrow if you still want to stick with it
many thanks
Graeme
does it mean because I can't hear the output the it wouldn't record the output if I could get record to work ?
Yes, probably, not necessarily, and no … helpful eh ? :o
Linux uses an Everything is a File system … so all system resources are registered as files (devices go in /dev)
As the TV/Capture card doesn’t appear to register itself as an audio device , it’s my guess that it needs you to use the sound card as the “audio” capture device … so you’d need to run a cable either from pins on the capture card itself to the CD audio input on the sound card, or to run a mini-jack to mini-jack from audio OUT on the capture card to audio IN on the sound card.
Then tell whatever recording software you’re using to use /dev/video0 for video, and /dev/ for audio.
It seems xawtv likes the audio capture device registered as /dev/dsp(n) … which is what sound devices USED TO get registered as under the old OSS sound system (no longer used by default)
I’m gonna take a guess here, and assume that now you’ve installed alsa-oss SeZo will ask you for the output from:
arecord -l
again, and:
ls -a /dev | grep dsp
to see if installing that caused the sound card capture to get registered as /dev/dsp(n).
and just for good luck, throw in the output from:
ls -a /dev | grep video
But you really need to tell us if there are any pins on the capture card for audio OUT, or a jack plug on the back marked audio OUT
As I said I’m kinda out of my comfort zone with capture … so if I’m totally off track, please ignore this … though there’s nothing in this post that will cause any problems, so it certainly wont hurt 
[EDIT]
Please re-read section 4.1 here:
[b]http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/BTTV.html#ss4.1[/b]
about connecting the audio leads to your soundcard.
[END EDIT
Hi mark thanks again for your help
Yes, probably, not necessarily, and no .. helpful eh ?
emm no 
As the TV/Capture card doesn't appear to register itself as an audio device , it's my guess that it needs you to use the sound card as the "audio" capture device .. so you'd need to run a cable either from pins on the capture card itself to the CD audio input on the sound card, or to run a mini-jack to mini-jack from audio OUT on the capture card to audio IN on the sound card.
I’ve checked the tv card and it has audio in and audio out jacks at the rear so it should be a simple matter to connect the tv card to the sound card that way if I can find a lead (I’m sure I have one somewhere)
I'm gonna take a guess here, and assume that now you've installed alsa-oss SeZo will ask you for the output from:
Your guess is correct
As I said I'm kinda out of my comfort zone with capture .. so if I'm totally off track, please ignore this .. though there's nothing in this post that will cause any problems, so it certainly wont hurt
I wouldn’t know if you were off track but I trust your judgement
Here’s the outputs you asked for
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ ls -a /dev | grep dsp
graeme@Linux1 ~ $ ls -a /dev | grep video
video0
graeme@Linux1 ~ $
I’m quietly confident that connecting the tv card to the sound input will work, I once had to do this to a radio card and it worked fine, anyway I’ll do that as soon as I can and report back then hopefully we can get the recording issue sorted out.
Once again a huge thanks to you and SeZo for all you effort and patience
Graeme
I’m not sure if this helps but I tried connecting my speakers directly into the tv card audio output and I have sound
I'm not sure if this helps but I tried connecting my speakers directly into the tv card audio output and I have sound
That was fully expected, as the audio would have been demodulated from the RF input. the question is how to transmit it to the rest of the system.
The option to link externally between the cards sounds good. Then you can use the in built audio devices as a source.
Further to my last post I got an audio cable and I connected it from line out on the TV card to mic (red) on the sound card and I still got no sound output, but if I connect the speakers directly to the line out of the TV card the sound is fine.
Many thanks
Graeme
Have a look in the mixer settings if your mic is enabled (not muted)
Hi Sezo
I’ve checked and the mic is definately not muted
The settings in pulse audio settings are as follows
Playback: only system sounds are listed set at 100% (0db)
Recording: Gnome Volume Control Dialogue : peak detect from Built-In Analogue Stereo (the other option is monitor of Built-In Analogue Stereo) (Activity is showing)
Output Devices: Built-In Analogue Stereo, Port: Analogue Output, Front & Left Speakers set to 1005(0db) (no activity is showing)
Input Devices; Built-In Audio Analogue Stereo, Port: Rear Microphone, Right & Left Speakers set to 14% (-51.42db) (activity is showing)
Configuration: All options have been tried (currently set to Analogue Stereo Duplex)
I hope you understand my descriptions my other option was to send screenshots, if you think that would be better let me know
Many Thanks
Graeme
In Terminal type:
alsamixer
When your in alsamixer and you press F5 to view all outputs there should be an input for Mic?
Navigate with your left or right arrow key to highlight the Mic (capture) input.
use the up/down arrow to raise the levels
OK, let’s give you a more familiar GUI front end to alsamixer:
sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer
Then search your menus for “Sound Mixer”
And see if Mic playback is muted in there.
[EDIT]
Or do it SeZo’s way … which is doing the same thing, just without the nice GUI
.
When your in alsamixer and you press F5 to view all outputs there should be an input for Mic? Navigate with your left or right arrow key to highlight the Mic (capture) input. use the up/down arrow to raise the levels
I opened Alsamixer but when I press F5 I just got a grey warning symbol (grey circle with a diagonal line inside) but I was able to navigate along all the outputs using left and right arrow keys, there are 2 rear mic scales (see screenshot) and I set them both to maximum still no sound
Then search your menus for "Sound Mixer"
I can’t see any other sound mixer other that pulse audio volume control which is the one I’ve been using
The “MM” under your Front and Rear Mic’s (in alsamixer) says they are both muted on both channels.
Did you install gnome-aslamixer ? … if so, and you still can’t find it in the menu’s (probably somewhere under Sound 7 video), you can start it from the command line with:
gnome-alsamixer
BTW, turn them down from 100% too
.
We’re wired for sound
Can you explain to me why pulse audio was telling me the rear mic wasn’t muted when it obviously was ?
So now I just have to find a way to record if that’s possible, any suggestions (other than do it yourself)
pulseaudio was telling you the mic socket wasn’t muted for capture… but it was muted for playback through the speakers, this is normal to stop feeback when using a microphone.
Recording … I’d better leave that to SeZo, as i have little experince with such things.