linux/drivers/staging/easycap/README
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   2        ***********************************************************
   3        *   EasyCAP USB 2.0 Video Adapter with Audio, Model DC60  *
   4        *                            and                          *
   5        *             EasyCAP002 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR            *
   6        ***********************************************************
   7                     Mike Thomas  <rmthomas@sciolus.org>
   8
   9
  10
  11SUPPORTED HARDWARE
  12------------------
  13
  14This driver is intended for use with hardware having USB ID 05e1:0408.
  15Two kinds of EasyCAP have this USB ID, namely:
  16
  17    *  EasyCAP USB 2.0 Video Adapter with Audio, Model DC60,
  18       having input cables labelled CVBS, S-VIDEO, AUDIO(L), AUDIO(R)
  19
  20    *  EasyCAP002 4-Channel USB 2.0 DVR, having input cables labelled
  21       1, 2, 3, 4 and an unlabelled input cable for a microphone.
  22
  23
  24BUILD OPTIONS AND DEPENDENCIES
  25------------------------------
  26
  27Unless EASYCAP_DEBUG is defined during compilation it will not be possible
  28to select a debug level at the time of module installation.
  29
  30
  31KNOWN RUNTIME ISSUES
  32--------------------
  33
  34(1) Intentionally, this driver will not stream material which is unambiguously
  35identified by the hardware as copy-protected.  Normal video output will be
  36present for about a minute but will then freeze when this situation arises.
  37
  38(2) The controls for luminance, contrast, saturation, hue and volume may not
  39always work properly.
  40
  41(3) Reduced-resolution S-Video seems to suffer from moire artefacts.
  42
  43
  44INPUT NUMBERING
  45---------------
  46
  47For the EasyCAP with S-VIDEO input cable the driver regards a request for
  48inputs numbered 0 or 1 as referring to CVBS and a request for input
  49numbered 5 as referring to S-VIDEO.
  50
  51For the EasyCAP with four CVBS inputs the driver expects to be asked for
  52any one of inputs numbered 1,2,3,4.  If input 0 is asked for, it is
  53interpreted as input 1.
  54
  55
  56MODULE PARAMETERS
  57-----------------
  58
  59Three module parameters are defined:
  60
  61debug      the easycap module is configured at diagnostic level n (0 to 9)
  62gain       audio gain level n (0 to 31, default is 16)
  63bars       whether to display testcard bars when incoming video signal is lost
  64           0 => no, 1 => yes (default)
  65
  66
  67SUPPORTED TV STANDARDS AND RESOLUTIONS
  68--------------------------------------
  69
  70The following TV standards are natively supported by the hardware and are
  71usable as (for example) the "norm=" parameter in the mplayer command:
  72
  73    PAL_BGHIN,    NTSC_N_443,
  74    PAL_Nc,       NTSC_N,
  75    SECAM,        NTSC_M,        NTSC_M_JP,
  76    PAL_60,       NTSC_443,
  77    PAL_M.
  78
  79In addition, the driver offers "custom" pseudo-standards with a framerate
  80which is 20% of the usual framerate.  These pseudo-standards are named:
  81
  82    PAL_BGHIN_SLOW,    NTSC_N_443_SLOW,
  83    PAL_Nc_SLOW,       NTSC_N_SLOW,
  84    SECAM_SLOW,        NTSC_M_SLOW,        NTSC_M_JP_SLOW,
  85    PAL_60_SLOW,       NTSC_443_SLOW,
  86    PAL_M_SLOW.
  87
  88
  89The available picture sizes are:
  90
  91     at 25 frames per second:   720x576, 704x576, 640x480, 360x288, 320x240;
  92     at 30 frames per second:   720x480, 640x480, 360x240, 320x240.
  93
  94
  95WHAT'S TESTED AND WHAT'S NOT
  96----------------------------
  97
  98This driver is known to work with mplayer, mencoder, tvtime, zoneminder,
  99xawtv, gstreamer and sufficiently recent versions of vlc.  An interface
 100to ffmpeg is implemented, but serious audio-video synchronization problems
 101remain.
 102
 103The driver is designed to support all the TV standards accepted by the
 104hardware, but as yet it has actually been tested on only a few of these.
 105
 106I have been unable to test and calibrate the S-video input myself because I
 107do not possess any equipment with S-video output.
 108
 109
 110UDEV RULES
 111----------
 112
 113In order that the special files /dev/easycap0 and /dev/easysnd1 are created
 114with conveniently relaxed permissions when the EasyCAP is plugged in, a file
 115is preferably to be provided in directory /etc/udev/rules.d with content:
 116
 117ACTION!="add|change", GOTO="easycap_rules_end"
 118ATTRS{idVendor}=="05e1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0408", \
 119        MODE="0666", OWNER="root", GROUP="root"
 120LABEL="easycap_rules_end"
 121
 122
 123MODPROBE CONFIGURATION
 124----------------------
 125
 126The easycap module is in competition with the module snd-usb-audio for the
 127EasyCAP's audio channel, and its installation can be aided by providing a
 128file in directory /etc/modprobe.d with content:
 129
 130options easycap  gain=16 bars=1
 131install easycap /sbin/rmmod snd-usb-audio; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install easycap
 132
 133
 134ACKNOWLEGEMENTS AND REFERENCES
 135------------------------------
 136This driver makes use of information contained in the Syntek Semicon DC-1125
 137Driver, presently maintained at http://sourceforge.net/projects/syntekdriver/
 138by Nicolas Vivien.  Particularly useful has been a patch to the latter driver
 139provided by Ivor Hewitt in January 2009.  The NTSC implementation is taken
 140from the work of Ben Trask.
 141
 142