Hauppauge HD-PVR 1212 capture

[two4two]

OK, I guess this has been covered somewhere already, but my question is short for those in the know (which I'm not one of). I use the following command to capture from either SVHS tapes or from live TV:

ffmpeg -i /dev/videoN -vcodec copy -acodec ac3 -ab 448k ~/capture.mp4


I like ffmpeg better than cat because I can set acodec and ab. But when the capture is commencing I can't view it on my computer.

How can I also view on my computer whatever the ffmpeg is capturing?

Thanks for letting me post one more HD-PVR and vid-cap thread.

[dannyboy79]

couldn't you opena second terminal window and use a command like this?

mplayer ~/capture.mp4

there would obviously be a little lag but that should work. or is there someway to use all one command where it not only captures the output of /dev/videoX but also displays it using a pipe and exec somehow?

[Bucky Ball]

Thread moved to Multimedia & Video

[evilsoup]

FFmpeg can have multiple outputs, and it can output to stdout; any player that can take input from stdin (vlc, totem, mplayer can all do this) can play that through a pipe. I've also updated the syntax to be in line with current correct ffmpeg usage (see here for more info):

ffmpeg -i /dev/videoN -c:v copy -c:a ac3 -b:a 448k ~/capture.mp4 \
-c:v copy -c:a ac3 -b:a 448k -f mp4 - | vlc -

Dannyboy's solution will also probably work.

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Eventually a tee pseudo-muxer should make its way into ffmpeg which would be useful for this sort of thing since it can create several outputs from encoding just once.

[two4two]

FFmpeg can have multiple outputs, and it can output to stdout; any player that can take input from stdin (vlc, totem, mplayer can all do this) can play that through a pipe. I've also updated the syntax to be in line with current correct ffmpeg usage (see here for more info):

ffmpeg -i /dev/videoN -c:v copy -c:a ac3 -b:a 448k ~/capture.mp4 \
-c:v copy -c:a ac3 -b:a 448k -f mp4 - | vlc -

Dannyboy's solution will also probably work.

I entered as you specified (using correct device#, output path/file name, of course) and get errors. I'll post results later tonight. Maybe someone can help with the problem.

[dannyboy79]

i've successfully used 2 different terminal windows to show what is being captured from HD PVR. these are the following commands I use

cat /dev/video0 > /home/username/video/video.ts

vlc /home/username/video/video.ts

Then you just use ctrl-c in the terminal window that has the cat command to quit the recording.

[two4two]

i've successfully used 2 different terminal windows to show what is being captured from HD PVR. these are the following commands I use

cat /dev/video0 > /home/username/video/video.ts

vlc /home/username/video/video.ts

Then you just use ctrl-c in the terminal window that has the cat command to quit the recording.

Thank you Danny. I've done this one and it works, but I don't like the quality that cat gives. Also, I want to monitor it real-time on my computer monitor as it's being recorded. I tried VLC, using the hd-pvr as the capture device, but it too gives a strange-looking image (with the same lines in it that cat gives). If I knew better how to send ffmpeg output to 2 different outputs (my file, and stdout), and then pipe stdin into vlc, as evilsoup showed, I think that'd be what I'm looking for, but even when I translate his command into the old (my Natty) syntax it gives me an error. I'll post that error later tonight.

[two4two]

PS: Do you think setting ffmpeg's output to stdout by specifying - as the output file, and then use tee and use ffmpeg with stdin and my file as the output, and followed by the vlc command with stdin would work?

[evilsoup]

I would strongly recommend updating to a newer version of ffmpeg. Use this PPA.