connect DV Camera via SageTV in unRaid docker

[dadarara]

I have an onboard FireWire Texas Inst. device behind a bridge. this setup does not allow to passthrough the FireWire device to a VM. breaking my head around it for some time now

I am wondering if its posible to connect a video camera to the SageTV ( I have Canon Vixia HV30) via the firewire cable.

did anyone succeed to connect the video cam as a video source? does the SageTV require the STB to have some protocol to start communicating with and thus the video camera doesn't have it?

I have already installed the SageTV docker. I am able to configure it. I have installed the DVB kernel with the drivers. I see the dev/fw0 device
I even see the connection of the camera as the fw1 device see bellow.

But the SageTV does not see that it has a video capture device.

So is it possible or not?

Apr 2 13:48:44 Tower kernel: firewire_core 0000:0a:02.0: rediscovered device fw0
Apr 2 13:48:47 Tower kernel: firewire_core 0000:0a:02.0: giving up on node ffc1: reading config rom failed: bus reset
Apr 2 13:48:48 Tower kernel: firewire_core 0000:0a:02.0: rediscovered device fw0
Apr 2 13:48:48 Tower kernel: firewire_core 0000:0a:02.0: phy config: new root=ffc1, gap_count=5
Apr 2 13:48:53 Tower kernel: firewire_core 0000:0a:02.0: created device fw1: GUID 0000850001a0dbbe, S100

[dadarara]

anyone?

[wayner]

This is a pretty unusual use case so I don't think many folks will have tried it. You might want to look into OpenDCT tuner or OpenDCT generic pipe. I have been trying to figure out how to use an IP camera in Sage and that isn't very easy to do either.

[dadarara]

Thanks

I have stumbled on the bellow instructions. but I am not knowledgeable enough to make it work in unRAID.

- there is no apt-get so I dont know how to install the DVGRAB or ffmpeg
- I need also the ffmpeg to transcode the DV signal without any loss of quality.

I wish there would be someone who could pick this up and try to compile the clear HOWTO.

Setup non-DVB devices:
We will use a FireWire DV camcorder as a source for a Tvheadend tv channel, therefor we will install the following tools which will simplify testing and grabbing dv/hdv video and encoding and mulitplexing it to a fake DVB compatible stream which can be used in Tvheadend.
Code:
sudo apt-get install dvgrab ffmpeg

#test dv video capture
dvgrab -noavc testvideo.dv #press CTRL + C top stop capture

#playback of captured dv file
vlc testvideo.dv

sudo nano /home/hts/dvcam.sh
### copy code below
#!/bin/bash
#/usr/bin/dvgrab -f raw -noavc - | /usr/bin/avconv -i -
/usr/bin/ffmpeg -f iec61883 -i auto -vcodec mpeg2video -s 720x576 -r 25 -flags cgop -sc_threshold 1000000000 -b:v 5M -minrate:v 5M -maxrate:v 5M -bufsize:v 1.4M -acodec mp2 -ac 2 -b:a 128k -f mpegts pipe:1
### CTRL +X save
sudo chmod +x /home/hts/dvcam.sh
If previous attemps were succesful, we can now add the fake DVB stream to Tvheadend.
Code:
Configuration > DVB Inputs > Networks
Add IPTV-network
Network name:securitycams
create

Configuration > DVB Inputs > Muxes
Add Mux:securitycams
EPG disableinfo
URLipe:///home/hts/dvcam.sh
Interface: enp0s10
Mux name:seccammux
create

Configuration > DVB Inputs > Services
#check this "ipcam" service with VLC
#map this channel

[dadarara]

Actually I was wondering if its possible to install the dvgrab ffmpeg
in the docker of the SageTv or TVheadend maybe. not in the main unRAID system

[wayner]

Try contacting EnterNoEscape. He seems to be the expert in encoders and he is the guy who wrote OpenDCT and keeps expanding it with new functionality.

[EnterNoEscape]

The SageTV docker container is Ubuntu. There's a custom script you can edit that you could add everything you need installed to the container.

The script is appdata/sagetv/server/sagetv-user-script.sh

I don't think it exists by default. I'm not sure what you might want to do from there.

[dadarara]

The want is simple, I just dont know how to do it and need an expert like you to "spell it out for me".
I need the NON DVB device via firewire, to be recognized in the SageTv (or any other program in a docker, for example TVheadend) per my above post, there is a way to use DVGRAB or ffmpeg to redirect the firewire signal and act as a DVB device. see above.
so what do I need to write in the appdata/sagetv/server/sagetv-user-script.sh to imake it work ?

[EnterNoEscape]

If you want to do this with OpenDCT within a Docker container, it will be an advanced setup namely because the OpenDCT Docker (not maintained by me, but open to contributions by all) does not have any simple way that I am aware of to script in additional packages (apt-get install). The example script is about as clear as mud on why it's doing some of the more confusing parts and I'm not familiar with using dvgrab at all. My best guess is that you would use the command below to stream via stdout through OpenDCT, but it looks like it's transcoding raw video which is not going to be a great experience because of the CPU power needed.

/usr/bin/dvgrab -f raw -noavc - | /usr/bin/ffmpeg -f iec61883 -i auto -vcodec mpeg2video -s 720x576 -r 25 -flags cgop -sc_threshold 1000000000 -b:v 5M -minrate:v 5M -maxrate:v 5M -bufsize:v 1.4M -acodec mp2 -ac 2 -b:a 128k -f mpegts -

If you run that command from the a shell prompt, it's going to dump the output to your screen. You can direct it to a file for testing just just replacing the - at the end with an actual file.

/usr/bin/dvgrab -f raw -noavc - | /usr/bin/ffmpeg -f iec61883 -i auto -vcodec mpeg2video -s 720x576 -r 25 -flags cgop -sc_threshold 1000000000 -b:v 5M -minrate:v 5M -maxrate:v 5M -bufsize:v 1.4M -acodec mp2 -ac 2 -b:a 128k -f mpegts test.ts

From what I see on the man page for dvgrab, it doesn't look like it has an option to output just a MPEG-TS container, so it seems like you'll always need to "adapt" it using something like FFmpeg. Just to play around with things since it sounds like you're using unRAID right now, I would create an Ubuntu VM, pass the firewire through and play with the commands. Like I said, this is kind of advanced if you aren't even a little familiar with the programs involved and I'm not sure you're going to be happy with the end result even if you pursue this. I'll try to help, but have no experience with this kind of device and I'm not sure what parts of the parameters being fed into ffmpeg are needed/should be adjusted per your situation or how to determine what they should be if they do need to be changed.

[dadarara]

I hope I am making sense while I am trying to explain:
I wish I could pass through the firewire device but I cant. see my post above. otherwise I wouldnt be bothering you guys. AND to make it worse I dont have room for additional PCI card in my setup (already have 3 video cards ....)

I dont think that I need OpenDCT ....?? why do I need it?
basicly I need some Linux based RECORDING program to be able to record from NON DVB type device DVCamera connected via Firewire. And it exist as a Docker in unRAID.

SAGETV, TVHEADEND are a few that I found. More over it seams I can play with the quality controls in SageTV. something I couldnt find possible in tvHEADend, yet)


both programs above can record video stream from STB device (with DVB type driver and thus configurable in SageTV) It DOES NOT recognize the video camera as it is not configured with DVB driver. THAT is why (I think) that i need some way to make the video camera LOOK like a DVB device.
I have GOOGLED and found some interesting solution (see above) that involved DVGRAB.
do I need DVGRAB specifically? I dont know.

Is there any other solution to make the DV Camcorder LOOK like a DVB device so that SAGETV will recognize it and use it ????
I dont wont a line command to capture a video. I would like to have all the facilities of SAGETV / TVHEADEND to make it work.

at this point I am succeeded to install the dvgrab but apparently I have a problem to make it work. it gives a "Error: no camera exists".
When I connect the camera, I get the fw1 device in the unRAID environment. but I dont get it in the guest docker environment.
SO I am stuck.
anyone can direct me where to dig for an answer ?
googling about it didnt help as the situation is not straightforward. docker behind unraid.
checked some possible solutions related to privileges... no go.

anyone?

[stuckless]

Are you using the LibreElect kernel in unRAID? I don't think the stock unRAID has the necessary dvb drivers out of the box.

I'm also not sure what you are going to do with this. I think SageTV will need a EPG source if you add this as video source, and since this isn't a STB, the EPG wouldn't make sense.

I don't think sagetv has the concept of a live video source that you can't tune.

I'm going to say, that this is likely not possible, as a native video source. ie, access /dev/fw0 as a video source. I think that you can possible make it work by doing as EnterNoEscape said, and using OpenDCT and custom script that calls dvgrab.... but I still think you are left with the problem of SageTV needing/wanting an EPG source as well (which doesn't make sense here).

Also the SageTV unRAID container doesn't have all the fw tools installed (there is an open issue). I know all this sounds "simple" but as is life... nothing is ever simple

[KarylFStein]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Are you using the LibreElect kernel in unRAID? I don't think the stock unRAID has the necessary dvb drivers out of the box.

I'm also not sure what you are going to do with this. I think SageTV will need a EPG source if you add this as video source, and since this isn't a STB, the EPG wouldn't make sense.

I don't think sagetv has the concept of a live video source that you can't tune.

I'm going to say, that this is likely not possible, as a native video source. ie, access /dev/fw0 as a video source. I think that you can possible make it work by doing as EnterNoEscape said, and using OpenDCT and custom script that calls dvgrab.... but I still think you are left with the problem of SageTV needing/wanting an EPG source as well (which doesn't make sense here).

Also the SageTV unRAID container doesn't have all the fw tools installed (there is an open issue). I know all this sounds "simple" but as is life... nothing is ever simple

FYI, I have a VCR hooked up to a Hauppauge card and it works fine without EPG data. Obviously it's just a blank bar in the guide, but you can tune it and if I want to dump something I set a manual recording.

[wayner]

In the past I have also hooked up video cameras to the composite input of a capture card to keep an eye on the kids, just like Karyl hooks up a VCR. True you get "No Data" in the EPG but that isn't terrible. But you want to make sure that you are watching "live" rather than recorded content.

[dadarara]

ok
so not SageTV, than what else can I use?
(if someone would create a docker with some program like KINO..)

[wayner]

Have you tried VLC? It is pretty good at accessing all kinds of video sources and I am pretty sure that you can save a stream to a file if you want. It appears that there is a docker version available as well at: https://hub.docker.com/r/chrisdaish/vlc/