PV-155-nothing works [RESOLVED]

[elmer]

I'm juuuust about ready to tear my hair out. Hopefully someone smarter than me can help with my issues.

I ordered two PV-155 cards from Bluecherry based on the fact that everyone seemed to indicate they work out of the box. I've tried using modprobe settings 77,77,77,77 which had no effect.

I've got a couple dozen Mace CAM37D coax security cameras.

I've tried the cards in two different computers just to rule any hardware issue out. I'm running Ubuntu Desktop 12.04, but I've also tried under the same version of Server.
Zoneminder's logs show no errors or warnings, merely says "capturing" at whatever framerate. However all I see is a blue screen, or if I change the capture palette to grey, black. My video signal is good since I'm unplugging the camera feed from an existing windows based DVR. I also tested the camera feed with a handheld monitor and I get video there also.

When trying to view in XAWTV I get the same blue screen. When streaming in VLC it's red.

I'm copy-pasta-ing the output of zmu since it looks like txt files are not an allowed attachment format and if I link to dropbox my post looks spammy. I can include the output of v4l-info /dev/video0 by request but I don't think it looks particularly remarkable, just a bunch of details about the card I believe.
Any help is greatly appreciated. I cannot for the life of me understand why this is not working!

Video Device: /dev/video0
General Capabilities
Driver: bttv
Card: BT878 video (GrandTec Multi Cap
Bus: PCI:0000:02:08.0
Version: 3.8.13
Type: 0x5000015
Supports video capture (X)
Does not support video output
Supports frame buffer overlay
Supports VBI capture
Does not support VBI output
Does not support sliced VBI capture
Does not support sliced VBI output
Does not support video output overlay
Does not have tuner
Does not have audio in and/or out
Does not have radio
Supports read/write i/o (X)
Does not support async i/o
Supports streaming i/o (X)
Standards:
NTSC
NTSC-M
NTSC-M-JP
NTSC-M-KR
PAL
PAL-BG
PAL-H
PAL-I
PAL-DK
PAL-M
PAL-N
PAL-Nc
PAL-60
SECAM
SECAM-B
SECAM-G
SECAM-H
SECAM-DK
SECAM-L
SECAM-Lc
Formats:
8 bpp, gray (GREY)
8 bpp, dithered color (HI24)
15 bpp RGB, le (RGBO)
15 bpp RGB, be (RGBQ)
16 bpp RGB, le (RGBP)
16 bpp RGB, be (RGBR)
24 bpp RGB, le (BGR3)
32 bpp RGB, le (BGR4)
32 bpp RGB, be (RGB4)
4:2:2, packed, YUYV (YUYV)
4:2:2, packed, UYVY (UYVY)
4:2:2, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (422P)
4:2:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YU12)
4:2:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YV12)
4:1:1, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (411P)
4:1:0, planar, Y-Cb-Cr (YUV9)
4:1:0, planar, Y-Cr-Cb (YVU9)
Crop Capabilities
Bounds: 838 x 504
Default: 768 x 480
Current: 768 x 480
Inputs: 4
Input 0
Name: Composite0
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal not detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock not detected
Input 1
Name: Composite1
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected
Input 2
Name: Composite2
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected
Input 3
Name: Composite3
Type: Camera
Audioset: 00000001
Standards: 0xffbfff
Power on (X)
Signal detected (X)
Colour Signal detected
Horizontal Lock detected

[bb99]

What version of ZM are you using? If 1.24.X try using the BGR24 color palette. Very common error

[elmer]

I will try that. I started out using 1.25, then upgraded to whatever the latest is. I think 1.26.X. Since I decided to build up another system I just went with whatever was in the Ubuntu repos. I'll give an update tomorrow morning when I get back to work.

Thanks for the tip!

[bb99]

Ubuntu? Don't think my trick will work but have a read: http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu
You should find some good tips in the links on that page. Also only install one card until you get it working then add the second one.

[elmer]

I just went through and attempted every capture palette. I get either Blue, Red, Black or broken image. Should I be trying a different distro? I presently have only one card installed for troubleshooting, and I've swapped it out with the other one I have to see if its a card issue. They appear to function, or not function, the exact same.

[bb99]

Did you read through the link for your version on how to make Ubuntu work with ZM? Very rarely is it as easy as installing the package.

[bb99]

I'm going to add I'm using Centos and the instructions and package from here: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... =9&t=19119

If you want to use Fedora: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewto ... =9&t=21400

[elmer]

I really can't rationalize my luck with this. I built up a centos 6.5 system and compiled 1.25. I get the same results, nothing but blue screens. I went off of the main wiki page for my instructions (http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/CentOS).

Should I try and update to 1.26? My zmu -d /dev/video0 -v -q looks about the same, it recognizes it as BT878 card and is loading the BTTV module.

I'm starting to wonder if I don't have some really bizarre cameras or something.

[elmer]

I ended up removing 1.25 and dropping the database. I installed 1.26.5 per the thread you posted. I get the same results, though now I'm able to use the probe link. Previously it had not populated the drop down.

Any other ideas bb99?

[elmer]

I can't really make sense of this. I took the same PV-155 card and popped it in an old XP machine. I used the drivers from the CD. When I use either iSpy or just Windows Movie Maker I get that same damn blue video screen.

[bb99]

Check with Bluecherry support. They've been very helpful in the past. http://store.bluecherry.net/support/

[elmer]

Some catharsis to this issue. Maybe someone else can find this post useful when searching.

I ended up getting everything working. I needed to create a file in /etc/modprobe.d containing:

Code: Select all

options bttv card=77,77,77,77,77,77,77,77

I started with 4 "77's" but when I added the second PV-155 card into the system I got some weird results, so I added 4 more for the additional card and that resolved everything. I needed to apply that setting in both CentOS 6.5 and Ubuntu 12.04 before the cards would work. Bluecherry support wasn't very helpful, they kept suggested I check my inputs even after I reiterated I had. When I told them my solution their response was "you shouldn't have to do that."

Also it might be of some help to know how the inputs are all laid out so I'll include that.

/dev/videoX Channel 0 = DB1 Blue
/dev/videoX Channel 1 = DB1 Green
/dev/videoX Channel 2 = DB2 Blue
/dev/videoX channel 3 = DB2 Green

In my case, having two cards I had /dev/video0-7.

I'm now capturing 26 cameras at 384x288. My load and memory usage are minimal. 700Mb of RAM being used, ~15% CPU load. I'm not doing any motion detection, just recording constantly.
System is an AMD II X4 620 2.6Ghz Quad core with 4Gb of memory.