success and failure exporting/importing video to/from camera

I should say that those notes are for HDV content, but some of them are
applicable for regular DV.

Today I spent some time with folks on the Cinelerra IRC channel trying to hook up my HDV cam for import and export functions. I used a combination of three programs: dvgrab to import/export DV content and test-mpeg2 (from libiec61883 source) or mpg1394grab for HDV export/import.

"mpg1394grab" (sorry for the typo) is used to capture IEC61883 streams to MPEG2TS format. Here is some more detail about it:
http://www.kinodv.org/article/view/54/1/11

The results were as following:

            import tape  import live stream  export file to cam
dvgrab      not tested   works               does not work
test-mpeg2  works        works sometimes     does not work
mpg1394grab works        works               n/a

Notes:
mpg1394grab works better for grabbing HDV.
test-mpeg2 import command is "test-mpeg2 -r [node] [file]"
test-mpeg2 export command is "test-mpeg2 -t [node] [file]"

On my Fedora Core 4 system, I have a /dev/raw/raw1394 instead of a /dev/raw1394. I don't know why.

Make sure there is a symbolic link to /dev/raw1394:
ln -s /dev/raw/raw1394 /dev/raw1394

Make sure the driver is chmod 666:
chmod 666 /dev/raw/raw1394

To compile mpg1394grab, execute this:
gcc -lraw1394 mpg1394grab.c -o mpg1394grab

My camera is the JVCHD10U. In the onboard menu system of the camera, you can change the iLink Out setting to either SW (software) or AUTO (automatic). The JVC must be set to AUTO for Linux to recognize the cam. This is different than XP, which requires the camera setting to be SW.

For dvgrab, the camera must be set to DV/DV
For mpg1394grab and test-mpeg2, the camera must be set to MPEG2/HD

seeing my cam in Linux

The troubleshooting steps here helped me out quite a bit. In short:
1) make sure you have libraw1394
2) make sure there is a link to /dev/raw1394
3) download the latest kernel (http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-kernel-fc4.html
4) make sure to select Code Maturity Options (Prompt for developement drivers) and enable IEEE 1394, OHCI 1394, and Raw 1394 support options
5) make sure new kernel sees firewire interfaces (dmesg grep 1394)
5) load the modules (modprobe ohci1394 (the firewire card)/modprobe raw1394 (interface to it))
6) check that the modoules are there (lsmod)
7) use testlibraw
8) use gscanbus

This should do it!

trying to get HDV content back out to my cam..

Lest ye think I have been sitting on my very small, small laurels, I want all the open source, JVC HD10U fans out there know that I am still working the problem. However, I have almost given up as a result of my many trials and tribulations over the past five days with MPEGTS file formats and the JVC cam.

My journey started here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-19007.html

I replicated all of the steps; however, the last step I cannot reproduce because I don't have an Apple Mac. I've tried exporting the .ts file to the cam using DVHSTool, CapDVHS and the utility that comes with the cam, but all of them give me errors. I've tested against many different versions of outputted files with little success. My last hope is that I can get a virtual Mac going using Xen, download DVHSCap to it and then try DVHSCap on the file.

say a prayer..cross your fingers..

JVC HD10U specs

Really good doc on the MPEG format utilized by the JVC HD10U:
http://www.gyhduser.com/article.php?filename=What-is-HDV-

NYC video posted on Google

This was the first video I created with my JVC HD10U, back in 2004. Got some good jazz keeping the action going in this one:
One Weekend In NYC