exporting HD content to the cam: IT IS ALIIIIVE!! ALIVE!!

After a month of testing and experimentation with many inter-OS softwares, exporting HD content to my camera is working! YAHOO!! The greatest part is..I am Microsoft FREE!

Most of my work was based off of this original thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-19007.html

But a number of steps (ffmpeg/DVHSCap) did not work for me.

Here are the steps I used to get HD content from Cinelerra back to my cam in full resolution, HD 720P format:

1) install the latest 2.6.18 kernel according to specs on http://www.linux1394.org
2) you'll need the latest libiec61883 and libraw1394 libraries from the same place . I needed to manually tweak the ./configure procedure for libiec61883 with the following environment variable:
PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkconfig
Another caveat to this step is that I needed to remove libraw1394 first, which was a nightmare because of all its dependencies. I created a yum install script to reinstall everything after this was complete.
3) you'll need to make a change to tsbuffer.c and recompile libiec61883 (don't have it now..email me if you need it).
4) you'll need to recompile mpeg2enc to allow for bitrates larger than 14000. This is referenced in the thread from way back when:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-19007.html
--------------------
A kludgy hack allowed me to get bit rates higher than 15Mbs in mpeg2enc

I removed the following lines from conform.cc
if (bit_rate> 1.0e6 * maxval->bit_rate)
mjpeg_error_exit1("Bit rate is greater than permitted in specified Level");
---------------------
5) here are the mpeg2enc switches that were successful for me:
mpeg2enc --verbose 0 --aspect 3 --format 3 --frame-rate 4 --video-bitrate 18300 --nonvideo-bitrate 384 --interlace-mode 0 --force-b-b-p --video-buffer 448 --video-norm n --keep-hf --no-constraints --sequence-header-every-gop --min-gop-size 6 --max-gop-size 6 -o mpeg2.mpv
6) mplex params:
mplex -f 3 -b 2000 -o programstream.ps audio.mp2 mpeg2.mpv
7) Use VLC to convert the file to a transport stream. By the way, the VLC is a hellish snake pit of install dependencies. Go to http://www.videolan.org to download the latest source.

Here are the instructions for VLC from Paul St. Denis' original steps (http://www.celt.sunysb.edu/paul/mpeg2enc_HDTV.zip):
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Start VLC, from the "file" menu select "open file", click on the "Browse..." button and find "programstream.ps", check on the "advanced output" check box and then click on the "Settings.." button. Make sure the "file" radio button is picked click on the "Browse..." button save the file on your desktop as "transport.ts".

Make sure that the "Encapsulation Method" is MPEG TS, leave everything else blank. Click OK, which brings you back to the other screen click OK again.
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Yes, it's a lot of work. But to be Microsoft free is a great feeling.

Update: as of this writing (10/17), I'm only able to upload less than 2GB of video. For my 720P video cam, this is about 19.7 minutes of video. I am working with the linux1394 community to resolve this.

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..