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• Saying Goodbye To Old Machines

  1er décembre 2014, par Multimedia Mike — General, powerpc, via

  I recently sent a few old machines off for recycling. Both had relevance to the early days of the FATE testing effort. As is my custom, I photographed them (poorly, of course).

  First, there’s the PowerPC-based Mac Mini I procured thanks to a Craigslist ad in late 2006. I had plans to develop automated FFmpeg building and testing and was already looking ahead toward testing multiple CPU architectures. Again, this was 2006 and PowerPC wasn’t completely on the outs yet– although Apple’s MacTel transition was in full swing, the entire new generation of video game consoles was based on PowerPC.

  
  

  

  Click for larger image

  
  

  I remember trying to find a Mac Mini PPC on Craigslist. Many were to be found, but all asked more than the price of even a new Mac Mini Intel, always because the seller was leaving all of last year’s applications and perhaps including a monitor, neither of which I needed. Fortunately, I found this bare Mac Mini. Also fortunate was the fact that it was far easier to install Linux on it than the first PowerPC machine I owned.

  After FATE operation transitioned away from me, I still kept the machine in service as an edge server and automated backup machine. That is, until the hard drive failed on reboot one day. Thus, when it was finally time to recycle the computer, I felt it necessary to disassemble the machine and remove the hard drive for possible salvage and then for destruction.
  

  If you’ve ever attempted to upgrade or otherwise service this style of Mac Mini, you will no doubt recognize the pictured paint scraper tool as standard kit. I have had that tool since I first endeavored to upgrade the RAM to 1 GB from the standard 1/2 GB. Performing such activities on a Mac Mini is tedious, but only if you care about putting it back together afterwards.

  The next machine is a bit older. I put it together nearly a decade ago, early in 2005. This machine’s original duty was “download agent”– this would be more specifically called a BitTorrent machine in modern tech parlance. Back then, I placed it on someone else’s woefully underutilized home broadband connection (with their permission, of course) when I was too cheap to upgrade from dialup.

  
  

  

  Click for larger image

  
  

  This is a small form factor system from VIA that was clearly designed with home theater PC (HTPC) use cases in mind. It has a VIA C3 x86-compatible CPU (according to my notes, Centaur VIA Samuel 2 stepping 03, flags : fpu de tsc msr cx8 mtrr pge mmx 3dnow) and 128 MB of RAM (initially ; I upgraded it to 512 MB some years later, just for the sake of doing it). And then there was the 120 GB PATA HD for all that downloaded goodness.

  
  

  

  Click for larger image

  
  

  I have specific memories of a time when my main computer at home wasn’t working correctly for one reason or another. Instead, I logged into this machine remotely via SSH to make several optimizations and fixes on FFmpeg’s VP3/Theora video decoder, all from the terminal, without being able to see the decoded images with my own eyes (which is why I insist that even blind people could work on video codecs).

  By the time I got my own broadband, I had become inspired to attempt the automated build and test system for FFmpeg. This was the machine I used for prototyping early brainstorms of FATE. By the time I put a basic build/test system into place in early 2008, I had much faster computers that could build and test the project– obvious limitation of this machine is that it could take at least 1/2 hour to build the entire codebase, and that was the project from 8 years ago.

  So the machine got stuffed in a closet somewhere along the line. The next time I pulled it out was in 2010 when I wanted to toy with Dreamcast programming once more (the machine appears in one of the photos in this post). This was the only machine I still owned which still had an RS-232 serial port (I didn’t know much about USB serial converters yet), plus it still had a bunch of pre-compiled DC homebrew binaries (I was having trouble getting the toolchain to work right).

  The next time I dusted off this machine was late last year when I was trying some experiments with the Microsoft Xbox’s IDE drive (a photo in that post also shows the machine ; this thing shows up a lot on this blog). The VIA machine was the only machine I still owned which had 40-pin IDE connectors which was crucial to my experiment.

  At this point, I was trying to make the machine more useful which meant replacing the ancient Gentoo Linux distribution as well as simply interacting with it via a keyboard and mouse. I have a long Evernote entry documenting a comedy of errors revolving around this little box. The interaction troubles were due to the fact that I didn’t have any PS/2 keyboards left and I couldn’t make a USB keyboard work with it. Diego was able to explain that I needed to flip a bit in the BIOS to address this which worked. As for upgrading the OS, I tried numerous Linux distributions large and small, mostly focusing on the small. None worked. I eventually learned that, while I was trying to use i686 distributions, this machine did not actually qualify as an i686 CPU ; installations usually booted but failed because the default kernel required the cmov instruction. I was advised to try i386 distros instead. My notes don’t indicate whether I had any luck on this front before I gave up and moved on.

  I just made the connection that this VIA machine has two 40-pin IDE connectors which means that the thing was technically capable of supporting up to 4 IDE devices. Obviously, the computer couldn’t really accommodate that in terms of space or power. When I wanted to try installing a new OS, I needed take off the top and connect a rather bulky IDE CD-ROM drive. This computer’s casing was supposed to be able to support a slimline optical drive (perhaps like the type found in laptops), but I could never quite visualize how that was supposed to work, space-wise. When I disassembled the PowerPC Mac Mini, I realized I might be able to repurpose that machines optical drive for this computer. Obviously, I thought better of trying since both machines are off to the recycle pile.

  I would still like to work on the Xbox project a bit more, but I procured a different, unused, much more powerful yet still old computer that has a motherboard with 1 PATA connector in addition to 6 SATA connectors. If I ever get around to toying with Linux kernel development, this should be a much more appropriate platform to use.

  I thought about turning this machine into an old Windows XP (and lower, down to Windows 3.1) gaming platform ; the capabilities of the machine would probably be perfect for a huge portion of my Windows game collection. But I think the lack of an optical drive renders this idea intractable. External USB drives are likely out of the question since there is very little chance that this motherboard featured USB 2.0 (the specs don’t mention 2.0, so the USB ports are probably 1.1).

  So it is with fond memories that I send off both machines, sans hard drives, to the recycle pile. I’m still deciding on an appropriate course of action for failed hard drives, though.

• Using ffmpeg on Windows, what is the command to capture hardware encoded H264 stream from Logitech c930e

  2 mai 2015, par Jeff

  I am using ffmpeg on Windows 8 and I would like to capture the built-in H264 hardware encoded stream from the Logitech c930e camera. The H264 built-in encoded stream is part of the UVC 1.5 interface.

  Using this command I have noticed that the c930e exposes two video pins through DirectShow : 0 and 1.

  ffmpeg -report -list_options true -f dshow -i video="Logitech Webcam C930e"

  [dshow @ 0000000002d89360]  Pin "Capture" (alternative pin name "0")

  [dshow @ 0000000002d89360]  Pin "Capture" (alternative pin name "1")

  It doesn’t seem to matter if I choose Pin 0 or 1, I still get raw video from the Logitech c930e webcam. On Linux, the supposed command involves v4l2, but this does not appear to exist in the default Windows version of ffmpeg from http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/

  Does the default Windows build of ffmpeg support the direct capture of the UVC interface ?

  This is the closest I have gotten on this journey, but still isn’t quite right :

  ffmpeg -report -f dshow -i video="Logitech Webcam C930e" -s 1920x1080 -r 30 -video_pin_name 1 -vcodec H264 -c copy -f mp4 Logitechc930eFeed.mp4

  As of April 17, 2015 I am still trying to figure this out and have two new pieces of info.

  I found this interesting article on Logitech’s website instructing the user to change the default Logitech driver to the generic USB Video Device driver :
  https://support.logitech.com/en_us/article/Install-native-UVC-drivers-for-your-Logitech-webcam?product=a0qi00000069v0MAAQ#

  I also found that my C930e had an older firmware (8.0.866), and Logitech recommends updating the firmware to 8.0.875 to fix an unspecified UVC H.264 issue.

  So now I have the latest firmware, and am using the generic "USB Video Device" on Windows 8.1.

  ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i

  which gives this output :

  ffmpeg version N-69608-g9dc45d1 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
 built with gcc 4.9.2 (GCC)
 configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
 libavutil      54. 18.100 / 54. 18.100
 libavcodec     56. 21.102 / 56. 21.102
 libavformat    56. 19.100 / 56. 19.100
 libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
 libavfilter     5.  9.103 /  5.  9.103
 libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
 libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
 libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360] DirectShow video devices (some may be both video and audio devices)
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360]  "Logitech Webcam C930e"
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360]     Alternative name "@device_pnp_\\?\usb#vid_046d&pid_0843&mi_00#7&3693c0e6&1&0000#{65e8773d-8f56-11d0-a3b9-00a0c9223196}\global"
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360] DirectShow audio devices
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360]  "Microphone (Logitech Webcam C930e)"
[dshow @ 00000000045c9360]     Alternative name "@device_cm_{33D9A762-90C8-11D0-BD43-00A0C911CE86}\wave_{BB8BE70B-4DDC-465F-9247-86E6EC98D627}"
dummy: Immediate exit requested

  And this command :
  ffmpeg -list_options true -f dshow -i video="Logitech Webcam C930e"

  still gives this output :

  ffmpeg version N-69608-g9dc45d1 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
 built with gcc 4.9.2 (GCC)
 configuration: --enable-gpl --enable-version3 --disable-w32threads --enable-avisynth --enable-bzlib --enable-fontconfig --enable-frei0r --enable-gnutls --enable-iconv --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libilbc --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-aacenc --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-lzma --enable-decklink --enable-zlib
 libavutil      54. 18.100 / 54. 18.100
 libavcodec     56. 21.102 / 56. 21.102
 libavformat    56. 19.100 / 56. 19.100
 libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
 libavfilter     5.  9.103 /  5.  9.103
 libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
 libswresample   1.  1.100 /  1.  1.100
 libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[dshow @ 0000000004469360] DirectShow video device options (from video devices)
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]  Pin "Capture" (alternative pin name "0")
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=640x480 fps=5 max s=640x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=640x480 fps=5 max s=640x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=160x120 fps=5 max s=160x120 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=160x120 fps=5 max s=160x120 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=176x144 fps=5 max s=176x144 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=176x144 fps=5 max s=176x144 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=320x180 fps=5 max s=320x180 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=320x180 fps=5 max s=320x180 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=320x240 fps=5 max s=320x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=320x240 fps=5 max s=320x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=352x288 fps=5 max s=352x288 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=352x288 fps=5 max s=352x288 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=424x240 fps=5 max s=424x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=424x240 fps=5 max s=424x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=480x270 fps=5 max s=480x270 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=480x270 fps=5 max s=480x270 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=640x360 fps=5 max s=640x360 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=640x360 fps=5 max s=640x360 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=800x448 fps=5 max s=800x448 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=800x448 fps=5 max s=800x448 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=800x600 fps=5 max s=800x600 fps=24
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=800x600 fps=5 max s=800x600 fps=24
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=848x480 fps=5 max s=848x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=848x480 fps=5 max s=848x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=960x540 fps=5 max s=960x540 fps=15
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=960x540 fps=5 max s=960x540 fps=15
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1024x576 fps=5 max s=1024x576 fps=15
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1024x576 fps=5 max s=1024x576 fps=15
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1280x720 fps=5 max s=1280x720 fps=10
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1280x720 fps=5 max s=1280x720 fps=10
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1600x896 fps=5 max s=1600x896 fps=7.5
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1600x896 fps=5 max s=1600x896 fps=7.5
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1920x1080 fps=5 max s=1920x1080 fps=5
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   pixel_format=yuyv422  min s=1920x1080 fps=5 max s=1920x1080 fps=5
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=640x480 fps=5 max s=640x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=640x480 fps=5 max s=640x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=160x120 fps=5 max s=160x120 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=160x120 fps=5 max s=160x120 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=176x144 fps=5 max s=176x144 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=176x144 fps=5 max s=176x144 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=320x180 fps=5 max s=320x180 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=320x180 fps=5 max s=320x180 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=320x240 fps=5 max s=320x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=320x240 fps=5 max s=320x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=352x288 fps=5 max s=352x288 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=352x288 fps=5 max s=352x288 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=424x240 fps=5 max s=424x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=424x240 fps=5 max s=424x240 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=480x270 fps=5 max s=480x270 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=480x270 fps=5 max s=480x270 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=640x360 fps=5 max s=640x360 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=640x360 fps=5 max s=640x360 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=800x448 fps=5 max s=800x448 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=800x448 fps=5 max s=800x448 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=800x600 fps=5 max s=800x600 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=800x600 fps=5 max s=800x600 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=848x480 fps=5 max s=848x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=848x480 fps=5 max s=848x480 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=960x540 fps=5 max s=960x540 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=960x540 fps=5 max s=960x540 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1024x576 fps=5 max s=1024x576 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1024x576 fps=5 max s=1024x576 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1280x720 fps=5 max s=1280x720 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1280x720 fps=5 max s=1280x720 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1600x896 fps=5 max s=1600x896 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1600x896 fps=5 max s=1600x896 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1920x1080 fps=5 max s=1920x1080 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]   vcodec=mjpeg  min s=1920x1080 fps=5 max s=1920x1080 fps=30
[dshow @ 0000000004469360]  Pin "Capture" (alternative pin name "1")
video=Logitech Webcam C930e: Immediate exit requested

• Using AForge.Net for commercial closed-source applications

  22 mars 2015, par ilay zeidman

  I have application that our company want to make a product from.
  The application uses AForge.Net and in the AForge.Video.FFMPEG.dll which is under
  GPL v3 license. You can see AForge.net license

  My question : can I use this dll in my product ? Do my product have to be under gpl3 and the source should be available ?