dvgrab - Grab DV video and audio data via IEEE1394 links

dvgrab [-i, --interactive] [--noavc] [--autosplit] [--timestamp] [--timesys] [--card num] [--channel num] [--stdin] [--dv1394 device] [--format fmt] [--frames num] [--size num] [--csize num] [--cmincutsize num] [--every num] [--duration time] [--help] [--version] [base]

dvgrab is a program that captures DV video and audio data from digital camcorders via an IEEE1394 link. (IEEE1394 is also known under the various trademarks FireWire, i.Link, or Lynx.) The DV data is stored in one or several files and can later be processed by video editing software. dvgrab can remote control the camcorder but it does not show the video's content on screen.

The base argument is used to construct the filename to store video data in, like base-id.ext where id is a running number starting from 001 and ext is the file name extension specifying the file format used, e.g. avi. A different naming scheme is used whenever the --timestamp or --timesys is given (see below). If base is '-' then the format is forced to raw DV and sent to stdout. dvgrab will also output raw DV to stdout while capturing to a file if stdout is piped or redirected. The default base is dvgrab- if not specified.

You can use dvgrab's powerful file writing capabilities with other programs that produce raw DV. Using the --stdin option and if dvgrab detects that it is on the receiving end of a pipe and it is not in interactive mode, then it will try to read raw DV on stdin.

-i, --interactive

Make dvgrab interactive where single keypresses on stdin control the camera VTR or start and stop capture. Otherwise, dvgrab runs in session mode, where it immediately starts capture and stops as directed or interrupted (ctrl-c).

--noavc

Disable use of AV/C VTR control. This is useful if you are capturing live video from a camera because in camera mode, an AV/C play command tells the camera to start recording, perhaps over material on the current tape. This applies to either interactive more or non-interactive because non-interactive stills sends a play and stop to the VTR upon capture start and stop.

--autosplit

Try to detect whenever a new recording starts, and store it into a separate file. This can be combined with the --frames and --size options, and a split occurs whenever a specified event arises.

Autosplit is off by default.

--timestamp

Put information on date and time of recording into file name.

--timesys

Put system rather than recording date and time into file name. This is useful when using converter devices that do not change the recording date time in the DV stream.

--card num

Tells dvgrab to receive data from IEEE1394 card num. The default behaviour is to automatically select the first card containing the first discovered camera. If used in conjunction with --noavc, then no bus probing is performed. If used in conjunction with --guid hex, then only the specified bus is probed for node with guid hex. If used in conjunction with --dv1394 with no device file specified, then dvgrab constructs a device file name using num and the dv1394 devfs naming convention.

--guid hex

If you have more than one DV device, then select one using the node's GUID specified in hex (hexadecimal) format. This is the format as displayed in /proc/bus/ieee1394/devices or the new kernel 2.6 /sys filesystem.

--channel num

Isochronous channel to receive data from. Defaults to 63, which is pretty much standard among DV camcorders these days. If you specify anything different, no attempt is made at this time to tell the device which channel to use. You must have some manual way to tell the transmitting device which channel to use.

--buffers num

The number of frames to use for buffering device I/O delays. Defaults to 100.

--stdin

Read the DV stream from a pipe on stdin instead of using a IEEE 1394 driver.

--dv1394 [device]

Use the dv1394 driver to capture instead of raw1394. The device specification is optional if you follow the dv1394 devfs naming convention, e.g. /dev/ieee1394/dv/host0/PAL/in. If device is supplied in conjunction with --noavc, then no bus probing is performed. If device is not supplied, but --card num is, then dvgrab constructs a device file name using num and the dv1394 devfs naming convention. dvgrab can automatically handle both NTSC and PAL using just /dev/ieee1394/dv/hostX/PAL/in!

--format dv1 | dv2 | raw | dif | qt | jpeg

Specifies the format of the output file(s). dv1 and dv2 both are AVI files with slightly different formats. dv2 stores a separate audio track in addition to the DV video track, which is more compatible with other applications. dv1 only stores a single, integrated DV track since the DV format natively interleaves audio with video. Therefore, while dv1 produces smaller output, some applications won't grok it and require dv2 instead. dvgrab is capable of creating extremely large AVI files--well over 2 or 4 GB--however, compatibility with other tools starts to decrease over the 1 GB size.

raw stores the data unmodified and have the .dv extension. These files are read by a number of GNU/Linux tools as well as Apple Quicktime.

dif is a variation of raw DV that names files with a .dif extension so they can be more immediately loaded into MainConcept MainActor5.

qt is Quicktime, but requires that dvgrab be compiled with libquicktime.

jpeg is for a sequence of JPEG image files if dvgrab was compiled with jpeglib.

Defaults to dv2

--opendml

If using --format dv2, create an OpenDML-compliant type 2 DV AVI. This is required to support dv2 files >1GB. dv1 always supports files >1GB.

--jpeg-quality num

If using --format jpeg, set the JPEG quality level from 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

--jpeg-deinterlace

If using --format jpeg, deinterlace the output by doubling the lines of the upper field. This is a cheap form of deinterlace that results in an effective 50% loss in resolution.

--jpeg-overwrite

If using --format jpeg, overwrites the same file instead of creating a sequence.

--jpeg-width num

If using --format jpeg, scale the output of the width to num (1 - 2048).

--jpeg-height num

If using --format jpeg, scale the output of the height to num (1 - 2048).

The JPEG scaling width and height must be both either less than or greater than the normal frame size. For example, the scaled size of 700 wide by 525 high yields a nice 4:3 aspect image with square pixels, but it is illegal for NTSC because 700 is less than the normal width of 720 while the height is greater than the normal height of 480.

Since DV uses non-square pixels, it is nice to be able to scale to an image based upon a 4:3 aspect ratio using square pixels. For NTSC, example sizes are 800x600, 640x480, and 320x240. For PAL, example square pixel sizes are 384x270 and 768x540.

--frames num

This option tells dvgrab to store at most num frames per file before splitting to a new file, where num = 0 means unlimited. The corresponding time depends on the video system used. PAL shows 25, NTSC about 30 frames per second.

--size num

This option tells dvgrab to store at most num megabytes per file, where num = 0 means unlimited file size for large files. The default size limit is 1024 MB.

--csize num

This option tells dvgrab to split the files when the collection of files exceeds num megabytes. This option is used to create collections of files that fit perfectly into num megabytes (i.e. for archiving onto DVD). When this occurs, a new collection is started (See also the --cmincutsize option)

--cmincutsize num

This option is used to start the collection if a cut occurs num megabytes prior to the end of the collection. This option reduces small files being created when using the --csize option. When a new collection is started in this manner, the amount of free space in the previous collection is stored, and while the following clips fit within the previous collection, the new collection starting point is reset.

--every n

This option tells dvgrab to write every n'th frame only (default all frames).

--duration time

Set the maximum capture duration across all file splits for a single capture session (multiple sessions are possible in interactive mode). The time value is expressed in SMIL2 MediaClipping Time format. See http://w3.org/AudioVideo/ for the specification.

Briefly, the formats are:

XXX[.Y]h, XXX[.Y]min, XXX[.Y][s], XXXms,

[[HH:]MM:]SS[.ms], or smpte=[[[HH:]MM:]SS:]FF.

--help

Show summary of options.

--version

Show version of program.

dvgrab foo-

Captures video data from the default IEEE1394 source and stores it to files foo-001.avi, foo-002.avi, etc.

dvgrab --frames 25 foo-

Assuming a PAL video source, this command records one second's worth of video data per file.

dvgrab --format jpeg --jpeg-overwrite --every 75 webcam

This could be a webcam mode. Every 3 seconds (75 Frames on PAL) a JPEG-picture will be saved as webcam.jpg.

dvgrab --autosplit --frames 750 --timestamp foo-

Records video data from the default IEEE1394 source, cuts it into chunks of 30 seconds (assuming PAL) or when a new recording starts and names the resulting files according to date and time info in the videostream.

dvgrab --autosplit --size 1998 --csize 4400 --cmincutsize 10 foo-

Records video data from the default IEEE1394 source, cuts it into chunks when a new recording starts or when the current file exceeds 1998 megabytes, or the current collection of files exceeds 4400 megabytes. It also reduces the size of the smallest file made due to a collection size cut to 10 megabytes.

This option is perfect for backing up DV to DVD's as 2 Gb is around the maximum file size that (the current) linux implementation of the ISO9660 filesystem can handle!

Warning: It is possible to make ISO9660 filesystems with files greater than 2 Gb, but the current linux IS09660 driver can't read them! Newer linux kernels may be able to handle ISO9660 filesystems with filesizes greater than 2 Gb.

This manual page was written by Daniel Kobras kobras@debian.org for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). It has been updated by Dan Dennedy. See the website http://kino.schirmacher.de/ for more information and support.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license can be found under /usr/share/common-licenses/FDL.