'easycap' is an unknown driver

Hello All ~

I am trying to get freevo working with an easycap usb hardware  
capture/encoder device. I know this device has seen some bad press,  
but I've had good success ripping old VHS tapes using it (Ubuntu  
10.10, mplayer/mencoder). for example I can play video in mplayer  
using this:

$ /usr/bin/mplayer -tv
driver=v4l2:norm=NTSC_M:width=640:height=480:outfmt=uyvy:device=/dev/easycap0:input=5:fps=30:buffersize=16:alsa:amode=1:forcechan=2:audiorate=48000:adevice=plughw.2,0:forceaudio:immediatemode=0 -hardframedrop -ao alsa -msglevel  
all=9
tv://

Notable in this for me are:
driver=v4l2
device=/dev/easycap0:input=5

/dev/easycap0 is an ln to /dev/video0 and input=5 is S-Video in.

I've been trying to configure freevo with the same machine/capture  
device to display video from "Watch TV" (I have freevo set up and  
otherwise working fine afaict). I am not worrying about sound... yet.

I see from ps that freevo invokes this maplayer command:

/usr/bin/mplayer -slave -vo xv,sdl,x11, -ao oss:/dev/dsp -autosync 100 -nolirc
-nojoystick -autoq 100 -screenw 800 -screenh 600 -fs -nocache -tv
driver=v4l2:freq=0.000:device=/dev/video0:input=0:norm=NTSC:width=640:height=480:outfmt=yuy2
tv://

Notable are:
driver=v4l2 (same)
device=/dev/video0:input=0 (different)

/dev/video0 is fine (see above), but input=0 is a problem - it is a  
separate composite input on the usb device and so I get no video  
received. An obvious question is: "Do I get video when I hook up an  
input to the composite input?" Ans: I don't know yet, but will be  
trying that, and will post results.

But I believe there is a deeper problem. As part of debugging this I have run:
$ freevo vg -- -c /etc/freevo/local_conf.py -vv
with the following results:

video0 ()
-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
Driver: easycap
Card: EasyCAP DC60
Version: 00000900 (09.00)
Capabilities: 0x05020001
Enumerating supported Standards.
   0: 0x21d PAL_BGHIN
   1: 0x0 NTSC_N_443
   2: 0x400 PAL_Nc
   3: 0x0 NTSC_N
   4: 0xff0000 SECAM
   5: 0x1000 NTSC_M
   6: 0x2000 NTSC_M_JP
   7: 0x800 PAL_60
   8: 0x4000 NTSC_443
   9: 0x100 PAL_M
   10: 0x10000021d PAL_BGHIN_SLOW
   11: 0x1100000000 NTSC_N_443_SLOW
   12: 0x100000400 PAL_Nc_SLOW
   13: 0x2100000000 NTSC_N_SLOW
   14: 0x100ff0000 SECAM_SLOW
   15: 0x100001000 NTSC_M_SLOW
   16: 0x100002000 NTSC_M_JP_SLOW
   17: 0x100000800 PAL_60_SLOW
   18: 0x100004000 NTSC_443_SLOW
   19: 0x100000100 PAL_M_SLOW
Current Standard is: 0x21d
Enumerating supported Inputs.
   0: CVBS0
   1: CVBS1
   2: CVBS2
   3: CVBS3
   4: CVBS4
   5: S-VIDEO
Input: 0
Width: 640, Height: 480

'easycap' is an unknown driver
TV_VIDEO_GROUPS = [
]

I don't completely understand this output, but I think freevo is  
successfully(?) probing the hardware (reported info looks correct).

But I can see at least two problems:
Input: 0   <~ comnposite CVBS0, wrong! I want Input: 5 (see above), and:
'easycap' is an unknown driver

So (finally!) two questions I hope the experts can help me with:

1. How do I change Input: 0 to Input: 5? I have fiddled around with  
TV_VIDEO_GROUPS and have been unable to get anything other than 0 there.

and,

2. What to do about the unknown driver? A couple of further bits of  
information/questions re: this..
I have not told freevo to try to use the easycap driver in the config  
anywhere, and a sub-question, since I have hardware which is known  
working using v4l2 driver (which uses the easycap driver  
"underneath"), why does freevo appear to be going around v4l2 to  
access the hardware driver directly? I had understood that v4l2  
compatible hardware was ok...

I plan to keep digging as time permits, but any advice/pointers would  
be great!

Sorry for long message, and TIA

cwynd



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