[sclug] camcorder connection - debian missing /dev/raw1394

[John Stumbles]

A few questions about my new toy^H^H^Hcamcorder.

Firstly my mind naturally turns to connecting it to my debs (sarge) box.
dvgrab however complains
	raw1394 - failed to get handle: No such file or directory.
ls /dev/*1394* shows nothing

apt-cache search 1394
suggests that libraw1394-5 or -8 might be required, but apt-get tells me 
these are already installed and the newest versions

Installing and running gscanbus says:
couldn't get handle: No such file or directory
This probably means that you don't have raw1394 support in the kernel or 
that you haven't loaded the raw1394 module.

Some googling[1] suggested
	/sbin/modprobe raw1394

and I now have:
# modprobe -l | grep 1394
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/sbp2.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/raw1394.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/pcilynx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/ohci1394.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/ieee1394.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/eth1394.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/dv1394.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/cmp.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/amdtp.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.8-2-386/kernel/drivers/ieee1394/video1394.ko

(I didn't try listing the modules with modprobe -l before so I don't 
know if raw1394 was already there. However I have rebooted since - does 
a 'modprobe' survive reboots?)

Also from the google article
	mknod -m 0666 /dev/raw1394 c 171 0
does seem to do the trick (except that I have to re-create the device 
after a reboot) and dvgrab now works. However I'm wondering if this is 
the right way to do things: surely whatever .deb the raw1394 stuff was 
installed from should set things like this up?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

With the default encoding of dvgrab (dv2) when I play the files it 
creates using [g]mplayer it sometimes complains about poorly interlaced 
files and says it's reverting to "-ni" (non-interlaced I assume). Is 
this a deficiency in dvgrab or my camcorder[2], and is there anything I 
can do about it? I find that xine tends to hang on playing these files 
if I skip forward instead of playing them through start to end. Would I 
be better saving in raw DV format and converting with some other tool?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What's a good tool for tidying up my DVs? The video equivalent of 
audacity. kino (conveniently deb-packaged) or cinelerra (which looks 
much more fully-featured and possibly easier to use but probably a major 
palaver to build on deb)?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lastly the camcorder has a USB connection and a webcam mode. I installed 
  and tried webcam but get
reading config file: /home/john/.webcamrc
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l2: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
v4l: open /dev/video0: No such file or directory
no grabber device available

although dmesg shows:

usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using address 6
usbcore: registered new driver snd-usb-audio

Again there are no /dev/video* files.

How does a webcam work anyway (from the linux box's persepctive)? Should 
one be able to point xine or mplayer at some device on the system 
(/dev/video-something if that were set up properly) and view the camera 
output?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

[1] 
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.os.linux.slackware/browse_frm/thread/c4fcd804aa1fbbbd/8e1ef15bb170d7ec?lnk=st&q=raw1394+-+failed+to+get+handle%3A+No+such+file+or+directory&rnum=2&hl=en#8e1ef15bb170d7ec

[2] Panasonic NV-GS37EB (not my choice - foisted on me by insurance 
company to replace a previous panny. I'd have preferred to get a Sony 
this time.)


-- 
John Stumbles