I'd suggest Digital 8mm format, if indeed you are looking for a "camcorder" device as Kent mentions... pretty much any video device which exports a DV format on a firewire device should be linux-compatible. Now I don't have any personal experience with linux and firewire, but have read about how happy some folks have been with using, say, RedHat 8.0 default install, and Cinelerra, was able to interface with firewire without fussing (can you believe it??)... I personally suggest the Digital8 format, since those cameras have been around for a while and are a bit cheaper (I think I've seen Sony's entry model for $350 or less!) AND the blank tapes are cheaper AND those 8mm tapes are a better recording medium than the other choices (read about that in some DV-format comparison/review). I can probably dig up some links on my statements if you like...
You'll also want to investigate some non-firewire linux video options, like the TV cards from Hauppage (or campatibles), using the BTTV chipset. Many cards have a composite video-in and most do mpeg2 on-card with no CPU drain. They work well in conjunction with most modern graphics cards, offering a no-cpu-drain "grabdisplay" mode where the TV card writes directly to video memory (don't bother with screenshots). My BTTV card also has an FM tuner and IR remote... I enjoy KLCC often, but have not tried the IR to be honest, although I understand it is fully programmable, so I could launch emacs by using the "power" button if I wanted... I'm not sure of the specs on the IR, but I think the receiver might be usable with other devices (Clie, universal remote, possibly even for data!). The main feature of these cards is the TV tuner, but the composite-in is what you want... I think ATI's All-In-Wonder and TV Wonder cards also have composite in and linux support as well, but haven't worked with those. With roughly a gigahertz or more I think you'd be pretty happy with the potential - I've done a little playing around with recording directly to divx (using avirecord from the avifile project package), but have not played with mpeg/vcd's much, unfortunately... I've been trying to expand my familiarity with a lot of linux multimedia tools in order to possibly do a newbie's linux multimedia clinic. Anyone want to collaborate on that? Oh, maybe you in fact are talking about and looking for a "webcam", in which case you want to BE SURE to have linux compatibility... the Logitech QuickCam's are a well-supported series. To digress on the subject of webcams, there are some interesting projects I've come across (on freshmeat.net iirc); one shows how to build a simple serial-controlled hobby-stepper-motor camera moving device, along with integrated software control for some of the Xwindows webcam software; another few help turn a webcam into a "security camera", which starts recording when motion is detected, which configurable sensitivity and duration, etc. In general, for this (or any other topical endeavor), I suggest: 1. searching freshmeat.net for open source projects, sort by rating 2. scan HOWTO's, FAQ's, etc at tldp.org for the latest documentation on the subject cheers, and let us know what you discover, and eventually choose = ) ben On Mon, 2002-11-11 at 10:03, Tim Howe wrote: > First of all, I don't use Linux. (OpenBSD and BeOS user). > I'm not that concerned with editing the video, only transfering it from > the camera to an appropriate format on a number of platforms. So what I > mean is I don't want a camera with a windows-only interface. Something > that is fairly universal wo9uld be better. Is USB pretty universal > these days? What vid interfaces can (say) linux interact with? > > TImH _______________________________________________ Eug-LUG mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mailman.efn.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/eug-lug
