So I just upgrated to FC6 to test out the new 0.8.0 (and SVN) versions 
of ivtv and discovered some interesting things:

First, I had problems compiling. The fedora core 6 kernel-devel layout 
is screwy. You have to "touch" the file 
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-x86_64/include/linux/config.h to get 
ivtv (and nvidia, it turns out) to compile.

After I got ivtv to compile, I tried simply "cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg" 
which worked fine. The picture was crisp and clear.

Next, I tried adding a closed caption process. the $ivtv_home/test/vbi 
program did not work for me. I kept getting a message saying  "vbi: 
Device or resource busy". So I tried using zvbi-ntsc-cc (part of the 
zvbi package) and had some success. As with previous versions of ivtv, 
starting and stopping a closed captioning process sometimes causes 
glitches in the video.

This where it gets confusing, though. I haven't been able to pick out a 
pattern to how the glitches appear, whether they disappear or persist, 
or what the glitches will look like if and when they do come. One thing 
is certain: starting and stopping zvbi-ntsc-cc in the middle of a 
recording is much more risky in terms of causing glitches than starting 
the zvbi process before you begin recording and stopping it after you 
end recording.

I've noticed three types of video glitches:

1. The momentary black flash

Appears only once across the top or bottom half (approx) of the video 
when starting or stopping a zvbi-ntsc-cc process. Seems to happen more 
when starting as opposed to stopping zvbi-ntsc-cc.

2. The persistent black flash

Appears across the top of the video when starting or stopping 
zvbi-ntsc-cc but continues to flash a few times every second for as long 
as you keep recording. Seems to happen when the first black flash is 
more pronounced and a fraction of a second longer than in #1. Also 
happens more when starting vs stopping zvbi-ntsc-cc.

3. The momentary psychedelic flash (the "moving" portion of the video 
goes all crazy colors for a split second, then returns to normal)

This happens pretty rarely and can happen with zvbi-ntsc-cc running in 
the background (it doesn't need to be started or stopped to produce this).

Other notes: Changing IVTV_VBI_PIO to "1" in drivers/ivtv-driver.h 
locked my system twice. It was something Hans and I had used to get 
0.7.0 working on a 2.6.17 kernel. I guess that doesn't work anymore.

In short: test/vbi is broken. IVTV_VBI_PIO will crash your computer and 
the video, while normally clean, can get messed up by  a closed 
captioning process.

Cyrus


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