Using SAA713x TV Card on Debian

README.md

Using SAA713x TV Card on Debian

Useful links

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/348838/how-to-check-available-webcams-from-the-command-line
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Saa7134-alsa
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Philips_SAA7134
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Saa713x_devices
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Saa713x_devices:_Generic_SAA7134_Card_Installation
• https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Capture/ALSA
• https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/33387/vhs-and-capture-what-is-the-real-aspect-ratio
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_resolutions#Analog_systems
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS
• https://tvtime.sourceforge.net/cards.html#saa7134
• https://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/admin-guide/saa7134-cardlist.html?highlight=saa713
• https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/media/pci/saa7134/saa7134-video.c
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/V4L_capturing
• https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/V4L_capturing/script

APT packages to install on fresh Debian

• ffmpeg
• alsa-utils
• v4l-utils

Setting up the driver

1. Create a file at /etc/modprobe.d/saa7134.conf with the following contents:

   alias char-major-81 videodev
   alias char-major-81-0 saa7134
   options saa7134 card=109
   

   • The card number (109 in this example) is one of these: https://www.linuxtv.org/downloads/v4l-dvb-apis/admin-guide/saa7134-cardlist.html?highlight=saa713 .
   • Mine is a Gigabyte card with a Philips chip, and it said something about a "tiger" on the box, so I guessed it must be "Philips Tiger - S Reference design" in that table, which is 109. It worked.
   • Experiment with different card numbers (rebooting in between changes) until v4l2-ctl --list-inputs gives you a sensible output.
2. Reboot.

Viewing details about the TV card

List PCI devices

lspci

03:01.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d1)

List Video4Linux devices

v4l2-ctl --list-inputs

ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUMINPUT
	Input       : 0
	Name        : Television
	Type        : 0x00000001 (Tuner)
	Audioset    : 0x00000000
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x0000000000FFBFFF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K/M/N/Nc/60 NTSC-M/M-JP/M-KR SECAM-B/D/G/H/K/K1/L/Lc)
	Status      : 0x00000102 (no signal, no hsync lock)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SDTV standards)

	Input       : 1
	Name        : Composite1
	Type        : 0x00000002 (Camera)
	Audioset    : 0x00000000
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x0000000000FFBFFF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K/M/N/Nc/60 NTSC-M/M-JP/M-KR SECAM-B/D/G/H/K/K1/L/Lc)
	Status      : 0x00000000 (ok)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SDTV standards)

	Input       : 2
	Name        : S-Video
	Type        : 0x00000002 (Camera)
	Audioset    : 0x00000000
	Tuner       : 0x00000000
	Standard    : 0x0000000000FFBFFF (PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K/M/N/Nc/60 NTSC-M/M-JP/M-KR SECAM-B/D/G/H/K/K1/L/Lc)
	Status      : 0x00000000 (ok)
	Capabilities: 0x00000004 (SDTV standards)

v4l2-ctl --list-formats-ext

ioctl: VIDIOC_ENUM_FMT
	Type: Video Capture

	[0]: 'GREY' (8-bit Greyscale)
	[1]: 'RGBO' (16-bit A/XRGB 1-5-5-5)
	[2]: 'RGBQ' (16-bit A/XRGB 1-5-5-5 BE)
	[3]: 'RGBP' (16-bit RGB 5-6-5)
	[4]: 'RGBR' (16-bit RGB 5-6-5 BE)
	[5]: 'BGR3' (24-bit BGR 8-8-8)
	[6]: 'RGB3' (24-bit RGB 8-8-8)
	[7]: 'BGR4' (32-bit BGRA/X 8-8-8-8)
	[8]: 'RGB4' (32-bit A/XRGB 8-8-8-8)
	[9]: 'YUYV' (YUYV 4:2:2)
	[10]: 'UYVY' (UYVY 4:2:2)
	[11]: '422P' (Planar YUV 4:2:2)
	[12]: 'YU12' (Planar YUV 4:2:0)
	[13]: 'YV12' (Planar YVU 4:2:0)

v4l2-ctl --all

Driver Info:
	Driver name      : saa7134
	Card type        : Philips Tiger - S Reference des
	Bus info         : PCI:0000:03:01.0
	Driver version   : 6.1.55
	Capabilities     : 0x85250015
		Video Capture
		Video Overlay
		VBI Capture
		Tuner
		Radio
		Read/Write
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
		Device Capabilities
	Device Caps      : 0x05210005
		Video Capture
		Video Overlay
		Tuner
		Read/Write
		Streaming
		Extended Pix Format
Media Driver Info:
	Driver name      : saa7134
	Model            : saa7133[0]
	Serial           : 
	Bus info         : PCI:0000:03:01.0
	Media version    : 6.1.55
	Hardware revision: 0x14589003 (341348355)
	Driver version   : 6.1.55
Interface Info:
	ID               : 0x03000006
	Type             : V4L Video
Entity Info:
	ID               : 0x00000005 (5)
	Name             : saa7133[0] video (Philips Tiger
	Function         : V4L2 I/O
	Pad 0x0100000f   : 0: Sink
	  Link 0x0200001b: from remote pad 0x100000e of entity 'saa713x' (Analog Video Decoder): Data, Enabled
Priority: 2
Frequency for tuner 0: 0 (0.000000 MHz)
Tuner 0:
	Name                 : Television
	Type                 : Analog TV
	Capabilities         : 62.5 kHz multi-standard stereo lang1 lang2 freq-bands 
	Frequency range      : 44.000 MHz - 958.000 MHz
	Signal strength/AFC  : 0%/0
	Current audio mode   : mono
	Available subchannels: mono 
Video input : 0 (Television: no signal, no hsync lock)
Video Standard = 0x000000ff
	PAL-B/B1/G/H/I/D/D1/K
Format Video Capture:
	Width/Height      : 720/576
	Pixel Format      : 'BGR3' (24-bit BGR 8-8-8)
	Field             : Interlaced
	Bytes per Line    : 2160
	Size Image        : 1244160
	Colorspace        : SMPTE 170M
	Transfer Function : Default (maps to Rec. 709)
	YCbCr/HSV Encoding: Default (maps to ITU-R 601)
	Quantization      : Default (maps to Full Range)
	Flags             : 
Format Video Overlay:
	Left/Top    : 0/0
	Width/Height: 720/576
	Field       : Interlaced
	Chroma Key  : 0x00000000
	Global Alpha: 0x00
	Clip Count  : 0
	Clip Bitmap : No
Framebuffer Format:
	Capability    : Clipping List
	Flags         : 
	Width         : 720
	Height        : 576
	Pixel Format  : 'BGR3'
	Bytes per Line: 0
	Size image    : 0
	Colorspace    : SMPTE 170M
Crop Capability Video Capture:
	Bounds      : Left 0, Top 48, Width 720, Height 576
	Default     : Left 0, Top 48, Width 720, Height 576
	Pixel Aspect: 54/59
Selection Video Capture: crop, Left 0, Top 48, Width 720, Height 576, Flags: 
Selection Video Capture: crop_default, Left 0, Top 48, Width 720, Height 576, Flags: 
Selection Video Capture: crop_bounds, Left 0, Top 48, Width 720, Height 576, Flags: 
Streaming Parameters Video Capture:
	Frames per second: 25.000 (25/1)
	Read buffers     : 2

User Controls

                     brightness 0x00980900 (int)    : min=0 max=255 step=1 default=128 value=128 flags=slider
                       contrast 0x00980901 (int)    : min=0 max=127 step=1 default=68 value=68 flags=slider
                     saturation 0x00980902 (int)    : min=0 max=127 step=1 default=64 value=64 flags=slider
                            hue 0x00980903 (int)    : min=-128 max=127 step=1 default=0 value=0 flags=slider
                         volume 0x00980905 (int)    : min=-15 max=15 step=1 default=0 value=0 flags=slider
                           mute 0x00980909 (bool)   : default=0 value=0
                horizontal_flip 0x00980914 (bool)   : default=0 value=0
                         invert 0x00981960 (bool)   : default=0 value=0
             y_offset_odd_field 0x00981961 (int)    : min=0 max=128 step=1 default=0 value=0
            y_offset_even_field 0x00981962 (int)    : min=0 max=128 step=1 default=0 value=0
                       automute 0x00981963 (bool)   : default=1 value=1

List ALSA recording devices

arecord -l

card 1: SAA7134 [SAA7134], device 0: SAA7134 PCM [SAA7134 PCM]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Probe with ffmpeg and ffprobe

ffmpeg -f v4l2 -list_formats all -i /dev/video0

[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :        gray :      8-bit Greyscale :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :    rgb555le : 16-bit A/XRGB 1-5-5-5 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :    rgb555be : 16-bit A/XRGB 1-5-5-5 BE :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :    rgb565le :     16-bit RGB 5-6-5 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :    rgb565be :  16-bit RGB 5-6-5 BE :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :       bgr24 :     24-bit BGR 8-8-8 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :       rgb24 :     24-bit RGB 8-8-8 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :        bgr0 : 32-bit BGRA/X 8-8-8-8 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :        0rgb : 32-bit A/XRGB 8-8-8-8 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :     yuyv422 :           YUYV 4:2:2 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :     uyvy422 :           UYVY 4:2:2 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :     yuv422p :     Planar YUV 4:2:2 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :     yuv420p :     Planar YUV 4:2:0 :
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0x1554e80] Raw       :     yuv420p :     Planar YVU 4:2:0 :

ffprobe /dev/video0

Intersting: This is the only one showing the resolution!

Input #0, video4linux2,v4l2, from '/dev/video0':
  Duration: N/A, start: 2546.446776, bitrate: 124416 kb/s
  Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo (I420 / 0x30323449), yuv420p, 720x576, 124416 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 1000k tbn

ffprobe -f alsa hw:1

Note the hw:N here. This is what we will use for ffmpeg's -i option.

Input #0, alsa, from 'hw:1':
  Duration: N/A, start: 1699123043.658554, bitrate: 1024 kb/s
  Stream #0:0: Audio: pcm_s16le, 32000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1024 kb/s

Capturing

When capturing directly using ffmpeg, I could only get "progressive interleaved" video. Interleaving is a very naive deinterlacing algorithm: It simply combines two frames into one by using the odd rows from one and the even rows from the next. This produces a lot of visual artifacts.

It's better to capture the interlaced video directly (see capture_gstreamer_raw.sh) and run it through a more advanced deinterlacing filter like nnedi.

Other useful commands

Watch a video file from the beginning even though it's still being written to

tail -f tmp.mkv | ffmpeg -i - -f mpegts - | mpv -

Watch the stream from the TV card directly in the terminal

Use mpv for playback. Use ffmpeg to transcode into a format that mpv understands. Because we use mpv, this even works without installing a desktop environment.

ffmpeg -i /dev/video0 -f alsa -i hw:1 -c:v libx264 -preset fast -c:a aac -f mpegts - | mpv -

capture_gstreamer_raw.sh

#!/usr/bin/env sh
# See https://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/V4L_capturing

set -eu

VIDEO_DEVICE=/dev/video0
VIDEO_CAPABILITIES="video/x-raw, format=YUY2"

AUDIO_DEVICE="hw:CARD=SAA7134,DEV=0"
AUDIO_CAPABILITIES="audio/x-raw, channels=1"  # My VHS player only has mono output

TV_NORM="PAL"

gst-launch-1.0 -q \
    v4l2src device="$VIDEO_DEVICE" do-timestamp=true norm="$TV_NORM" pixel-aspect-ratio=1 \
        ! $VIDEO_CAPABILITIES \
        ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
        ! mux. \
    alsasrc device="$AUDIO_DEVICE" do-timestamp=true \
        ! $AUDIO_CAPABILITIES \
        ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
        ! mux. \
    matroskamux name=mux \
        ! queue max-size-buffers=0 max-size-time=0 max-size-bytes=0 \
        ! fdsink fd=1