Greg's multimedia packages for FreeBSD

This page was written in 2005 and has had no significant updates since then. I'm keeping it for hysterical raisins. It almost certainly contains markup errors, but what do I care?

This page is a list of those multimedia packages available for FreeBSD which I'm thinking of trying out. This will be updated as I try out the packages (or reject them untried).

bsdbktr_tvtune

From pkg-descr:

This is a commandline / console TV channel tuner for Brooktree-based TV capture cards running under FreeBSD using the bktr driver
It does not require any other utilities (fxtv/xawtv) and does NOT require XFree86

WWW: http://www.topfx.com - Mina Naguib webmaster@topfx.com

bsdbktr_tvtune is a simple little program that tunes, I think. It comes with no documentation, and the only way to get any is to run it:

=== root@teevee (/dev/ttyp3) /usr/ports/multimedia 58 -> bsdbktr_tvtune

You must supply which channel to tune to with the -c option

Usage:
        bsdbktr_tvtune [-d TVTUNERDEVICE] [-s CHANNELSET] -c CHANNEL
        bsdbktr_tvtune -h
        bsdbktr_tvtune -l
        bsdbktr_tvtune -v

Where:
        -c
                The channel to tune to
(etc)

What this doesn't tell you is what happens once you have tuned. Maybe it's meant to be used in conjunction with another program, but it doesn't say so.

Camserv is a free program to do streaming video through the web Streaming video can be sent to both Netscape and Internet Explorer clients. However, Internet Explorer under Windows cannot apparently handle the multi-part JPEGs, and therefore a special javascript page must be setup. One is included in the distribution as an example.

Currently, the only supported BSD device is the bktr driver. Both tunable modes and camera inputs are supported.

WWW: http://cserv.sourceforge.net/

cupid

Cupid is a modern, complete video/audio capture solution for the Linux/GNOME desktop. It is based on the GStreamer multimedia framework, which is the de facto multimedia framework on the Linux and UNIX desktop. Using GStreamer, it supports a variety of container formats and video/audio codecs. Likewise, it supports all the current video and audio kernel interfaces, and can be extended to supports other systems than Linux simply by writing a GStreamer plugin.

WWW: http://ronald.bitfreak.net/me/cupid.php

Unfortunately, this URL is 404.

dtv

dtv looks interesting, and it compiles first and then decides to install wish from the net. Postponed that.

dvts

dvts (Digital Video Transport System) is a package of DV/RTP. dvsend: Receive DV/IEEE1394 packets and send RTP/DV packets. dvrecv: Receive DV/RTP packets and send DV/IEEE1394 packets.

WWW: http://www.sfc.wide.ad.jp/DVTS/

exportvideo

exportvideo was more of a coincidence (not really the kind of tv that I was expecting in the name). It appears to be a format converter.

gdvrecv

gdvrecv is a set of tools for FreeBSD 5 to receives audio and video data from a digital camcorder via an IEEE 1394 (widely known as FireWire) link and stores them into an DV file.

WWW: http://gdvrecv.sourceforge.net/

developed by Henri Michelon

- Henri Michelon <hmichelon at e-cml.org>

gxine

gxine is a simple but effective GUI for the Xine media player. It uses the GTK toolkit, so it nicely fits in into a GNOME desktop.

WWW: http://www.xinehq.de

linux-xmovie

xmovie MPEG-2 and Quicktime movie player
WWW: http://heroines.sourceforge.net/xmovie.php3
documentation is in /usr/X11R6/share/doc/xmovie/.
Tips
- If you use with 3.2-RELEASE, 3.3-RELEASE, 3.4-RELEASE, it need to update /module/linux.ko file.
- Below options for kernel are useful for xmovie. (SEE ALSO NOTES or LINT file in you source tree)
- ```
options         "P1003_1B"
options         "_KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING"
options         "_KPOSIX_VERSION=199309L"

or

options         P1003_1B
options         _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING
options         _KPOSIX_VERSION=199309L
```
- If you use with 4.x-RELEASE, it need to add ``options USER_LDT'' in your kernel config.
- If you had ``failed to open /proc/cpuinfo', add below line into your /etc/fstab file.
- ```
linproc         /compat/linux/proc      linprocfs       rw      0       0
```
--- Yoshiro MIHIRA (sanpei@FreeBSD.org)

lsdvd

Print information about the contents and structure of a DVD.

WWW: http://untrepid.com/acidrip/lsdvd.html

mpgtx

mpgtx was designed with the good old Unix philosophy in mind : do few but do it well and provide end user an austary yet powerfull command line interface.

mpgtx can currently split and join MPEG 1 video files and most MPEG audio files.
mpgtx can fetch detailed informations from MPEG 1 and MPEG 2.
mpgtx can demultiplex MPEG 1 and MPEG 2 files (System layer, Program layer and Transport Layer).
mpgtx can add, remove and edit ID3 tags from mp3 files and rename mp3 files according to their ID3 tags.
DivX ;) is not yet supported, neither is MPEG 4
splitting and joining of MPEG 2 video files is experimental. (read "will work only in your wildest dreams")

WWW: http://mpgtx.sourceforge.net/

NuppelVideo is a simple low consuming and fast capture program for bktr. It is based on the RTjpeg2.0 test3* programs from Justin Schoemann who wrote the both very fast and fine RTjpeg2.0 codec (improved by Joerg Walter and Wim Taymans).

WWW: http://frost.htu.tuwien.ac.at/~roman/nuppelvideo/

mplayer

From pkg-descr:

This is the port of mplayer, a project which has the effort to become a very stable and useful movie player and encoder.
It is based on the windows codec compilation and provides the ability to play many formats in a very good quality without much CPU comsumption.

Support for ffmpeg, quicktime and DVD are also included.

WWW: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/

I've used mplayer more than most other packages. At the beginning I thought it was incredibly buggy, and I know several easy ways to make it SIGSEGV. If it “has the effort to become a very stable and useful movie player ...”, it hasn't shown yet. Everything's relative, though. After the experience I have had with other packages, it's actually one of the better ones, and if I avoid the known bugs, I can usually keep it running for quite some time.

mtv

mtv seems to be another player. It's not free; but maybe it works. To be looked at some other time.

nxtvepg

nxtvepg is another program that doesn't quite fit:

nxtvepg is an X11 application to decode, analyze and browse TV programme schedules transmitted on analog TV channels as defined in ETS 300 707: "Protocol for a TV Guide using electronic data transmission" by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
nxtvepg enables you to obtain free TV programme listings for all of the major networks in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland.

Probably not what I need right now.

On a second time through, I identified the following ports that are potentially worth following up on:

ogle

Ogle is an open DVD player which:

Supports DVD menus and navigation
Reads from mounted, unmounted DVDs and hard drive
Reads encrypted and unencrypted DVDs using libdvdread/libdvdcss
A new MPEG2 decoder with mmx/altivec/medialib acceleration
Normal X11 and XFree86 Xvideo display support with subpicture overlay
Accelerated display on Sun FFB2+ cards
Angle, audio and subpicture selection
Handles advanced subpicture commands such as fade/scroll and wipe
Detects and uses correct aspect for movie and menus
Possible to play AC3 via S/PDIF with an external command
Fullscreen mode
Screenshots with and without subpicture overlay

WWW: http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~dvd/

vlc

vlc -- the VideoLAN Client

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, and more) as well as DVD's, VCD's, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. VLC also has the ability to transcode media on-the-fly for streaming or saving to disk.

WWW: http://www.videolan.org/

xawtv

From pkg-descr:

This is a _simple_ xaw-based TV Program which uses the bttv driver or video4linux (included in 2.1.x). Copy Policy is GNU GPL.
WWW: http://bytesex.org/xawtv/

I started using xawtv long before I started this page, and I have forgotten some of the details. Here's some of the pre-history:

Saturday, 12 March 2005

Installed xawtv and tried to use it to display tuner data. xawtv says “If all else fails, RTFM”. All else failed. The application came up claiming an impossible combination of standards, NTSC and Western European TV frequencies (NTSC isn't used at all in Western Europe), and I couldn't change it. So I read the FM and discovered:

NAME
       xawtvrc -- TV apps config file
SYNOPSIS
       /etc/X11/xawtvrc
       $HOME/.xawtv

So I created a file /etc/X11/xawtvrc and ran things. No change. Then I ran ktrace and discovered:

  5996 xawtv    NAMI  "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xawtvrc"
  5996 xawtv    RET   open -1 errno 2 No such file or directory

So I moved the file there and yes, it seemed to accept it, using PAL and Australian frequencies. But still no signal. About the only message I got was, once a second,

bktr: sigalrm
bktr: sigalrm

Saturday, 4 June 2005

Tried again to display data. First started to try to display data input via the composite video channels. Things aren't helped by the stupid error reporting:

=== root@teevee (/dev/ttyp6) /spool/Images 94 -> xawtv
This is xawtv-3.94, running on FreeBSD/i386 (5.3-RELEASE-p5)
no video grabber device available
=== root@teevee (/dev/ttyp6) /spool/Images 95 ->

Running ktrace showed some of the problem:

 64174 xawtv    CALL  open(0x8077520,0,0)
 64174 xawtv    NAMI  "/dev/bktr0"
 64174 xawtv    RET   open 4
 64174 xawtv    CALL  ioctl(0x4,METEORGSUPPIXFMT,0x80a200c)
 64174 xawtv    RET   ioctl -1 errno 12 Cannot allocate memory
 64174 xawtv    CALL  close(0x4)
 64174 xawtv    RET   close 0
 64174 xawtv    CALL  close(0)
 64174 xawtv    RET   close 0
 64174 xawtv    CALL  write(0x2,0x8074840,0x22)
 64174 xawtv    GIO   fd 2 wrote 34 bytes
       "no video grabber device available
       "
 64174 xawtv    RET   write 34/0x22

I'm not sure what was causing the memory allocation error, but rebooting it fixed it. I then found that I could display composite video under certain circumstances:

Running from a remote system, such as tvremote.lemis.com, I could select the input from the menu and display it on the local screen. That was too slow, of course, going over the wireless network link, and not what I wanted anyway.
Running on the correct display, teevee.lemis.com:0.1, it seemed to work, but the data was displayed in incorrect format on the other monitor, teevee.lemis.com:0.0, while the destination window remained empty. Obviously a bug in xawtv.
Running it on teevee.lemis.com:0.0 gave me a diminished window without the choice of changing the input.

First started to try to display data input via the composite video channels. Things aren't helped by the stupid error reporting:

=== root@teevee (/dev/ttyp6) /spool/Images 94 -> xawtv
This is xawtv-3.94, running on FreeBSD/i386 (5.3-RELEASE-p5)
no video grabber device available
=== root@teevee (/dev/ttyp6) /spool/Images 95 ->

Running ktrace showed some of the problem:

 64174 xawtv    CALL  open(0x8077520,0,0)
 64174 xawtv    NAMI  "/dev/bktr0"
 64174 xawtv    RET   open 4
 64174 xawtv    CALL  ioctl(0x4,METEORGSUPPIXFMT,0x80a200c)
 64174 xawtv    RET   ioctl -1 errno 12 Cannot allocate memory
 64174 xawtv    CALL  close(0x4)
 64174 xawtv    RET   close 0
 64174 xawtv    CALL  close(0)
 64174 xawtv    RET   close 0
 64174 xawtv    CALL  write(0x2,0x8074840,0x22)
 64174 xawtv    GIO   fd 2 wrote 34 bytes
       "no video grabber device available
       "
 64174 xawtv    RET   write 34/0x22

xmms

XMMS --- X Multimedia System. XMMS is a multimedia player based on the look of Winamp. Currently it plays mpeg layer 1/2/3, wav, au, CD audio, etc.

WWW: http://www.xmms.org/

dvdstyler

DVDStyler is a crossplatform GUI frontend to the dvd authoring and recording programs.

The main DVDStyler features are:

drag and drop MPEG files directly
import image file for background
create NTSC/PAL menu
place text and images anywhere on the menu screen
change font/color
put basic text buttons, change font/color and background color
set chapters for each movie
change post command for each movie

WWW: http://dvdstyler.sourceforge.net/

projectx

Project X - a free Java based demux utility

European digital radio & television uses the DVB standard to broadcast its data. Project X gives you a look behind the transmissions and tries its best to handle & repair many stream types and shows what went wrong on reception.

It is intended for educational purposes only, as a non-commercial test project. It may not be used otherwise. Most parts are only experimental.

WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/project-x

Grog's opinion: it might be good if it had documentation. As it is, it's a jumble of windows and icons that mean nothing to me.

replex

We're using replex at work, and we're doing our best to replace it there. As usual, there is almost no documentation, just a README that says:

Usage: ./replex [options] 

options:
  --type,             -t:  set output type (MPEG2, DVD, HDTV)
  --of,               -o:  set output file
...

A typical call would be
replex -t DVD -o mynewps.mpg myoldts.ts

Trying that gave the following output on the screen:

=== grog@teevee (/dev/ttyp4) /spool/Images/Already 8 -> replex -t DVD -o 3suns.mpg tre-solar
Reading from tre-solar
Input file length: 6655.00 MB
Output File is: 3suns.mpg
Checking for TS: confirmed
Trying to find PIDs
vpid 0x0066
apid 0x0067
STARTING REPLEX
Audiostream: layer: 2  BRate: 224 kb/s  Freq: 48.0 kHz frame size: 672 ( 0:00:00.024 ) starting audio PTS: 13:22:14.750
Wrong audio frame size: 976
Wrong audio frame size: 1040
Video: aspect ratio: 16:9  size = 720x576  frame rate: 50.000 fps  bit rate: 7.65 Mbit/s
  vbvbuffer 3817472
Sequence Extension: chroma 4:2:0   size = 720x576  bit rate: 7.65 Mbit/s  vbvbuffer 3817472  frame rate: 50.000
starting with video PTS: 13:22:15.172
video PTS inconsistent: 13:22:15.212  0:00:00.040 13:22:15.172  0:00:00.000  diff:  0:01:03.945
video DTS inconsistent: 13:22:15.152 26:30:43.697 13:22:15.152 26:30:43.697 diff:  0:01:03.905
video PTS inconsistent: 13:22:15.212  0:00:00.000 13:22:15.192  0:00:00.020  diff:  0:01:03.885
(many more)

They were matched by the following output on the console, which indicates that it's trying to write to a DVD. There's nothing in the “documentation” that explains why it's trying to do this.

Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): READ(10). CDB: 28 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 1 0
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): CAM Status: SCSI Status Error
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): SCSI Status: Check Condition
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): NOT READY asc:3a,0
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): Medium not present
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): Unretryable error
Dec 26 13:07:56 teevee kernel: (cd0:ata1:0:0:0): cddone: got error 0x6 back

avidemux2

A video editor that allows editing of AVI, OGM, and MPEG videos. The MPEG support provides the ability to convert to DVD compliat PS streams. It contains various filters for deinterlacing, cropping, resizing, etc. Allows for cutting without re-encoding. Has the ability to re-encode and re-sample. Utilizes ECMAScript (aka. Javascript) to provide batch scripting and processing support. WWW: http://avidemux.org/

bsdav

Port description for multimedia/bsdav

The bsdav package is a set of programs for audio and video reading and writing. The programs use BSD native devices and the source code is free-as-in-BSD licensed as well.The bsdav package also includes a general purpose library, libbsdav, for both accessing audio(4) and bktr(4) devices, and simple data operations. While one of the goals of the bsdav project is simplicity, another goal is to make A/V processing on *BSD systems "easily" accessible. So to ease the storage and synchronization of both audio and video streams, bsdav has it's own, very simple, A/V container format. Hopefully the bsdav programs are written understandably and correclty enough that they may help others understand how to use audio(4) and bktr(4).