[MPlayer-users] Mplayer and /dev/video

[Kichigai Mentat]

On Apr 27, 2005, at 10.06, _null_ _null_ wrote:

> Hi,
> I use Hauppauge WinTv PVR-350. It outputs MPEG-2 encoded video stream.  
> The only way to watch it from Linux is `cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg` or  
> `mplayer /dev/video0`. Mplayer is just great and it works!
> I modified Mplayer to show the movie and then save it to file. But  
> when I press 'pause', Mplayer buffers stream and when I continue  
> playing Mplayer shows (and writes to file) buffered content. I need  
> Mplayer doesn't buffer the stream and just skip buffering all the  
> stream while paused.
>
> Please, help to solve or at least show me the way to do that!
> Thanks!
>
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> MPlayer-users at mplayerhq.hu
> http://mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/mplayer-users
>
>
So what you want to do is basically have an A/V mute button? You want  
to "pause" and not play the stuff that happened while it paused?

And second of all, I don't think that "The only way to watch it from  
Linux is `cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg` or `mplayer /dev/video0`." I had  
a an ATI All-In-Wonder TV capture card very similar to the Hauppauge  
cards, built off of the same chips even, I think. and the mplayer -tv  
options worked just fine for me. This is the line I used:

mplayer -tv  
device=/dev/video:driver=v4l:input=1:width=320:height=240:norm=ntsc: 
adevice=/dev/dsp tv://1 -zoom -aspect 4:3

You'd probably want to change norm=ntsc or -aspect 4:3 depending on  
where you live, as well as adevice=/dev/dsp, depending. Input 1 was my  
composite input, so you may need to change that. tv://1 is channel 1,  
so that's pretty easy to understand. device=/dev/video would probably  
need to be changed to /dev/video0 for you, and driver might need to be  
chagned, depending. It's been a long time since I used the desktop with  
the video card in it, so things might have changed since kernel 2.5.0.

Anyway, I'm not sure I see the need for what you're doing. It sounds  
like you're skipping over parts of something by essentially stopping  
what your computer sees until it passes.

However, you also mentioned the part about recording. I'm assuming  
you're using a mutation of the line mentioned above. Just use my line,  
except change mplayer to mencoder, and add all the needed export lines  
(-o, -ovc, -oac, etc.). Otherwise, you're just creating more work for  
yourself.