Just before I go to sleep quick update:
I have read somewhere that the beuty of Linux is that you dont have to remeber commands becoase you can always refer to detaild help so I got hoocked.
I went to read help on mplayer..... there is more text there then i have read in my life, on top of that I have no idea what it is about.
Anyhow, there is no spellchecker on TC or I haven't figured it aut yet, so I don't know what I am talking about, but when I boot with my camera pluged in and I try to watch TV Iget following:
tc@box:~$ mplayer -tv driver=v4l2: tv://
MPlayer dev-SVN-r27471-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2008 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Celeron 2/Pentium III Coppermine,Geyserville (Family: 6, Model: 8, Stepping: 3)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Playing tv://.
TV file format detected.
Selected driver: v4l2
name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
comment: first try, more to come ;-)
Selected device: Camera
Capabilites: video capture read/write streaming
supported norms:
inputs: 0 = spca561;
Current input: 0
Current format: unknown (0x31363553)
tv.c: norm_from_string(pal): Bogus norm parameter, setting default.
v4l2: ioctl enum norm failed: Invalid argument
Error: Cannot set norm!
Selected input hasn't got a tuner!
v4l2: Cannot get fps
v4l2: ioctl set mute failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl query control failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl query control failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl query control failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: ioctl query control failed: Invalid argument
==========================================================================
Cannot find codec matching selected -vo and video format 0x31363553.
Read DOCS/HTML/en/codecs.html!
==========================================================================
v4l2: ioctl set mute failed: Invalid argument
v4l2: 0 frames successfully processed, 0 frames dropped.
Exiting... (End of file)
And mplayer is running with black screen.
If I boot with camera unpluged I get
tc@box:~$ mplayer -tv driver=v4l2: tv://
MPlayer dev-SVN-r27471-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2008 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Celeron 2/Pentium III Coppermine,Geyserville (Family: 6, Model: 8, Stepping: 3)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Playing tv://.
TV file format detected.
Selected driver: v4l2
name: Video 4 Linux 2 input
author: Martin Olschewski <olschewski@zpr.uni-koeln.de>
comment: first try, more to come ;-)
Selected device: UNKNOWN/GENERIC
Capabilites: video capture video overlay VBI capture device read/write streaming
supported norms: 0 = NTSC; 1 = NTSC-M; 2 = NTSC-M-JP; 3 = NTSC-M-KR; 4 = PAL; 5 = PAL-BG; 6 = PAL-H; 7 = PAL-I; 8 = PAL-DK; 9 = PAL-M; 10 = PAL-N; 11 = PAL-Nc; 12 = PAL-60; 13 = SECAM; 14 = SECAM-B; 15 = SECAM-G; 16 = SECAM-H; 17 = SECAM-DK; 18 = SECAM-L; 19 = SECAM-Lc;
inputs: 0 = default;
Current input: 0
Current format: BGR24
Selected input hasn't got a tuner!
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [raw] RAW Uncompressed Video
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is undefined - no prescaling applied.
VO: [x11] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12
[swscaler @ 0xa7ffb60]using unscaled yuv420p -> rgb32 special converter
Selected video codec: [rawyv12] vfm: raw (RAW YV12)
==========================================================================
Audio: no sound
Starting playback...
V: 0.0 2981/2981 ??% ??% ??,?% 0 0
With black screen which is aparently moving according to counter.
When I wake up I am going to study mplayer's guide. I'll keep you updated.