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DVGRAB(1)							     DVGRAB(1)

NAME
       dvgrab  —  Capture  DV or MPEG-2 Transport Stream (HDV) video and audio
       data from FireWire

SYNOPSIS
       dvgrab [options] [base] [-]

DESCRIPTION
       dvgrab is a program that captures DV or HDV (MPEG2-TS) video and	 audio
       data  from  digital  camcorders	via FireWire (IEEE 1394).  The data is
       stored in one or several files and can  later  be  processed  by	 video
       editing	software.  dvgrab can remote control the camcorder but it does
       not show the video's content on screen.

       dvgrab also supports UVC (USB Video Class) compliant DV	devices	 using
       Linux  kernel  module  uvcvideo,	 which is a V4L2 driver. In this mode,
       there is no AV/C VTR control and therefore interactive mode  is	almost
       useless.	 interactive feature is

       The  base  argument  is	used  to construct the filename to store video
       data: base-num.ext.  num is a running number starting from 001, and ext
       is  the	file name extension specifying the file format used, e.g. avi.
       A different naming scheme is used whenever the  -timestamp,  -timecode,
       or -timesys is given (see below).  If base is a full filename including
       extension, then dvgrab attempts to determine  the  output  file	format
       from  the  extension,  but it still inserts num.	 The default value for
       base is "dvgrab-".

       If you specify a trailing '-' then the format is forced to  raw	DV  or
       HDV and sent to stdout. dvgrab will also output raw DV or HDV to stdout
       while capturing to a file if stdout is piped or redirected.

       You can use dvgrab's powerful file writing capabilities with other pro‐
       grams that produce raw DV or HDV. Using the -stdin option and if dvgrab
       detects that it is on the receiving end of a pipe  and  it  is  not  in
       interactive mode, then it will try to read raw DV or HDV on stdin.

OPTIONS
       Options longer than a single character can be specified with either one
       or two leading hyphens. Also, you can use a space  character  or	 equal
       sign to separate the option name and its argument value.

       -a[num], -autosplit[=num]
		 Try  to  detect whenever a new recording starts, and store it
		 into a separate file. This can be combined with  the  -frames
		 and  -size  options,  and a split occurs whenever a specified
		 event arises.	Autosplit is off by default.

		 num is optional. Without it, dvgrab determines when to	 split
		 using	a  flag	 in the stream or a discontinuity in the time‐
		 code, where timecode discontinuity is anything	 backwards  or
		 greater  than	one  second.  If you set the optional argument
		 num you can set the time sensitivity in  seconds  and	ignore
		 the  stream's	new-recording  flag.  This  basically lets you
		 split on larger time increments such as minutes or hours. For
		 example,  -autosplit=3600 splits the recording whenever there
		 is a gap in the recording that is an hour or longer.

       -buffers num
		 The number of frames to use for buffering device I/O  delays.
		 Defaults to 100.

       -card num Tells	dvgrab	to  receive  data  from FireWire card num. The
		 default behaviour is to automatically select the  first  card
		 containing the first discovered camera If used in conjunction
		 with -noavc, then no bus probing is performed If used in con‐
		 junction  with	 -guid	hex,  then  only  the specified bus is
		 probed for node with guid hex.

       -channel num
		 Isochronous channel to receive data  from.  Defaults  to  63,
		 which is pretty much standard among DV camcorders these days.
		 If you specify anything different, no attempt is made at this
		 time  to  tell the device which channel to use. You must have
		 some manual way to tell the transmitting device which channel
		 to use.

       -cmincutsize num
		 This  option  is used to start the collection if a cut occurs
		 num megabytes (actually, mebibytes) prior to the end  of  the
		 collection.  This  option  reduces  small files being created
		 when using the	 -csize	 option.  When	a  new	collection  is
		 started  in this manner, the amount of free space in the pre‐
		 vious collection is stored, and while the following clips fit
		 within	 the  previous collection, the new collection starting
		 point is reset.

       -csize num
		 This option tells dvgrab to split the files when the  collec‐
		 tion  of  files  exceeds  num . This option is used to create
		 collections of files that fit perfectly  into	num  megabytes
		 (actually,  mebibytes)	 (i.e.	for  archiving onto DVD). When
		 this occurs, a new collection is started (See also the -cmin‐
		 cutsize option)

       -debug type
		 Display   HDV	 debug	 info,	 type	is  one	 or  more  of:
		 all,pat,pmt,pids,pid=N,pes,packet,video,sonya1

       -d, -duration time
		 Set the maximum capture duration across all file splits for a
		 single	 capture  session  (multiple  sessions are possible in
		 interactive mode).  The time  value  is  expressed  in	 SMIL2
		 MediaClipping Time format.  See http://w3.org/AudioVideo/ for
		 the specification.

		 Briefly, the formats are:

		 XXX[.Y]h, XXX[.Y]min, XXX[.Y][s], XXXms,

		 [[HH:]MM:]SS[.ms], or smpte=[[[HH:]MM:]SS:]FF.

       -every n	 This option tells dvgrab  to  write  every  n'th  frame  only
		 (default all frames).

       -f, -format dv1 | dv2 | avi | raw | dif | qt | mov | jpeg | jpg | mpeg2
       | hdv
		 Specifies the format of the output file(s). File  format  can
		 also  be  determined  if you include an extension on the base
		 name. The following extensions	 are  recognizable:  avi,  dv,
		 dif, mov, jpg, jpeg, and m2t (HDV).

		 dv1  and  dv2 both are AVI files with slightly different for‐
		 mats.	dv2 stores a separate audio track in addition  to  the
		 DV  video track, which is more compatible with other applica‐
		 tions.	 dv1 only stores a single, integrated DV  track	 since
		 the  DV  format natively interleaves audio with video. There‐
		 fore, while dv1 produces smaller  output,  some  applications
		 won't	grok it and require dv2 instead.  dvgrab is capable of
		 creating extremely large AVI files—well over 2 or  4  GB—how‐
		 ever,	compatibility with other tools starts to decrease over
		 the 1 GB size.

		 raw stores the data unmodified and have  the  .dv  extension.
		 These	files  are read by a number of GNU/Linux tools as well
		 as Apple Quicktime.

		 dif is a variation of raw DV that names  files	 with  a  .dif
		 extension  so	they can be more immediately loaded into Main‐
		 Concept MainActor5.

		 qt is Quicktime, but requires that dvgrab  be	compiled  with
		 libquicktime.

		 jpg  or  jpeg is for a sequence of JPEG image files if dvgrab
		 was compiled with libdv and jpeglib. This option can only  be
		 used with a DV input, not HDV (MPEG2-TS).

		 mpeg2 or hdv is for a MPEG-2 transport stream when using, for
		 example, a HDV camcorder or digital TV settop box.

		 Defaults to raw

       -F, -frames num
		 This option tells dvgrab to store at most num frames per file
		 before splitting to a new file, where num = 0 means ulimited.
		 The corresponding time depends on the video system used.  PAL
		 shows 25, NTSC about 30 frames per second.

       -guid hex If  you  have	more than one DV device, then select one using
		 the node's GUID specified in hex (hexadecimal)	 format.  This
		 is  the  format as displayed in /proc/bus/ieee1394/devices or
		 the new kernel 2.6 /sys filesystem. When you specify a	 GUID,
		 dvgrab	 will establish (or overlay) a peer-to-peer connection
		 with the device instead of listening to the  device's	broad‐
		 cast.	 If  you supply a hex value of 1, then dvgrab attempts
		 to discover the device as well as setup a  peer-to-peer  con‐
		 nection. This is especially handy with MPEG2-TS settop boxes,
		 which typically require a connection management procedure  to
		 start transmitting.

       -h, -help Show summary of options.

       -I, -input file
		 Read from file instead of FireWire. You can use '-' for stdin
		 instead of using -stdin.

       -i, -interactive
		 Make dvgrab interactive where single keypresses on stdin con‐
		 trol  the  camera  VTR	 or start and stop capture. Otherwise,
		 dvgrab runs in session mode, where it immediately starts cap‐
		 ture and stops as directed or interrupted (ctrl-c).

       -jpeg-deinterlace
		 If using -format jpeg, deinterlace the output by doubling the
		 lines of the upper field. This is a cheap form of deinterlace
		 that results in an effective 50% loss in resolution.

       -jpeg-height num
		 If  using -format jpeg, scale the output of the height to num
		 (1 - 2048).

       -jpeg-overwrite name
		 Write to same image file for each frame, instead of  creating
		 a sequence of image files.

       -jpeg-quality num
		 If  using  -format  jpeg,  set	 the JPEG quality level from 0
		 (worst) to 100 (best).

       -jpeg-temp name 10
		 Use a temporary file to create the jpeg, rename the  file  to
		 the target file name when done. Useful when using dvgrab with
		 -jpeg-overwrite for generating a webcam image.

       -jpeg-width num
		 If using -format jpeg, scale the output of the width  to  num
		 (1 - 2048).

		 The  JPEG  scaling  width and height must be both either less
		 than or greater than the normal frame size. For example,  the
		 scaled	 size of 700 wide by 525 high yields a nice 4:3 aspect
		 image with square pixels, but it is illegal for NTSC  because
		 700  is less than the normal width of 720 while the height is
		 greater than the normal height of 480.

		 Since DV uses non-square pixels, it is nice  to  be  able  to
		 scale	to an image based upon a 4:3 aspect ratio using square
		 pixels. For NTSC, example sizes  are  800x600,	 640x480,  and
		 320x240.  For PAL, example square pixel sizes are 384x270 and
		 768x540.

       -jvc-p25	 Remove repeat_first_field flag and set frames per  second  to
		 25 to correct a stream recorded in JVC's HDV P25 mode.

       -lockstep Align	capture	 to  a	multiple of -frames based on timecode.
		 This is useful for redundancy, when more than one machine  is
		 capturing  from  the  same  FireWire  device, and you want to
		 ensure each file contains the same  footage.  To  ensure  the
		 files	from each machine have the same name use the -timecode
		 option and the same base name.

       -lockstep_maxdrops num
		 If num frames are dropped consecutively, then close the  file
		 and  resume  capture on the next lockstop interval. If num is
		 -1, then permit an unlimited number of consecutively  dropped
		 frames; this is the default.

       -lockstep_totaldrops num
		 If num frames are dropped in the current file, then close the
		 file and resume capture on the next lockstep interval. If num
		 is  -1,  then	permit	an  unlimited  number of total dropped
		 frames; this is the default.

       -noavc	 Disable use of AV/C VTR control. This is useful  if  you  are
		 capturing live video from a camera because in camera mode, an
		 AV/C play command tells the camera to start  recording,  per‐
		 haps  over  material  on  the	current tape.  This applies to
		 either interactive more or non-interactive because non-inter‐
		 active	 stills	 sends a play and stop to the VTR upon capture
		 start and stop.

       -nostop	 Disables sending the  AV/C  VTR  stop	command	 when  exiting
		 dvgrab.

       -opendml	 If  using  -format dv2, create an OpenDML-compliant type 2 DV
		 AVI. This is required to support dv2 files >1GB.  dv1	always
		 supports files >1GB.

       -r, -recordonly
		 When  the  camcorder  is  in  record mode, this option causes
		 dvgrab to only capture when the camcorder  is	recording  and
		 not paused. Normally, when in record mode, dvgrab always cap‐
		 tures to let you use the camcorder purely as a	 camera	 where
		 the computer operator is in control. This option makes dvgrab
		 act like the VCR where the camera operator controls when cap‐
		 ture  takes  place.   This  is	 very handy when used with the
		 -autosplit option to automatically create a new file for each
		 shot.	 This  option requires AV/C and will not work with the
		 -noavc option.

       -rewind	 Rewind the tape completely to the beginning prior to starting
		 capture.  Naturally, this requires AV/C; however, perhaps not
		 so obvious is that this does not apply to interactive mode.

       -showstatus
		 Normally, the capture status information is  displayed	 after
		 finished  writing to each file. This option makes it show the
		 capture status during capture, updated for each frame.

       -s, -size num
		 This option tells dvgrab  to  store  at  most	num  megabytes
		 (actually, mebibytes) per file, where num = 0 means unlimited
		 file size for large files. The default size limit is 1024 MB.

       -srt	 Generate subtitle files containing  the  recording  date  and
		 time  in  SRT format. For each video file that is created two
		 additional files with the extension .srt0 and .srt1 are  cre‐
		 ated.	They  contain the recording date and time as subtitles
		 in the SRT format. The .srt0 file contains the subtitles with
		 timing	 based	on the running time from the start of the cur‐
		 rent file.  Use this file if you transcode to a  format  like
		 AVI.  The .srt1 file contains the subtitles with timing based
		 on the time code as delivered by  the	camera.	  The  mplayer
		 program understands this type of subtitles.

       -stdin	 Read the DV stream from a pipe on stdin instead of FireWire.

       -timecode Put  the  timecode  of	 the first frame of each file into the
		 file name.

       -t, -timestamp
		 Put information on date and time of recording into file name.

       -timesys	 Put system rather than recording  date	 and  time  into  file
		 name.	 This  is  useful when using converter devices that do
		 not change the recording date time in the DV stream.

       -V, -v4l2 Capture from a USB Video Class (UVC) device that supports DV.
		 This  uses  the uvcvideo kernel module via V4L2.  The default
		 device file is /dev/video. Use the -input  option  to	set  a
		 different device file.

       -v, -version
		 Show version of program.

       -24p	 For  Quicktime DV, set the frame rate as 24 fps in the Quick‐
		 time file.  This only works as expected when  the  video  has
		 been shot in 24p mode.

       -24pa	 For  Quicktime,  DV, in addition to setting the frame rate to
		 24 in the Quicktime file, also reverse the  2:3:3:2  pulldown
		 process by removing the interlaced "C" frame. This only works
		 as expected when the video has	 been  shot  in	 24p  Advanced
		 mode. See http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/

EXAMPLES
       dvgrab foo-
		 Captures  video  data	from  the  default FireWire source and
		 stores it to files foo-001.avi, foo-002.avi, etc.

       dvgrab -frames 25 foo-
		 Assuming a PAL video source, this command  records  one  sec‐
		 ond's worth of video data per file.

       dvgrab -autosplit -frames 750 -timestamp foo-
		 Records  video data from the default FireWire source, cuts it
		 into chunks of 30  seconds  (assuming	PAL)  or  when	a  new
		 recording  starts  and names the resulting files according to
		 date and time info in the videostream.

       dvgrab -autosplit -size 1998 -csize 4400 -cmincutsize 10	 foo-
		 Records video data from the default FireWire source, cuts  it
		 into  chunks  when a new recording starts or when the current
		 file exceeds 1998 megabytes  (actually,  mebibytes),  or  the
		 current  collection  of files exceeds 4400 megabytes. It also
		 reduces the size of the smallest file made due to  a  collec‐
		 tion size cut to 10 megabytes.

		 This  option is perfect for backing up DV to DVD's as 2 Gb is
		 around the maximum file size that (the current) linux	imple‐
		 mentation of the ISO9660 filesystem can handle!

		 Warning:  It  is  possible  to	 make ISO9660 filesystems with
		 files greater than 2 Gb, but the current linux IS09660 driver
		 can't	read  them!  Newer linux kernels may be able to handle
		 ISO9660 filesystems with filesizes greater than 2 Gb.

       dvgrab -format hdv -autosplit
		 Capture from a HDV camcorder.

       dvgrab -format mpeg2 -guid 1
		 Record from a digital TV settop box.

       dvgrab -jpeg-over -jpeg-w=320 -jpeg-h=240 -d smpte=1 webcam.jpeg
		 Capture a single frame, save it as a  JPEG  named  webcam.jpg
		 and  exit.   This  example also demonstrates option handling.
		 You only need to specify enough of  a	long  option  name  to
		 uniquely identify it. You can use space or equal sign to sep‐
		 arate option name and argument. The file format  is  inferred
		 from  the  filename extension. Also, since -jpeg-overwrite is
		 used, the filename will  be  exactly  "webcam.jpeg"  and  not
		 include any numbers.

       dvgrab -V Capture over USB from a UVC compliant DV device.

       dvgrab -v4l -input /dev/video1
		 Capture  over USB from a UVC compliant DV device using device
		 file /dev/video1.

       dvgrab -format=hdv -autosplit=28800 -srt foo-
		 Capture from a HDV camcorder, splitting whenever there	 is  a
		 gap  in  the  recording  that lasts longer than 8 hours. This
		 will likely generate a separate file for each day (useful for
		 holiday videos). It will also generate subtitle files. Assum‐
		 ing that the files foo-001.m2t and foo-002.m2t are generated,
		 the   corresponding  subtitle	files  will  be	 foo-001.srt0,
		 foo-001.srt1 and foo-002.srt0, foo-002.srt1.  You can use the
		 subtitle  files  to  show  the	 recording date and time while
		 viewing the video.

AUTHOR
       Dan Dennedy <dan@dennedy.org> and Daniel Kobras kobras@debian.org>

       See http://www.kinodv.org/ for more information and support.

								     DVGRAB(1)
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