Veejay/motion/EffecTV MINI-HOWTO

Niels Elburg ( nielselburg at yahoo.de )
David Denny ( david at yaravi.com )
v1.0, 15 May 2003
This document describes how to start up a veejay session with input from a webcam running through motion and EffecTV.

1.Introduction
1.1 Disclaimer
1.3 Audience and Intent
1.2 Acknowledgements
1.4 Revision History
1.5 New versions of this document
1.6 Feedback
1.7 Distribution Policy
2.About streaming with veejay,motion and Effectv
3.What is needed
4.Running multiple sessions
5.Getting started
6.The results
7.Resources
7.1Websites
7.2Mailing Lists
8.GNU Free Documentation License

1. Introduction

Veejay is a video tracker/editing and live performance tool for Linux. It provides a graphical interface for video editing and mixing as well as a keyboard interface for direct user interaction (in a performance environment). This document shows an example about streaming (live) video using motion and EffecTV with veejay by using vloopback pipes. Using multiple video4linux devices is not yet covered here, but starting it would be relativly simple once understanding how veejay streams from various sources.

1.1 Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. As this is a new edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies, that may of course be damaging to your system. Proceed with caution, and although this is highly unlikely, the authors do not take any responsibility for that.
All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before major installation and backups at regular intervals.

1.2 Audience and Intent

This document is targeted at the Linux user interested in experimenting with streaming video using multiple programs.

1.3 Acknowledgements


The following people have been helpful in getting this HOWTO done:

  • David Denny ( david at yaravi.com ) , chapters 2,3,4,5 and 6

  • 1.4 Revision History

    Version 1.0

    First version for public release

    1.5 New versions of this document

    You will find the most recent version of this document at veejay.sourceforge.net/mini_howto.html.
    If you make a translation of this document into another langauge, let us know and we'll include a reference to it here.

    1.6 Feedback

    We rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO usefull. If you have any suggestions, corrections , or comments , please send them to us ( veejay-users@lists.sourceforge.net ), and we will try to incorporate them in the next revision. Please add 'HOWTO veejay' to the Subject-line of the mail.
    Before sending bug reports or questions, please read all of the information in this HOWTO, and send detailed information about the problem.
    If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a complimentary copy would be appreciated. Mail us for our postal address. Also consider making a donation to the Veejay Project to help support free video editing software in the future.

    1.7 Distribution Policy

    Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts , and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of this license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

    2. About streaming with veejay, motion and EffecTV

    This is a useful setup because with the webcam you have a source where you can generate detectable movement, using motion you can create the detection and plain streams, and with effectv is it easy to switch effects using just the cursor arrows and see what happens in veejay's effectors.

    3. What is needed

    You will need the patched vloopback that comes with EffecTV (or veejay) and a patched EffecTV from the veejay website. This EffecTV uses a simpler communication with vloopback devices (and is slower).

    4. Running multiple sessions

    The way I run these is from console with multiple sessions. this way I can remember where to restart etc, if you are interested my console contains the following sessions.


    Start only one veejay with the -g parameter to use the graphical interface gveejay. * You can specify the -o parameter to specify a location for the dump file

    5. Getting started


    Right off you go.

    1. Webcam. I assume this is running as /dev/video0.

    2. As root:
    2a. load the vloopback module with:

    modprobe vloopback dev_offset=2 pipes=7
    2b. verify it is running with:

    $ cat /proc/video/vloopback/vloopbacks

    The output should look like this:
    vloopback version 0.90
    Loop Input Status Output Status
    0    video2  -    video3   -
    1    video4  -    video5   -
    2    video6  -    video7   -
    3    video8  -    video9   -
    4    video10 -    video11  -
    5    video12 -    video13  -
    6    video14 -    video15  -



    3. Setup motion.conf with the following entries:

    videodevice /dev/video0 # this is the webcam
    video_pipe /dev/video4 # the straight signal (copy of webcam)
    motion_video_pipe /dev/video6 # the motion detection stream
    locate off #to stop the motion detection rectangle showing

    3b. Start motion. you should see video4 and video6 with W flags in the vloopback directory:

    vloopback version 0.90
    Loop Input Status Output Status            
    0    video2  -    video3   -
    1    video4  W    video5   -
    2    video6  W    video7   -
    3    video8  -    video9   -
    4    video10 -    video11  -
    5    video12 -    video13  -
    6    video14 -    video15  -

    4. the rest as your home user.
    4a. start two Effectv processes with:

    $ effectv -device /dev/video5 -vloopback /dev/video8                         
    $ effectv -device /dev/video7 -vloopback /dev/video10

    4b. 4b. check the vloopbacks file again, you should now see 'R' entries for video5/7 (the output ends of the video4/6 pipes) and W entries for video8/10:

    vloopback version 0.90
    Loop Input Status Output Status
    0    video2  -    video3   -
    1    video4  W    video5   R
    2    video6  W    video7   R
    3    video8  W    video9   -
    4    video10 W    video11  -
    5    video12 -    video13  -
    6    video14 -    video15  -

    You should now have your two Effectv SDL windows open; with one of these these focussed. scroll through the various effects using the cursor arrow up and down keys.

    Right, now you are ready to start veejay. I put the parakeet movie into ~/testavi/ and if you do the same the next command will work.

    4c. start veejay with:

    $ veejay -a0 -n2 -v1 -g ~/testavi/parakeet.avi


    4d. when the SDL screen opens, put the mouse in it and key as follows:

    • Press the '5' key on your numeric keypad to pause the video.
    • Press the '1' key on your numeric keypad to go to the starting position of the video clip
    • Press the '[' key to set the starting position of a new sample
    • Press the '3' key on your numeric keypad to go to the ending position of the video clip
    • Press the ']' key to set the ending position of the new sample
    • Press the 'F1' key to start playing this sample ( sample 1 )
    • Pres the 'f' key to crank the speed up a bit, reduce boredom.

    4e. put cursor back in x terminal where veejay is running and type the loopback input command li 3
    It will tell you it's reading /dev/video9.

    4f.Move the mouse back to the SDL (where the mad parrot is).

    • Press the '/' key to change playback mode from sample to normal (plain)
    • Press the 'ESC' key to switch to tag mode - SDL goes red (= "stopped")
    • Press the 'INSERT' key - starts your webcam stream as seen in the first Effectv window


    4g put cursor back in x terminal where veejay is running and type the loopback input command li 4

    It will tell you it's reading /dev/video11.


    4hMove the mouse back to the SDL (where your webcam stream is playing)

    • Press the 'F2' key - switch to second vloopback pipe - SDL goes red (= "stopped")
    • Press the 'INSERT' key - starts your webcam "motion detection" stream as seen in the second Effectv window, the green one.


    4i. Now make sure you can stop and start each of the webcam streams - you are in the green one at present.
    Press INSERT to stop it, and INSERT to restart it

    F1 switch to live stream, running, INSERT to stop and INSERT to restart
    F2 swich to motion detection stream, running, INSERT to stop and INSERT to restart play about with these.


    Nothing should hang or crash, if it does then it's worth reporting.

    4j. start an output vloopback, mouse to console window and type:

    $> lo 0

    It will confirm it's outputting to /dev/video2
    you can now pick this up on the other end of the pipe by typing


    $ effectv -device /dev/video3


    RIGHT! now you have four windows:

    6. The results

    If you focus on each in turn you can experiment with effects.

    I would suggest to start with the following settings:
    first SDL (live feed) - focus window, the title is DumbTV, two hits of the cursor up arrow give you BrokenTV like in the image below:




    second SDL(motion) - focus window, from DumbTV, twelve hits of the cursor up arrow give you RippleTV



    third SDL (veejay) - use F1, INSERT, F2, INSERT, slash, ESC, to switch between the effected webcam/motion streams and the mad parakeet, and you can use a,s,d,f,g,h,j,k,l to set the mad parakeet speed from 0 to 9; if it seems to have stopped, while looking at the parakeet, use F1 to restart it, or the num keypad keys 1-9 for navigation. And to loop the mad bird, end to end or ping pong modes, use the numpad asterisk to change mode.



    fourth SDL(veejay output) allows you to pick up any of the above and verify that veejay is working correctly. I have it set to CycleTV (thirteen hits of the cursor up arrow) for an un-effected veejay, just to verify the channels are working correctly. However you should set it back to DumbTV (just keep pressing the cursor down arrow till you get there) if you are going to play with veejay's effects (or you combine veejay and effectv with one of the video effects), which comes next.



    This bit is fairly basic as I have not got too far experimenting with overlaying effects and it's frankly easier with gveejay, however just to get a taster:
    focus the third SDL window, the veejay one, and press the END key, check the console, it should say "Enabled Effect Chain" - if there is no response then focus the console and hit enter and then go back to the veejay SDL and press END again - which toggles Enabled and Disabled. Now, to see the veejay effectors, focus on the veejay SDL, use the up and down arrows to scroll through the effects list (which will be displayed on the veejay console), and use Return to activate an effect. See the result in the fourth SDL.

    Depending on which Effect you select, there is a number 0 or more parameters.

    • P0 : key PageUp and key PageDown
    • P1 : numeric keypad keys Insert and Del
    • P2 : key ';' and key '
    • P3 : key ',' and key '.'
    • P4 : key 'q' and key 'w'
    • P5 : key 'e' and key 'r'
    • P6 : key 't' and key 'y'
    • P7 : key 'u' and key 'i'


    You can stop reading here and start experimenting with various effectors.

    Resources

    7.1 Websites

    7.2 Mailing Lists

    There is a mailing list for veejay which is hosted by Sourceforge. The address is veejay-users@lists.sourceforge.net



    8. GNU Free Documentation License

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