Remote CW with RKI 1.05 and Sparkfun FT231X breakout board

Howto Create DVD Home Movies Using Linux:

Here is a guide I put together to help you capture video from a miniDV camera and create homemade DVDs using linux. I have a Sony DCR TVR-18 MiniDV and run Fedora Core 2 (FC2) on a Shuttle XPC (detailed system specs).

I use the DAG YUM/APT repository to manage package installation dependencies when possible. Read this for more information about mixing repositories. I've been extremely happy with DAG. Most of my installation headaches were resolved after I dropped Livna and Fedora Extras from my YUM configuration.

1. Introduction - Kino Installation Tips from Linux Journal. This article from December 2004 provides a nice overview of the tools required to get your camcorder working with Kino via the Firewire/IEEE 1394 interface. If you're using the DAG YUM repository you might want simply try to install kino first and let YUM indentify and resolve the package dependencies for you. From the command line type (as root):
$ yum install kino

2. If this fails, audit your system and install any tools (aka packages) that are missing. Print out this handy checklist reference that accompanied the article. On my system the "GUI" and "Core Functions" were already installed as part of FC2. You can query installed packages from the command line as follows:
$ rpm -qa |grep (package name)
$ yum search (package name)

RPM queries any installed packages. Yum will also include packages available from the reposities you have configured in /etc/yum.conf. Consult the man pages for each command for more info. The DAG YUM repository identified and resolved most (all I think!) package dependencies for me. NOTE: I didn't download any of the packages directly from the LJ Homepage. When YUM failed I went directly to the sourceforge project homepage (which can be found via a9 or google).

3. Test kernal modules, devices, and firewire subsytem
Use /sbin/lsmod to see if the raw1394 and dv1394 kernal modules are loaded. If not (mine were not loaded automatically after rebooting) use /sbin/modprobe to load them. You'll probably need to be root to load the kernal modules.

You can use the comands "/sbin/lsmod |grep 1394" and "dmesg |grep 1394" to check the status or errors associated with the 1394 subsystem. Here's the output from my commands:

[root@localhost cwhite]# /sbin/lsmod |grep 1394
raw1394 37677 0
dv1394 24717 0
ohci1394 35417 1 dv1394
ieee1394 304789 3 raw1394,dv1394,ohci1394

[root@localhost cwhite]# dmesg |grep 1394
ohci1394: $Rev: 1223 $ Ben Collins
ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[9] MMIO=[df001000-df0017ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ohci1394: $Rev: 1223 $ Ben Collins
ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[9] MMIO=[df001000-df0017ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00301bb20000f77c]
ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized

4. Install and configure tools to edit video and create dvds (kino, dvgrab, and optionally qdvdauthor and dvd-slideshow). qdvdauthor had to be built from source but was relatively straight forward.
kino and dvgrab
Q-DVD Author
DVD Slideshow

Notes: I had to install xine and the xine-lib-devel libraries from DAG (again using yum) to get the qdvdauthor configuration working properly. Also using dvd-slideshow from qdvdauthor isn't working perfectly- the process has "hung" a few time and I've had to copy the resulting vob file from the /tmp file system and manually add it as a video source. All the features work as advertised though (you can use fade-in/fade out video transition effects and add music tracks to play in the background for example).

5. Capture your video and burn your dvd. Read the user guides from the project homepages for examples, screenshots and help to troubleshoot any remaining errors if needed. Once you have captured your video with kino and exported to DVD/MPEG, use q-dvdauthor to create the DVD layout, add menues, titlesets, chapters, etc. I also used dvd-slideshow to create an 11-minute mpeg movie of 90+ jpg snapshots I had taken. I layed out the DVD with one titleset and two tiles. The first title contained the home movies as was broken into multiple chapters. The second title was for the dvd-slideshow. I created a DVD menu to be able select either title usind the DVD remote control.

Final. Practive makes perfect. I created 4 DVD images before I has happy with my first try. You can either your DVD image (VIDEO_TS/AUDIO_TS) using k3b or the command line. I used iso images to help archive each iteration while minimizing wasted disk space (each image needs ~3-4gb depending on how much video you've exported).

In this example mkisofs creates an iso disk image so you can save it or burn multiple copies later. growisofs writes the image to the dvd burner. The -dvd-compat options helps to ensure compatibility for older DVD players. See related man pages for more information on each command.

$ mkisofs -dvd-video -o ava-qdvd3.iso ava-qdvd3
$ growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=ava-qdvd3.iso

Happy Editing!