Dscaler drivers, in virtualdub? cx2388x

[zerowalker]

Okay so i got the Conextant cx2388x, and after playing around with programs and stuff, i found that the Driver Dscaler has integrated it it´s latest version 4.2.2 is Awesome for this capture card.

It let´s you change all kinds of settings, and it capture the entire "Capture window", not only the Overscan part like virtualdub(or Normal driver does).

Now, i don´t really like Dscaler itself as it´s very fragile and will easy drop fields.

So i wonder, is there a way to use thhe driver outside of Dscaler, preferably in virtualdub?

Thanks:)

[Mounir]

Dscaler version 4.2.2 ? where do you see this ??
The latest version is 4.1.19

[zerowalker]

It´s an alpha release, and the only one who has those drivers.
Look at source forge

[jmac698]

There's a couple other programs for use with this chipset. See the links at
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=162832

[zerowalker]

I don´t get those links, one says modified drivers, then another has some tweaker CMD like program which doesn´t work:S
Then it´s just Virtualdub and Dscaler in the capture links.

[jmac698]

Modified drivers and tweakers for CX2388x chip
http://midimaker.narod.ru/eng/index.html

Raw ADC capture for CX2388x cards
http://www.geocities.ws/how_chee/cx23881fc6.htm

[jmac698]

cx88prg.exe DeviceIndex PixelsPerLine HScale HDelay NotchFilter ColourSystem CombThreshold WhiteCrushOff CompClamp

http://midimaker.narod.ru/eng/cx88/cx88prg.html

http://midimaker.narod.ru/arc/cx88prg.zip

[jmac698]

If it doesn't work at all, maybe it needs the modified drivers. The link seems down, maybe I have a copy.

As for the other page, it requires linux to capture, and I sure hope it works.

I'll be getting such a card soon, so I'd be able to help you then.

You can also guess your way through the Russian version of the site, and maybe find a working link there.

[zerowalker]

i try to use the application, but i can´t open Dscaler afterwards, it fails to load the driver, so i need to reboot;S

[jmac698]

Oh oh, there were some bugs fixed in the new version.
http://midimaker.narod.ru/eng/arc/cx88prg_2.zip

[zerowalker]

that link doesn´t work;S
Have you gotten an c2388x card to work? with Hsync and all?

[zerowalker]

got hold of the v2, but it says, can´t open the driver;S

[jmac698]

So try his special drivers

Tested with MSI MS-8606
http://midimaker.narod.ru/arc/cx88drv_ms8606.rar

Tested with LeadTek WinFast PVR2000
http://midimaker.narod.ru/arc/cx88drv_pvr2000.rar

For instructions, you need to translate from Russian to English this page:
http://midimaker.narod.ru/cx88/cx88drv.html

These drivers are derived from the original drivers for those cards.

Here's the instructions to change an existing driver, tested on Windows XP

The typical procedure of replacement:

1. Close all applications that use the device (viewer, remote control)

2. Open Device Manager and turn off (disable) the capture device (usually it's something like CX2388x Video Capture, after you disconnect and turn off the other devices - tuner and switch). If step 1 was performed, the request will not be reset.

3. You must copy the old driver (his name is the same as that of the file that is located in the downloaded archive, it is located in the directory Windows \ system32 \ drivers \) in a safe place, in case you will not be able to replace the driver.

4. Copy the driver file (download the archive from this site) in place of regular driver (directory Windows \ system32 \ drivers \).

5. It is desirable to use the sync software from the site www.sysinternals.com to write all cached to disk, but unwritten data. This will reduce the number of problems in the case of startup BSOD'a driver.

6. Run the driver from the device manager (strongly recommended to do this without rebooting). If all goes correctly, you can try to run the capture. If an error occurs, return the old driver file back, as there is the risk of getting BSOD on boot, which can be cured only by removing the device from the computer physically.

[zerowalker]

Can this be done with Windows 7 x64?

[jmac698]

There could also be a problem with the command line. It's hard to set the parameters as it takes some technical knowledge.
I got as far as cx88prg.exe 0 858 0 134 3 N 256 but I can't be sure that's right.

[jmac698]

His modified drivers are based on x86 versions, so there's no chance.

If that's what you're using, that would explain why you are crashing.
This is very old software. The prime years for video capturing was the 90's.

[zerowalker]

Well it isn´t Crashing, it just isn´t working.
But i thought he use Dscaler drivers, they exist in x64, they are awesome.
The original driver i am using pretty much "sucks" compared to it, as i can´t control anything.

[jmac698]

He indicates that the cx88prg was using in-built dscaler drivers. We would need the source to make these x64. The other two modified drivers were binary hacked from the manufacturer's XP drivers.

You're problems may relate to the command line settings.

There's some other possibilities; if you can find another CX based card and use it's drivers somehow.

Another solution is to capture in Linux. You can even use a liveUSB with everything on it, and you just need to reboot for the capturing. You can still use the web, office, games etc.

Of course you can simply use a modern capture card instead.

I, however, still want to use a CX card because of the possibility of extra control. I haven't received mine yet.

There's a feature in virtualbox :
* Experimental support for PCI passthrough
This would let you use xp drivers in the virtual pc but your real system can be Win7 or Linux etc.
It requires a high-end cpu, which has the support for virtual hardware extensions (I think it's called Vtd). That would mean a core i7.

[zerowalker]

There's some other possibilities; if you can find another CX based card and use it's drivers somehow.

I got x64 drivers, and i got Dscaler drivers that works also.

I don´t know hot to compile, do you?
As i think the source is available.

As DirectShow drivers is not good on the CX card, the Dscaler rocks.

[zerowalker]

Okay it seems i can get it to "Work" by changing the name of the x64 dscaler driver to the same as x86, then back, though, nothing happens to the picture, and i can´t use it while Dscaler if active.
And after awhile, Dscaler won´t use the driver when i open it, so i have to reboot, though i think it only happens if i use bad settings once, it only resets if i reboot.

But i don´t see any difference at all, i am trying to increase the Resolution so i can get the Hsync in the picture.

[zerowalker]

Okay i am taking another route, i will try adding more resolution to the Dscaler driver through it´s source code.
But i can´t compile it for some reason, so if anyone can help, please tell me, Cannot open include file: 'atlbase.h': that is the error i get on a thing.

[zerowalker]

Okay i got it to Work, now i can change the Width and Height somewhat, but i get an error when i open Dscaler, something with PhysicalAdress.

The only increase i got to work currently is:721,577, which isn´t really anything;S

[Perepandel]

What are you trying to do?

Unless you use a hacked driver which, to my knowledge, don't exists to this day, with CX2388x based card you shouldn't be able to capture at more than 720, or maybe 768, x 576.

If you are trying to capture in HD, or FullHD, you won't be able to do so with that capture card.

[jmac698]

You should use even numbers in your tests. No card should be able to capture odd amounts.

I finally got mine so I can join the effort soon.

If you can get a true raw capture, you can capture HD, but still at lower resolutions, like only 1024x720.

[Perepandel]

Ok, I've tried lots of times to capture with my WinFast PVR2000 CX2388x with Virtualdub - it's impossible! And is not a matter of the card because I can capture with DScaler and with the software that came with the card itself. I also tried with jmac698's model (Hauppauge) and it happened the same. To be more precise: I remember that it somehow worked randomly, but I haven't been able to reproduce it on the last 48 h. But I'm almost sure I've seen it working with Virtualdub. And there's probably a precise factor or combination of them that makes it works, but who knows.

I've googled a lot about this matter and it seems there are reports of trouble when trying to make Virtualdub work with this chipset, but didn't find a receipt to solve it.

Also this problem has nothing to do with my compile. In fact, as mine is in debugging mode, I can see a dialog which alerts me that it's been impossible to "build a graph" or so.
I've put my modified version in http://www.saformedia.net/files/cx2388x/peredub.7z (you can uncompress it with 7zip; http://www.7-zip.org) in case anyone wanna try. If you can capture with your cx2388x with your 'normal' Virtualdub, you should be able to with 'my' version, plus *maybe* you could try the BT8x8 tweaker. So please, try it and tell us if it works, since I cannot! Oh, and it's a 32-bit compile.

By the way, I've tried this with WinXP 32 bit SP2 and Win7 64 bit, always with up-to-date drivers and with both 32 and 64 bit versions of Virtualdub and with 32 bit "Peredub", and always the same error, while I can capture without problems using my bt878 card with same program(s).

Notice that my VirtualDub.exe executable is a bit bigger because it's not compressed and its a debug version.

PS: please run an antivirus before trying my executables - I don't use any in Windows! :D

[jmac698]

Ok, I've joined the club!
I have a cx23883 based chip, the drivers installed fine, they dialogs show up in virtualdub, but the screen is blank. I mean, it looks like the normal windows, no black, blue or green screen, no image is drawn on top of the default window at all. I can open capture, preview, filter, crossbar pins, and change settings, but they show no information, as if something is missing.
The problem could be it's the wrong pins because I have two wintv cards. I'll keep experimenting.
I have been able to use vdub with 878 based card though.

As for raw capture, it turns out that fedora core 6 is too old to even read the cdrom or ethernet, there's no drivers for them. The custom driver may work with a newer kernel version, I don't know if any interfaces change.
If it works in a logical way, I should be able to use fedora 14 or so as it still uses 2.6.32 or so.
And if that doesn't work, I'll have to try to modify the latest driver msyelf as a patch.
Luckily it looks fairly understandable to me, it's plain C and I can understand all the hardware aspects of the card, even the risc dma instructions.

[Perepandel]

jmac698, I've determined it's an issue with Virtualdub. I was going to take a look at it, but my room is all messed up this weekend and I don't have the proper programming environment in my notebook. As I can see the full error message (you can see it with my own compile, from the message below), maybe it's easy to solve looking at other open source capture programs, seeing how they do it. But I suspect it's not a too complicated thing. I also tried Graphedit and could capture directly from the hardware in a very easy way. I'll continue on monday.

[jmac698]

we could report it in the vdub forums

[zerowalker]

haha welcome to the club XD

And if you get anywhere, i am All in for testing, as this is very interesting, and would gladly help you, or give you samples etc:)

Can easily install Linux and stuff if needed:)

[jmac698]

Then start with installing fedora core 6, and try the raw capture method.

[zerowalker]

Can you please link so i take the right one?

And how do i capture raw mode?

(I am not familiar with Linux systems, have used that so can "use them" but not more than that without instructions)

Thanks:)!

[zerowalker]

I download this one: http://archives.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/core/6/x86_64/iso/

The one on top, is that the correct version?

[zerowalker]

Okay well i tried the Newest, as you said you can´t have internet and stuff with the Core 6, and well, it didn´t work for me.
I could compile the two files, but the "Make" command didn´t work, it just said something ans Stop at the end.
Guess it had to do with it being a different Kernel Version;S

[Mounir]

I remember clearly when i was experimenting with my prolink pixelview xcapture card (connexant CX23881) back in 2005 that i could see the Hsync , but i didn't know what it was so i didn't care. I was using Virtualvcr/Xp at the time, not sure about the drivers though and probably there was a ffdshow raw video filter in the mix.

If that can help

[jmac698]

Hi Zero,
Good effort. You can use an emulator to run fc6. But I have an old machine to try it on.

[Perepandel]

Zerowalker, have you read one of my previous messages?
If you can capture in Virtualdub with your cx2388x card, then you could try the modified version I uploaded at http://www.saformedia.net/files/cx2388x/peredub.7z which maybe allows you to use the bt8x8 tweaker...

[zerowalker]

Really what emulator?

Did miss that, can give it a try!

Gave it a try, didn´t work, said there was not BT card.

[zerowalker]

Okay i have booted in Vmware, but i get this error on the "Make" command.

[root@localhost untitled folder]# make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build -I/usr/include/asm/mach-default/ SUBDIRS=/home/zerowalker/Desktop/untitled folder modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-x86_64'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `folder'. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-x86_64'
make: *** [all] Error 2

[jmac698]

You must use x86 version sorry

[zerowalker]

I thought i had the x86 version, or well both, but will try to get it down:)

[zerowalker]

I still get error with the x86 version.

[zero@localhost untitled folder]$ make
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6/build -I/usr/include/asm/mach-default/ SUBDIRS=/home/zero/Desktop/untitled folder modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686'
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `folder'. Stop.
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i686'
make: *** [all] Error 2

Or wait, is this even the x86, what is i686;S

Don´t suprises me if i downloaded the wrong one again;S

[jmac698]

That's fine.
Weird, I'll have to look at the make file.
One hint, changed untitled folder into folder. The error seems to have trouble with spaces, which is strange.

[jmac698]

That's easy, the makefile refers to

/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586/include

So just change those references to what you have on your system.

Here's the Makefile so others can help

xyyCFLAGS = -I/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586/include -I/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586/include/asm-i386/mach-default
xxxCFLAGS = -I/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586/include -I/usr/include/asm/mach-default



UNAME := $(shell uname -r)
KERNEL26 := 2.6
KERNELVERSION := $(findstring $(KERNEL26),$(UNAME))


ifeq ($(KERNELVERSION),2.6)

obj-m := cxadc.o

INCLUDE := -I/usr/include/asm/mach-default/
KDIR := /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
PWD := $(shell pwd)

all::
$(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) $(INCLUDE) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules

else

TARGET := simplefifo
INCLUDE := -I/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -I/usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-1.2798.fc6-i586/include/asm-i386/mach-default
CFLAGS := -O2 -Wall -DMODULE -D__KERNEL__ -DLINUX
CC := gcc

all:: ${TARGET}.o

${TARGET}.o: ${TARGET}.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) ${INCLUDE} -c ${TARGET}.c

endif

[jmac698]

You can pretty much do it manually, it's fairly simple actually. It's just a straight compile, but needs to refer to the kernel headers. If they aren't installed, you have to install them. Look for kernel 2.6.18-1 source as an rpm.
Then it's just gcc -I /usr/include/asm/mach-default -C /lib/modules/i686/build SUBDIRS=$~me/cxadc_v3/ -o cxadc.o cxadc.c
Or something like that

[zerowalker]

Okay i think i was able to do the Make command, now it´s just the Blacklist and insmod that doesn´t work, it says the command doesn´t exist.
And when i use: /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
it says permission denied (i use the root user.)

[jmac698]

blacklist isn't a command. They mean to edit a text file to prevent a normal driver from loading. Then reboot, then use insmod to add the custom driver.

If that file doesn't exist then make it.

Add the two lines listed.

The file is called blacklist. The command blacklist only means something in a blacklist file; it's not a normal shell command I think. Think of it as a comment in a file.

[zerowalker]

I don´t know how to make it;S

It says permission denied when i try to get´s it location through the terminal.

As i said, i am not familiar with Linux, so even if it´s obvious i won´t get it if it doesn´t work right out the box;P

[jmac698]

Use a text editor, like Gedit

[zerowalker]

but i can´t get in touch with the "Blacklist", how do i find it?

And as i said, i can´t use the "insmod" command either;S

[jmac698]

Oh, this is how it works. When you open a terminal, it has a list of directories by default to find commands. In your case, the default is a directory of common user commands. Insmod is in a different directory for system commands. I think it's usr/sbin. There's a logic to all those directories, it's called Linux File System standard.
So the way to run the command is by referring to it the long way, /usr/sbin/insmod.
Anyhow if it's not there, use the file browser to look around. It will be some kind of directory named bin.
Also, it could be that blacklist is a directory too. Anyhow you should be able to list the modprobe.d directory. If you can't get into it, type su (it will ask for the root password).
I should setup my virtual machine to help... I've been busy.. but I think I could start that installing today.