PS3 "eye" Camera support

Discussion about this major DATV Project. See https://wiki.batc.org.uk/The_Portsdown_Transmitter
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godtec

PS3 "eye" Camera support

Post by godtec » Mon Jul 22, 2019 7:07 pm

Hello all:

I currently have portstown DATV working in Ugly mode from my Raspberry pi 3+ to my Nano Jetson with Limesdr's. Static Images only, currently.

I also have a "few" Sony Eye PS3 camera's. link.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Eye
Linux supports the camera natively, as well raspberry pi. Below is linux dmesg connection (ubuntu).
Camera is half decent for the price. $5 USD/CAD used.. spec's 640x480 30/60 fps, or 320x240 120 fps.

usb 1-1: Product: USB Camera-B4.09.24.1
usb 1-1: Manufacturer: OmniVision Technologies, Inc.
gspca_main: ov534-2.14.0 probing 1415:2000

USB Id's are above as well as current driver used.

I would like to know if it possible to use with Portsdown?
What format of video does the project look for?

Thanks
Mike Kennedy
VA3TEC

G8GKQ
Site Admin
Posts: 2928
Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:21 pm

Re: PS3 "eye" Camera support

Post by G8GKQ » Tue Jul 23, 2019 4:23 pm

Hi Mike

It is not a case of what format the video is, it is a case of what driver Linux uses to talk with the camera.

There are 2 separate cases. For MPEG-2 modes, the camera needs to appear as a v4l2-compatible video device on /dev/video0 or /dev/video1. For H264 modes, avc2ts (the bespoke H264 hardware encoding application) needs to be able to take the video data and put it into the hardware encoder.

I have not found any way of reliably including new cameras without actually trying them and then hand-crafting the loading of the appropriate driver.

In the time/cost trade-off, I have come to the conclusion that it is better practice to advise users to buy a £25 Logitech C920 (full HD) WebCam, that just works and gives stunning pictures, rather than to spend a day trying to integrate a "cheap" camera.

By all means try those cameras, and tweak the code to get them to work, but I do not plan to tweak the core code for new cameras.

73

Dave, G8GKQ

godtec

Re: PS3 "eye" Camera support

Post by godtec » Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:15 pm

Fair Enough,

I know the devices works on the /dev/video0/1 video device, I am just not sure if it's MPEG-2 or H264 complaint.
I can attempt to start tweaking the code, do you have any recommendations on where to start?

Do you have any example files that I can start looking at? Directories.. etc..

Thanks.
MikeK
VA3TEC

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