Any interest in recording from TV?

[tonyz2897]

I'm trying to get an Easycap USB video capture card working on my UG008. Would there be any interest in adding the ability to record TV, console gameplay, etc to an external drive using your Android device? The way I see it, there are two main obstacles to overcome. The first is getting the Linux driver for the Easycap to work in Android. The second is to create an app or modify an existing app to do the recording. I was thinking at first to try to modify the Android camera app to receive the output from the Easycap. This would allow simple manual recording. If that works then later a more fully featured app with automatic recording could be developed. Even further in the future, it would be nice to add support for some sort of IR transmitter to allow the recorder app to change channels on a cable or satellite box for automatic recording of multiple programs on different channels. Is this something anybody would be interested in or do you believe recording is better left to HTPCs and dedicated DVR boxes?
Thanks,
Tony

[ofb]

I'm on an MK808 and I have an ATI USB video capture stick I wouldn't mind being able to do something like this with. I was actually looking for a way to do it already the other day but didn't find anything.

[tonyz2897]

I'm on an MK808 and I have an ATI USB video capture stick I wouldn't mind being able to do something like this with. I was actually looking for a way to do it already the other day but didn't find anything.

I think the big thing is whether or not a Linux driver exists for your video capture device. If you can get a driver compiled for your device and get it to create the folders in /dev for video and sound then the rest is just an app to make use of it. As far as I know, no DVR apps exist for Android but if enough people become interested, then perhaps we'll see one in the future. I'd work on it myself if I knew anything about developing apps. For now I think the easiest way would be to modify the Android camera app to use the output from the video capture device to allow simple manual recording. I wouldn't even have attempted this project if leolas hadn't kindly offered to help people with compiling drivers. If he's able to get the driver compiled and working, I'll start poking around in the camera app and see if I can make any necessary changes. If I can get this working on mine, I plan to post a how-to that will hopefully make it easier for anybody else to do.
Tony

[ofb]

I'll check tonight when I get home.

[leolas]

Re: Any interest in recording from TV?

I will try, but dont assure you the results. First I need to reinstall Linux cause upgrade to ubuntu 13.04 ruins my build environment.
Sources for android drivers can help a lot, second success place if we have Linux 3.0.X driver souces, and if we have 2.6.x I can try but I dont expect success compiling them.

[tonyz2897]

I will try, but dont assure you the results. First I need to reinstall Linux cause upgrade to ubuntu 13.04 ruins my build environment. Sources for android drivers can help a lot, second success place if we have Linux 3.0.X driver souces, and if we have 2.6.x I can try but I dont expect success compiling them.

According to the site I downloaded the driver from, the driver I included in your thread is tested to work with 3.0.x kernels but there is a work around that needs to be implemented.

Workaround:
Open the file
easycap_dc60.0.9/src/easycap_ioctl.c
in any editor and comment out line 28 (or delete ist):


Line 28 commented out:
/* # Include < linux/smp_lock.h > */
Afterwards save the file and the easycapdriver should install on Linux with kernel 3.x without problems.

Thank you again for offering to do this for people! I must learn how to compile drivers myself after this so I don't have to bother you in the future.

Tony