FFMPEG not capturing from USB camera in Debian for Beaglebone Black

I'm having issues capturing input video from USB cameras conected to a Beaglebone Black running Debian.

I've tested 3 USB cameras, Logitec 4000 Pro, PS3 Eyetoy and a 1080P HP webcam.

I've checked on multiple sites and the commands are very straight forwards, but for some reason I've only been able to get the PS3 Eyetoy camera working at 15FPS and 320x240px resolution with lots of dropped frames.

Here is the one of the many command lines used to run ffmpeg:

debian@beaglebone:/mnt/TimeLapseCapture$ sudo ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 -r 30 -s 640x480 -t 5 /tmp/test.mp4

The output is ffmpeg's header banner;

ffmpeg version 3.2.12-1~deb9u1 Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
  built with gcc 6.3.0 (Debian 6.3.0-18+deb9u1) 20170516
  configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version='1~deb9u1' --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --incdir=/usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf --enable-gpl --disable-stripping --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libebur128 --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopenmpt --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librubberband --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-omx --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-sdl2 --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-chromaprint --enable-frei0r --enable-libopencv --enable-libx264 --enable-shared
  libavutil      55. 34.101 / 55. 34.101
  libavcodec     57. 64.101 / 57. 64.101
  libavformat    57. 56.101 / 57. 56.101
  libavdevice    57.  1.100 / 57.  1.100
  libavfilter     6. 65.100 /  6. 65.100
  libavresample   3.  1.  0 /  3.  1.  0
  libswscale      4.  2.100 /  4.  2.100
  libswresample   2.  3.100 /  2.  3.100
  libpostproc    54.  1.100 / 54.  1.100

And it stays in this state until the break command is sent followed by;

Input #0, video4linux2,v4l2, from '/dev/video0':
  Duration: N/A, bitrate: 147456 kb/s
    Stream #0:0: Video: rawvideo (YUY2 / 0x32595559), yuyv422, 640x480, 147456 kb/s, 30 fps, 30 tbr, 1000k tbn, 1000k tbc
No pixel format specified, yuv422p for H.264 encoding chosen.
Use -pix_fmt yuv420p for compatibility with outdated media players.
[libx264 @ 0x791eb0] using cpu capabilities: ARMv6 NEON
[libx264 @ 0x791eb0] profile High 4:2:2, level 3.0, 4:2:2 8-bit
[libx264 @ 0x791eb0] 264 - core 148 r2748 97eaef2 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2016 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=1 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=25 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to '/tmp/test.mp4':
  Metadata:
    encoder         : Lavf57.56.101
    Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv422p, 640x480, q=-1--1, 30 fps, 15360 tbn, 30 tbc
    Metadata:
      encoder         : Lavc57.64.101 libx264
    Side data:
      cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: -1
Stream mapping:
  Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (rawvideo (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=    0 fps=0.0 q=0.0 Lsize=       0kB time=00:00:00.00 bitrate=N/A speed=   0x
video:0kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: unknown
Exiting normally, received signal 2.

I will then create an .mp4 file that contains no video whatsoever as can be seen in the 0fps, 0kb above.

The cameras are recognized as well as their video modes. I have tried sudo and SU but no change other that writting permissions to the SD card.

Any pointers appreciated!

OiD

Posted 2019-01-21T18:49:43.090

Reputation: 1

FFMPEG not capturing from USB camera in Debian for Beaglebone Black

Answers