EM28xx - new device ID - Ion "Video Forever" USB capture dongle

EM28xx - new device ID - Ion "Video Forever" USB capture dongle

[Philip Pemberton]

Hi folks,

This is my first post here (I think?) and I'm going to make it an
informative one :)


TL/DR:
  Can someone please add this to the device ID list for the em28xx module?
    Ion "Video Forever" - USB ID EB1A:5124, Card Type 9.
  Confirmed as working with Xawtv and VLC, video source PAL composite
from a FLIR camera; S-video and audio untested as I have no suitable
source to hand.
  Test platform: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring", kernel 3.8.0-21-generic
#32-Ubuntu SMP x86_64


The longer version:

I found this thing in a local Maplins under stock code A27KJ for the
princely sum of £29.99 on special offer. According to the box, it's a
"Video Forever VHS-to-Digital Video Converter" by ION (www.ionaudio.com).
Strangely they don't list it on their website, so perhaps it's a special
for Maplin?


lsusb says:

Bus 001 Device 084: ID eb1a:5124 eMPIA Technology, Inc.


The CD-ROM in the packet is apparently a driver set for an "ezcap"
device ("Ezcap Video Grabber"), the INF file suggests it's an EM2860
series chip. For a laugh, I did this:

sudo modprobe em28xx card=9
echo eb1a 5124 | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/em28xx/new_id

Which has the effect of loading the EM28xx driver with cardtype forced
to 9 (which seems to be a generic EM2860-based device ID), then adding
the new device ID (temporarily) to the module.


Dmesg after doing this:

> [377328.118295] usb 1-1.4.3.5: new high-speed USB device number 94 using ehci-pci
> [377328.217158] usb 1-1.4.3.5: New USB device found, idVendor=eb1a, idProduct=5124
> [377328.217160] usb 1-1.4.3.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
> [377328.217162] usb 1-1.4.3.5: Product: USB VIDBOX FW Audio
> [377328.217163] usb 1-1.4.3.5: SerialNumber: USB2.0 VIDBOX FW
> [377328.217448] em28xx: New device  USB VIDBOX FW Audio @ 480 Mbps (eb1a:5124, interface 0, class 0)
> [377328.217450] em28xx: Video interface 0 found
> [377328.217451] em28xx: DVB interface 0 found
> [377328.217506] em28xx #0: chip ID is em2860
> [377328.344000] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 00: 1a eb 67 95 1a eb 24 51 50 00 20 03 8c 28 6a 22
> [377328.344007] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 10: 00 00 24 57 06 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344012] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 20: 02 00 01 00 f0 10 01 00 00 00 00 00 5b 00 00 00
> [377328.344016] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 30: 00 00 20 40 20 80 02 20 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344020] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c4 00 00
> [377328.344025] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 50: 00 a2 00 87 81 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344029] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 60: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 03 55 00 53 00
> [377328.344033] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 70: 42 00 32 00 2e 00 30 00 20 00 56 00 49 00 44 00
> [377328.344038] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 80: 42 00 4f 00 58 00 20 00 46 00 57 00 28 03 55 00
> [377328.344042] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 90: 53 00 42 00 20 00 56 00 49 00 44 00 42 00 4f 00
> [377328.344047] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom a0: 58 00 20 00 46 00 57 00 20 00 41 00 75 00 64 00
> [377328.344051] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom b0: 69 00 6f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344055] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344060] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344064] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344068] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
> [377328.344074] em28xx #0: EEPROM ID= 0x9567eb1a, EEPROM hash = 0x806f2156
> [377328.344075] em28xx #0: EEPROM info:
> [377328.344076] em28xx #0:	AC97 audio (5 sample rates)
> [377328.344076] em28xx #0:	500mA max power
> [377328.344078] em28xx #0:	Table at 0x24, strings=0x288c, 0x226a, 0x0000
> [377328.344080] em28xx #0: Identified as Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90/100/101/107 / Kaiser Baas Video to DVD maker / Kworld DVD Maker 2 / Plextor ConvertX PX-AV100U (card=9)
> [377328.706041] saa7115 4-0025: saa7113 found (1f7113d0e100000) @ 0x4a (em28xx #0)
> [377329.472675] em28xx #0: Config register raw data: 0x50
> [377329.496532] em28xx #0: AC97 vendor ID = 0x83847652
> [377329.508515] em28xx #0: AC97 features = 0x6a90
> [377329.508517] em28xx #0: Sigmatel audio processor detected(stac 9752)
> [377329.967933] em28xx #0: v4l2 driver version 0.1.3
> [377330.990725] em28xx #0: V4L2 video device registered as video0
> [377330.990727] em28xx #0: V4L2 VBI device registered as vbi0


Fire up Xawtv or VLC, select the device, enjoy.

Thanks,
-- 
Phil.
philpem@philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/

Re: EM28xx - new device ID - Ion

[alxgomz]

Thanks a lot. I just bought the same device from my local maplin as well as
I felt lucky today! :)
Will try it soon and let you know how thing went.

regards, Alex.

Re: EM28xx - new device ID - Ion "Video Forever" USB capture dongle

[alxgomz]

Hi Philip,

Thank you for sharing this bit of info. I just bought what I think to be the
very same device from local maplin too.
I have loaded it using your tweak.
Just like you the composite video input works just great, however I can't
get any sound captured using the RCA audio leads. 
The S-video doesn't work either :( (only one new v4l2 video source is
registred loading the device driver). 

I have done all my test using ffmpeg (and arecord to test audio only) but I
am quite confident the outcome would be the same with other programs.

When loading the driver with card=9, I can see in the log:

"em2860 #0: Sigmatel audio processor detected(stac 9752)"

I wonder how much "detection" there is here under the hood, as I suspect the
module param may have forced this (wrongly perhaps).
So as far as I am concerned, this ion thingy doesn't match exactly, the 9 card.
How can I gather more informations about that device?

Regards Alex.

Re: EM28xx - new device ID - Ion "Video Forever" USB capture dongle

[P. van Gaans]

On 26-05-13 11:23, Philip Pemberton wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> This is my first post here (I think?) and I'm going to make it an
> informative one :)
>
>
> TL/DR:
>    Can someone please add this to the device ID list for the em28xx module?
>      Ion "Video Forever" - USB ID EB1A:5124, Card Type 9.
>    Confirmed as working with Xawtv and VLC, video source PAL composite
> from a FLIR camera; S-video and audio untested as I have no suitable
> source to hand.
>    Test platform: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring", kernel 3.8.0-21-generic
> #32-Ubuntu SMP x86_64
>
>
> The longer version:
>
> I found this thing in a local Maplins under stock code A27KJ for the
> princely sum of £29.99 on special offer. According to the box, it's a
> "Video Forever VHS-to-Digital Video Converter" by ION (www.ionaudio.com).
> Strangely they don't list it on their website, so perhaps it's a special
> for Maplin?
>
>
> lsusb says:
>
> Bus 001 Device 084: ID eb1a:5124 eMPIA Technology, Inc.
>
>
> The CD-ROM in the packet is apparently a driver set for an "ezcap"
> device ("Ezcap Video Grabber"), the INF file suggests it's an EM2860
> series chip. For a laugh, I did this:
>
> sudo modprobe em28xx card=9
> echo eb1a 5124 | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/drivers/em28xx/new_id
>
> Which has the effect of loading the EM28xx driver with cardtype forced
> to 9 (which seems to be a generic EM2860-based device ID), then adding
> the new device ID (temporarily) to the module.
>
>
> Dmesg after doing this:
>
>> [377328.118295] usb 1-1.4.3.5: new high-speed USB device number 94 using ehci-pci
>> [377328.217158] usb 1-1.4.3.5: New USB device found, idVendor=eb1a, idProduct=5124
>> [377328.217160] usb 1-1.4.3.5: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
>> [377328.217162] usb 1-1.4.3.5: Product: USB VIDBOX FW Audio
>> [377328.217163] usb 1-1.4.3.5: SerialNumber: USB2.0 VIDBOX FW
>> [377328.217448] em28xx: New device  USB VIDBOX FW Audio @ 480 Mbps (eb1a:5124, interface 0, class 0)
>> [377328.217450] em28xx: Video interface 0 found
>> [377328.217451] em28xx: DVB interface 0 found
>> [377328.217506] em28xx #0: chip ID is em2860
>> [377328.344000] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 00: 1a eb 67 95 1a eb 24 51 50 00 20 03 8c 28 6a 22
>> [377328.344007] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 10: 00 00 24 57 06 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344012] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 20: 02 00 01 00 f0 10 01 00 00 00 00 00 5b 00 00 00
>> [377328.344016] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 30: 00 00 20 40 20 80 02 20 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344020] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 c4 00 00
>> [377328.344025] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 50: 00 a2 00 87 81 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344029] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 60: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 03 55 00 53 00
>> [377328.344033] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 70: 42 00 32 00 2e 00 30 00 20 00 56 00 49 00 44 00
>> [377328.344038] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 80: 42 00 4f 00 58 00 20 00 46 00 57 00 28 03 55 00
>> [377328.344042] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom 90: 53 00 42 00 20 00 56 00 49 00 44 00 42 00 4f 00
>> [377328.344047] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom a0: 58 00 20 00 46 00 57 00 20 00 41 00 75 00 64 00
>> [377328.344051] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom b0: 69 00 6f 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344055] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344060] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344064] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344068] em28xx #0: i2c eeprom f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> [377328.344074] em28xx #0: EEPROM ID= 0x9567eb1a, EEPROM hash = 0x806f2156
>> [377328.344075] em28xx #0: EEPROM info:
>> [377328.344076] em28xx #0:	AC97 audio (5 sample rates)
>> [377328.344076] em28xx #0:	500mA max power
>> [377328.344078] em28xx #0:	Table at 0x24, strings=0x288c, 0x226a, 0x0000
>> [377328.344080] em28xx #0: Identified as Pinnacle Dazzle DVC 90/100/101/107 / Kaiser Baas Video to DVD maker / Kworld DVD Maker 2 / Plextor ConvertX PX-AV100U (card=9)
>> [377328.706041] saa7115 4-0025: saa7113 found (1f7113d0e100000) @ 0x4a (em28xx #0)
>> [377329.472675] em28xx #0: Config register raw data: 0x50
>> [377329.496532] em28xx #0: AC97 vendor ID = 0x83847652
>> [377329.508515] em28xx #0: AC97 features = 0x6a90
>> [377329.508517] em28xx #0: Sigmatel audio processor detected(stac 9752)
>> [377329.967933] em28xx #0: v4l2 driver version 0.1.3
>> [377330.990725] em28xx #0: V4L2 video device registered as video0
>> [377330.990727] em28xx #0: V4L2 VBI device registered as vbi0
>
>
> Fire up Xawtv or VLC, select the device, enjoy.
>
> Thanks,
>

Hi Philip,

Very interesting post!

I also have an unsupported em28xx device, a MSI Digivox Trio 
(http://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/MSI_DigiVox_Trio) which I suspect to 
be similar to a PCTV QuatroStick nano. If I use the device ID from my 
stick and card number from the QuatroStick to forceload the em28xx 
driver, would that be safe? Or would I risk destroying the USB stick? I 
don't know if it's actually the same, all I know is that it shares many 
(maybe all) components.

Best regards,

Pim

Re: EM28xx - new device ID - Ion "Video Forever" USB capture dongle

[alxgomz]

So latest news... It seems this USB dongle actually has an EM202 audio
processor instead of the Sigmatel reported in the logs.
I edited em28xx_audio_setup in em28xx-core.c accordingly and I can now
capture audio using the composite interfaces.
However joy didn't last really long as I soon realised audio capture didn't
worked as soon as I did open the video device at the same time.

To summarize:

ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video1 /tmp/test.avi --> Works
ffmpeg -f alsa -i hw:1 /tmp/test/wav --> Works
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video1 -f alsa -i hw:1 /tmp/test.avi --> video OK but
no Audio

Regarding the S-Video that doesn't work I think it's just a matter of card
definition in em28xx-cards.c.... I will give a try several combination, nad
possibly update the wiki in case I end up to a satisfactory result.

In any case I'd be happy to have any insight regarding the problem when
audio doesn't work if video device is accessed at the same time.