[GnomeMeeting-list] [REPORT] Results with 0.98.4 and FireWire webcam

[Chris Rankin <rankincj yahoo com>]

Hi,

I am using an ADS API-203 FireWire webcam, with libdc1394-0.9.1, pwlib-1.5.2 and 
openh323-1.12.2.

According to coriander-0.9.3 (another libdc1394 app), this camera has the 
following formats available:
- 160x120 YUV (4:4:4)
- 320x240 YUV (4:2:2)
- 640x480 YUV (4:1:1)
- 640x480 YUV (4:2:2)
- 640x480 RGB24
- 640x480 Mono 8bpp

Now coriander appears to display all of these modes correctly, so I'm fairly 
sure that the hardware is OK.

I have not yet established a remote link with anyone because I am still 
wondering how best to accomodate gnomemeeting's port-requirements with my 
firewall. (Yes, I've found the relevant section in the FAQ.) So all my testing 
has currently been via the "webcam" button on the toolbar. I have made the 
following observations:

- The picture hugs the top-left corner of the display window.
- When I select a 'small' picture, the colours look "wrong" somehow. It's hard 
to be specific, but I have a strange purple hue and the room is sickly yellow. 
However, if I select a 'large' picture and zoom out (making the picture the same 
size as a 'small' one) then everything is fine. I'm guessing that pwlib doesn't 
support the correct colour pallette for native 160x120 mode?
- I can go "full screen" OK, except that the picture is in the top-left corner 
again.
- None of the brightness/whiteness/colour/contrast sliders has any effect that I 
can see.

Again according to coriander, the maximum frame rate for this camera is 30 fps 
(in most modes). Gnomemeeting's frame rate doesn't approach anything like that, 
and I'm guessing that's because it is being bandwidth-friendly? Anyway, the 
upshot of this is that the Linux-2.4.22 video1394 kernel module complains a lot:

Sep  7 18:06:06 twopit kernel: video1394_0: iso context 0 listen on channel 0
Sep  7 18:06:06 twopit kernel: video1394_0: Waking up iso dma ctx=0
Sep  7 18:06:37 twopit last message repeated 243 times
Sep  7 18:07:38 twopit last message repeated 460 times
Sep  7 18:07:59 twopit last message repeated 178 times
Sep  7 18:07:59 twopit kernel: video1394_0: Iso context 0 stop talking on channel 0

According to the IEEE-1394 kernel developers, this means that the camera is 
supplying data faster than gnomemeeting is reading it. I have recompiled my 
video1394 kernel module to remove the "Waking up" message.

I can't think of anything else. Do most of the video gconfig options refer to 
the local/remote pictures rather than the webcam view?

Cheers,
Chris