Winnov Videum on Linux

Bill Dirks - September 10, 2002

Note [Nov 2005]: I have not worked on my Linux projects in a long time now. My stuff on this website was never maintained after Linux 2.4. I have no plans for updating these drivers for newer kernels or newer Winnov devices, sorry.

This page is for things related to using the Winnov Videum line of video capture cards on the Linux operating system. In particular, Video for Linux Two drivers for Videum cards (and Philips EasyVideo).

There are two video capture drivers, one for the ISA and PCI cards, and another driver for the PCMCIA Videum Traveler camera. The Traveler driver is available at another site. See below.

There is an audio capture and playback driver that works with the PCI cards, and some ISA cards.

About the Winnov Drivers

Video Capture Driver for ISA and PCI cards

The driver at this point doesn't support all the features of the Videum card. Here is an approximate list of the features.

Compatible with Videum PCI and Videum ISA cards, and the Philips EasyVideo cards, but not Videum 1000 or VideumII
Uses bus-mastering and hardware interrupts on PCI cards
Captures in the following pixel formats: RGB555, RGB565, RGB24, RGB32, YUV 4:2:2, YUV 4:2:0, and 8-bit greyscale
Captures up to 384x288 (from a PAL source), even on ISA Videums
Supports non-blocking reads, and read-ahead for better performance
Supports the Video for Linux Two memory-mapped buffers, and streaming capture functions
Supports multiple cards per system
Backward compatible to the original video4linux API

Audio Driver for PCI cards

The audio driver uses the OSS API. It supports all the audio features of the Videum PCI AV card, including recording, playback, and all volume control and mixer functions. It does not work with every Videum AV card. It requires the Winnov WAVI-97 chip and CS4218 sound chip. That basically means it works with PCI AV cards, PnP ISA AV cards, and maybe some recent legacy ISA AV cards. If you do not have one of those cards you can maybe still use the mixer functions, but you can't record or play audio. The audio driver uses files that come in the video capture driver package, and you generally need to have the latest video capture driver too. Audio driver readme file.

Downloads

If you would like to use the drivers, download by clicking on a link below. I suggest taking a peek at the readme file before downloading. Note that there is a different version of the driver for Linux kernel versions 2.2.x and for kernel versions 2.4.x.

These video capture drivers use the Video for Linux Two API, which does not come with the standard kernel. V4L2 is a kernel module that must be installed first. Get the V4L2 videodev.tgz, or, preferably, videodevX.tgz file. The contents of this file are necessary to compile and load a Winnov driver, so get it and follow the instructions to build and install the V4L2 base module. A few small programs that work with the driver are also available at that site.

Driver Downloads for Kernel 2.2.x

V4L2 Videum ISA/PCI video capture driver wnv20010429.tgz 2001-04-29 (48KB)

Videum PCI AV audio driver wnvaud19990921.tgz 1999-09-21 (10KB)

README file for video capture driver README Kernel 2.2.x

All driver versions Winnov FTP directory Kernel 2.2.x

Driver Downloads for Kernel 2.4.x

V4L2 Videum ISA/PCI audio and video capture drivers videum-20020910.tgz 2002-09-10 (63KB)

README file for drivers README Kernel 2.4.x

All driver versions FTP directory Kernel 2.4.x

**Driver Downloads for Kernel 2.2.x**
V4L2 Videum ISA/PCI video capture driver	wnv20010429.tgz	2001-04-29 (48KB)
Videum PCI AV audio driver	wnvaud19990921.tgz	1999-09-21 (10KB)
README file for video capture driver	README	Kernel 2.2.x
All driver versions	Winnov FTP directory	Kernel 2.2.x

**Driver Downloads for Kernel 2.4.x**
V4L2 Videum ISA/PCI audio and video capture drivers	videum-20020910.tgz	2002-09-10 (63KB)
README file for drivers	README	Kernel 2.4.x
All driver versions	FTP directory	Kernel 2.4.x

Log of changes and bug fixes.

Brief Install Instructions for Kernel 2.2

Download videodev*.tgz from here.
Download wnv*.tgz
Download wnvaud*.tgz (if you want audio support)
Unpack videodev*.tgz in /usr/src/linux
Unpack wnv*.tgz in /usr/src/linux/drivers/char
Unpack wnvaud*.tgz in /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound (if you want audio)
Edit your kernel configuration if needed to enable Video for Linux as a module.
Edit the makefiles in /usr/src/linux/drivers/char and ../sound as needed.
Build modules and kernel if needed.
Edit /etc/modules.conf to configure the module parameters and enable automatic module loading.
Make the /dev/... device nodes.

See the readme files in the packages for the details.

Installation Example for Kernel 2.2.

Notes from installing the Winnov drivers and RealProducer and RealServer on a RedHat 6.2 system.

Brief Install Instructions for Kernel 2.4

Download and install videodevX from here.
Download videum-??????.tgz
# tar zxvf videum-??????.tgz
# cd videum
# make
# make install
You may want to edit your /etc/modules.conf file.
You may need to add /dev/video* device nodes.
See the README file for details.

Questions

Note that I developed this driver myself. Winnov did not develop it, and they do not know anything about it, except that it exists. Winnov helped me with this project by providing me with Videum cards, and some driver source and technical assistance.

If you have problems, questions, comments, you can email me at bdirks@pacbell.net, or post to the winnov.public.unix newsgroup on news.winnov.com, or post to the video4linux mailing list.

Drivers for the PCMCIA Videum Traveler

This driver is based on my ISA/PCI card driver, but was developed at the University of Michigan. See their page at

http://mobility.eecs.umich.edu/software.htm

Here is a copy of the U-Mich driver for kernel 2.2.x on my FTP server.

Here is a copy of the U-Mich driver for kernel 2.4.x on my FTP server.