Experiences with the easycap DC60 audio and video capture adapter on Linux

This Blog is dedicated to all owners of the STK1160 chip based EasyCAP (or identical) devices, who want to use it under Linux.

Activating audio for the STK1160 device: read the this post

German speaking users: read my article on ubuntuusers.de

The EasyCAP DC60 and its clones are cheap little USB analogue capturing devices which can be used for viewing and recording video under Linux from different sources like VHS tape recorders, satellitereceivers, camcorders ...

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Activate audio for the STK1160 device

The stk1160 module registers a control-only alsa soundcard. This sound card is called 'stk1160-mixer'.
The real sound capture is done through the 'Controlle' soundcard which is also created after plugging in the EasyCAP.
To get a list of the registerd ALSA soundcards, run the following command:
cat /proc/asound/cards
Sample output:
  0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xf0580000 irq 44
 1 [stk1160mixer   ]: stk1160 - stk1160-mixer
                      stk1160 ac97 codec mixer control
 2 [Controlle      ]: USB-Audio - USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle
Syntek Semiconductor USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.1, h

Activate audio

To enable sound capture you have to open alsamixer when the EasyCAP is plugged in and select the 'Line' item on the capture menu for the stk1160-mixer device:
1. start alsamixer
2. select stk1160-mixer sound card (with F6)
3. select capture controls (with F4)
4. select "Line" output (with space key) 
You can do this on the commandline as well with this line:
amixer -c stk1160mixer sset Line unmute cap 

Note! In the viewing- or capturing program you must then select the 'Controlle' soundcard or its number to hear sound!
Posted by at

6 comments:

  1. RockyAugust 20, 2015 at 5:59 PM

    basie@antecl ~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards
    0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
    HDA Intel at 0xd0500000 irq 45
    1 [Controlle ]: USB-Audio - USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle
    Syntek Semiconductor USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle at usb-0000:00:1d.7-8, hig
    stk1160 is missing!
    what to do? thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew SchalkAugust 21, 2015 at 7:31 AM

      Hi,
      maybe you have got the Easycap - stk1160 model with the sound chip missing.

      Plug out an in again your device an look at the output of
      dmesg
      on the commandline. Maybe you can find a hint there for what causes your problem.
      Andrew

      Delete
    2. RockyAugust 25, 2015 at 5:37 PM

      Hi,
      Don't know what to think. plugged out and in and no change!

      95.578656] usb 1-7: USB disconnect, device number 3
      [ 95.578723] stk1160: freeing 0 urb buffers...
      [ 95.578725] stk1160: all urb buffers freed
      [ 95.578796] stk1160: releasing all resources
      [ 132.928021] usb 1-7: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-pci
      [ 133.060779] usb 1-7: New USB device found, idVendor=05e1, idProduct=0408
      [ 133.060785] usb 1-7: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
      [ 133.060788] usb 1-7: Product: USB 2.0 Video Capture Controller
      [ 133.060790] usb 1-7: Manufacturer: Syntek Semiconductor
      [ 133.061203] usb 1-7: New device Syntek Semiconductor USB 2.0 Video Capture Controller @ 480 Mbps (05e1:0408, interface 0, class 0)
      [ 133.061207] usb 1-7: video interface 0 found
      [ 133.541029] saa7115 7-0025: saa7113 found @ 0x4a (stk1160)
      [ 134.849786] stk1160: driver ver 0.9.5 successfully loaded
      [ 134.937527] AC'97 0 access is not valid [0x0], removing mixer.
      [ 134.937537] stk1160: registers to NTSC like standard
      [ 135.091851] stk1160 1-7:1.0: V4L2 device registered as video0
      Thank you


      Delete
    3. Andrew SchalkAugust 26, 2015 at 8:41 AM

      Hi,
      the message
      [ 134.937527] AC'97 0 access is not valid [0x0], removing mixer.
      says, that there is no sound chip (AC'97 chip) inside your Easycap.
      It is a known issue, that on most webshops it is not mentioned which chips are inside the offered Easycap devices.

      If you want to capture sound alongside with the video of your Easycap you need to plug in the sound source to the line-in/ microphone jack of your soundcard and select then the
      0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
      input in the capturing program as mentioned on the other pages here.

      Maybe you can get some crappy sound from the
      1 [Controlle ]: USB-Audio - USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle
      input because the stk1160 chip provides 8-bit mono audio.

      Hope that helps.
      Andrew

      Delete
    4. NicoAugust 17, 2016 at 10:21 AM

      Thanks Andrew, article is fine and thx to you I now know why there is a empty spot on the pcb for a chip... the sound chip.

      I did remember hearing sound under windows. wonder how I could make it work under linux, but I probably dont want to bother, because 8bit is too low.
      Gonna rebuild my capturecard anyway (case is broken)

      Is it posible to get this 8bit mono sound anyway under a linux version?

      the sound chip apears to be ALC101, some aliexpress sellers mention this, and their capture cards are above 10(15) coins, I got mine for arround 5... I nolonger wonder why...

      2 coins (usd or euro) for the chip and still have to solder... no, better buy a new card or connect audio to your mic in ;)
      Thanks again Andrew

      Delete
  2. Christian FlanaganSeptember 5, 2016 at 3:16 PM

    Great resource. Thanks for this blog. I have the reverse problem. I got great audio but no video signal. Source is VHS. The output it there. I have a /dev/video0 file. I've tried. Mplayer, QV4L2, VLC Media Player. Great audio, no video. I've searched a lot of web sites and read a lot of articles. If you've got any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

    ReplyDelete

Please be patient, your comment will be published as soon as I'm checking my mailbox next time.
So, I will notice your comment for sure. Andrew

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)