again Philips webcam spc 1000nc

English Hardware
#1

Hello, I have a ‘working’ Philips webcam on Suse Linux.
The only thing I don’t seem to get working is the microphone.
I can select two mixers in kmix, but it seems to be interpreted as two different mixers.
With alsamixer -c1 (1 for the philips webcam mixer) I can change the level, but when exit and reopen the mixer gui, it is always on 0.
With skype it seems to give a signal, but very low. Not really hearable.
So basicly everything seems to be fine. The video works, and the microphone also works from technical point of view. However the microphone is useless, if the sound level is that low, and not be able to make it higher.

I tryed on a laptop with older suse version and a desktop with suse 11.0. Both the same result. Video works fine.

I am not sure this has anything to do with being a webcam.
To me it seems a problem with a usb ‘mixer’ and a normal sound card mixer in one system.

Does anybody know how to set the record level of this usb webcam microphone to a usable lever ???

Kind regards,

#2

I do NOT use Skype, so I can not help you configure that program.

But I might be able to help you generically configure your mic outside of Skype. Please read this URL/guide for configuring your microphone
Microphone - openSUSE

In particular, pay attention to the need to run in a terminal, and talk into and test your mic:

arecord -vv -fdat foo.wav

Assuming you are using openSUSE-11.0, and only if that does not work, then with your mixer configured the way you believe correct (and advise us which mic input you are trying to use (front? back ? internal? external) please provide the output of copy, pasting, and running (with your PC connected to the Internet) in a terminal:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

that will diagnose your PC’s audio setup. While running that script, please select “upload/share” the information option. When the script is complete it will upload the information to the alsa site and give you a URL. Please post the URL here. Just the URL.

and in addition to the diagnostic script, please provide the output of:

rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

again, only provide the above if you fail to properly tune your mic with arecord command.

#3

In particular, pay attention to the need to run in a terminal, and talk into and test your mic:
Code:
arecord -vv -fdat foo.wav
This does not give an error, but since there is no microphone connected to the soundcard, this is not possible to record a sound.
Selecting the Card1 does not give an error, but the verbose mode does still show the intel mixer, not any clue to the Philips webcam.

~> arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ICH7 [Intel ICH7], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH7]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH7 [Intel ICH7], device 1: Intel ICH - MIC ADC [Intel ICH7 - MIC ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH7 [Intel ICH7], device 2: Intel ICH - MIC2 ADC [Intel ICH7 - MIC2 ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH7 [Intel ICH7], device 3: Intel ICH - ADC2 [Intel ICH7 - ADC2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Webcam [Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

~>arecord -vv -d20 -fdat foo.wav
Recording WAVE ‘foo.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Direct Snoop PCM
Its setup is:
stream : CAPTURE
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 48000
exact rate : 48000 (48000/1)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 16384
period_size : 1024
period_time : 21333
tstamp_mode : NONE
period_step : 1
avail_min : 1024
start_threshold : 1
stop_threshold : 16384
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 4611686018427387904
Hardware PCM card 0 ‘Intel ICH7’ device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : CAPTURE
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 48000
exact rate : 48000 (48000/1)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 16384
period_size : 1024
period_time : 21333
tstamp_mode : ENABLE
period_step : 1
avail_min : 1024
start_threshold : 1
stop_threshold : 4611686018427387904
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 4611686018427387904
#+ | 00%

~> aplay foo.wav
Playing WAVE ‘foo.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Stereo
(20 second of silence)

Assuming you are using openSUSE-11.0, and only if that does not work, then with your mixer configured the way you believe correct (and advise us which mic input you are trying to use (front? back ? internal? external) please provide the output of copy, pasting, and running (with your PC connected to the Internet) in a terminal:
This is not possible. I can only select a ‘mixer’ device. Two mixer devices. There I think is the origin of the problem. I can set mixer settings for a Intel ICH7, and Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam. They are not ‘merged’ So in the Intel mixer, I can only select the analog microphone jack input’s, and the volume settings of the output device. If I select the ‘mixer’ Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam, I have only one slider, the adjustment of microphone.
The mixer ICH7 does NOT show a slider for the Webcam microphone.

Here I see the effect if I start alsamixer.
I can start alsamixer, then the usb is not shown.
To show the usb mixer, the philips webcam, i have to start
alsamixer -c1.

alsamixer
[FONT=Lucida Console]Card: Intel ICH7 │
│ Chip: Analog Devices AD1981B │
│ View: [Playback] Capture All │
│ Item: Master [dB gain=0.00, 0.00]
[/FONT]
alsamixer -c1
│ Card: Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam │
│ Chip: USB Mixer │
│ View: Playback [Capture] All │
│ Item: Mic [dB gain=18.00]

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

!!-------Mixer controls for card 1 [Webcam]

Card hw:1 ‘Webcam’/‘Philips CE Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam at usb-0000:00:1d.7-3, high speed’
Mixer name : ‘USB Mixer’
Components : ‘USB0471:0332’
Controls : 2
Simple ctrls : 1
Simple mixer control ‘Mic’,0
Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: Capture 0 - 2560
Mono: Capture 1 **[0%] **[18.00dB] [on]

Your ALSA information is located at http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=5a311540bf7fb7e218a874259026327b962d3823

~> rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-plugins-samplerate-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-1.0.16-39.1
alsaplayer-0.99.80-1.pm.13.9
alsa-plugins-maemo-1.0.16-57.1
FA_clalsadrv-1.1.0-136.1
alsa-plugins-maemo-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-docs-1.0.16-39.1
alsa-patch-bay-debuginfo-1.0.0-0.pm.2
alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-705.1
alsa-plugins-jack-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-patch-bay-1.0.0-0.pm.2
alsa-plugins-jack-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-firmware-1.0.16-24.1
alsamodular-debuginfo-1.8.7-0.pm.2
alsa-tools-gui-1.0.16-47.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-patch-bay-debugsource-1.0.0-0.pm.2
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-utils-1.0.16-35.1
alsa-plugins-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-tools-1.0.16-47.1
alsa-plugins-samplerate-1.0.16-57.1
alsa-oss-1.0.15-48.1
alsamodular-1.8.7-0.pm.2
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.15-48.1

rene@linux-y4yo:~> rpm -qa | grep pulse
xmms-pulse-0.9.4-0.pm.1
libpulse0-32bit-0.9.10-26.1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.11-27.1
gstreamer-0_10-pulse-0.9.7-42.pm.1
pulseaudio-0.9.11-27.1
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.11-27.1
libpulse-browse0-0.9.11-27.1
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.11-27.1
libpulsecore4-0.9.11-27.1
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.11-27.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit-1.0.16-57.1
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.11-27.1
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.16-57.1
audacious-plugins-output-pulse-2.1-4.pm.8.1
gstreamer-0_10-pulse-debuginfo-0.9.7-42.pm.1
gmerlin-pulseaudio-0.4.0-0.pm.1
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.11-27.1
libao-pulse-0.9.3-123.1
libxine1-pulse-1.1.16.3-2.pm.6.6
gstreamer-0_10-pulse-debugsource-0.9.7-42.pm.1
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.11-27.1
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.11-27.1
libmpg123-0-pulse-1.9.1-0.pm.3.1
vlc-aout-pulse-1.0.2-0.pm.5.12
libpulse0-0.9.11-27.1
pulseaudio-module-gconf-0.9.11-27.1

~> rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.16-39.1

**~> **uname -a
Linux linux-y4yo 2.6.25.18-0.2-default #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

~> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd slots=snd-intel8x0

r0Vg.RYfHXvQAHX5:82801G (ICH7 Family) AC’97 Audio Controller

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

Kind Regards,

#4

If I understand correctly, you are attempting to get the integrated mic in your USB web cam to record sound?

I have a Phillips Web cam (different model) - mines a

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0471:0311 Philips PCVC740K ToUcam Pro [pwc]

I don’t recall ever having the Phillip’s web cam internal mic working under Linux. I recall years ago, when I first purchased it, my wife had the mic working under Windoze, but its recording was a major source of irritation back then (as Windoze was constantly giving her unwanted feedback), so she disabled it in Windoze. Subsequently she gave the webcam to me, and I’ve only used the webcam video aspects.

But to possibly help, here is a page with some possible ideas:
USB mic on Linux - Audacity Wiki
Take a look especially at the bottom of that page.

My experience from exchanging emails with friends, and reading posts on this forum, is with openSUSE-11.0 and 11.1, is the hotplug auto mounting of USB mics does not work well. Some times one needs to boot with the USB mic plugged in the USB port, in order for the mic to be recognized better.

I have 1.0.21 of alsa installed on my PC, and I played for about 20 minutes with many different mixer settings, and I did not succeed in recording from the USB mic. I can record from a nominal “non-USB” plugged in external mic.

I found alsamixer works better than kmix when it comes to adjusting the capture levels on the mic. I note on your diagnostic output that while you have USB mic capture ON, the capture levels are at 0%. You probably need to move that up.

Sorry that I can not help more. Good luck with your efforts.

#5

I found some disturbing notes in my message file:

pulseaudio[3735]: x11wrap.c: XOpenDisplay() failed
pulseaudio[3735]: module.c: Failed to load module “module-x11-xsmp” (argument: “”): initialization failed.
kernel: usb 1-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6
kernel: usb 1-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kernel: usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0471, idProduct=0332
kernel: usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
kernel: usb 1-3: Product: Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam
kernel: usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Philips CE
kernel: Linux video capture interface: v2.00
kernel: ALSA sound/usb/usbaudio.c:1301: 6:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
kernel: uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam (0471:0332)
kernel: input: Philips SPC 1000NC Webcam as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb1/1-3/1-3:1.0/input/input6
kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
kernel: USB Video Class driver (SVN r200)
pulseaudio[3735]: pcm_hw.c: open /dev/snd/pcmC1D0c failed
syslog-ng[1854]: last message repeated 6 times
pulseaudio[3735]: alsa-util.c: Error opening PCM device plughw:1: Device or resource busy
pulseaudio[3735]: module.c: Failed to load module “module-alsa-source” (argument: “device_id=1 source_name=alsa_input.usb_device_471_332_noserial_if2_sound_card_0_alsa_capture_0”): initialization failed.
pulseaudio[10683]: control.c: Invalid CTL plughw:1
kernel: ALSA sound/usb/usbaudio.c:1301: 6:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
kernel: ALSA sound/usb/usbaudio.c:1301: 6:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84
kernel: ALSA sound/usb/usbaudio.c:1301: 6:3:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x84

#6

All good information to add to a bug report to have this capability added. Guidance here for raising bug reports: Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE I recommend you initially raise this against component “sound” although its possibly the sound guru’s may blame the webcam driver.

I get no such errors from my webcam, and I still do not have the mic functioning:

from dmesg:

usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0471, idProduct=0311
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 0169000039B50101

usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 4
usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0471, idProduct=0311
usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 0169000039B50101

From /var/log/messages

Oct 18 21:48:49 hal1000 kernel: usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 5
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0471, idProduct=0311
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 0169000039B50101
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: Linux video capture interface: v2.00
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: Philips webcam module version 10.0.13 loaded.
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: Supports Philips PCA645/646, PCVC675/680/690, PCVC720[40]/730/740/750 & PCVC830/840.
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: Also supports the Askey VC010, various Logitech Quickcams, Samsung MPC-C10 and MPC-C30,
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: the Creative WebCam 5 & Pro Ex, SOTEC Afina Eye and Visionite VCS-UC300 and VCS-UM100.
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: Philips PCVC740K (ToUCam Pro)/PCVC840 (ToUCam II) USB webcam detected.
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: pwc: Registered as /dev/video0.
Oct 18 21:48:50 hal1000 kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver Philips webcam
Oct 18 21:48:51 hal1000 kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
Oct 18 21:48:51 hal1000 pulseaudio[5396]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 6 channels, changed to 1
.........
Oct 18 22:18:05 hal1000 pulseaudio[5578]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 6 channels, changed to 1.