Reliable videoIn solution?

avaos · February 24, 2016, 10:40pm

Hello vvvv-group!

I’m trying to achieve a stable camera connection. I’m using a Avermedia Extremecap U3 framegrabber, which feeds HDMI to DirectShow 1080p 60fps. I’m using VideoIn in vvvv.

But VideoTexture isn’t nice to use with it.
I need to disable the VideoIn and enable it again when needed.

Sometimes it’s working fine, sometimes VideoTexture stops after 48 black drawn Frames and I need to reset it with switching from Pow2Stretched to NonPow2 and back. This switch takes a huge 8 Seconds to perform which is really bad. In that time, the framerate drops.
I can’t use NonPow2 because some frames get distorted.

I’d like to find a solution where the Video will just work after turning on VideoIn. Does anyone know how to handle it the right way? What’s going on in VideoTexture when it’s failing? May it be Avermedias driver?

Cheers, Andi

drehwurm · February 25, 2016, 11:46am

Hi Andi,

If you don’t need 64bit, the the Image Pack might be, what you’re looking for.

https://vvvv.org/contribution/vvvv.packs.image

Greetings,

Alex

sebl · February 25, 2016, 12:48pm

i’m currently developing this. so, in case you can use a IDS camera instead of that consumer-thingy, this could potentially solve all your problems.

DiMiX · February 25, 2016, 1:15pm

@sebl- very interesting,
is it imagepack? 32 or 64? dx9 or dx11?

sebl · February 25, 2016, 3:04pm

yes, it’ll be in the imagepack soon. dx9 or dx11 doesn’t matter, because you can convert an image to both.

the imagepack is focused on x86… i think it can be compiled for x64 but some nodes will not work. i don’t know if not-working nodes are essential ones.

avaos · February 26, 2016, 10:31pm

@ drehwurm: Thank you very much for the hint, it looked very promising, and when using it for the first time it worked flawlessly.
I was then enabling and disabling it while working fullscreen with two renderers (nice performance though!) but then it lost connection. On first attempt I got a still image and while trying to reset the camera and changing resolution there was no way back to 1080p60fps. It stayed in 640/480, even when I restarted vvvv!

So I think my problem may have something to do with Avermedias drivers, too. Having to restart the PC when an error occurs is not the deal :D. Plus, vvvv crashes when unplugging the USB-cable while obtaining an image via Imagepack… Well.

For the VideoIn-solution I figured out that I can change the FPS from 60 to 30 via toggle it’s resetting faster because it only has to be resetted once. But it’s only a workaround…

avaos · February 27, 2016, 2:04pm

Update: It has to do with the driver, because unplugging the device results in loss of preferences.
The Regional Settings changed from PAL to NTSC, resulting in 640/480 Video. Since the setting for the imagepack-videoin can only be done in preferences panel thats not an automated option for me.
BUT! I can use the old DX9-VideoIn to change that setting, even if its not enabled… I only have to disable the Imagepack-VideoIn once… What a hack… 0_o haha

The only real bad thing in imagapack is vvvv crashing when unplugging the USB-Cable. And vvvv crashing on startup when no DirectShow Device is available.

@sebl: Looks nice, but customer insisted in using a GoPro cam ;) but for the next application: i’m having a uEye laying around, would be nice to give it a try!

Cheers, Andi