Live feeds.

[KillingFrenzy]

I'm currently using a cheapo ATI TV wonder usb capture device to get live video/a streaming source into my laptop to use with visualJockey. visualJockey uses a standard VFW or WDM device for capture, as do most other programs, it would seem. Most visuals programs won't allow you use a DV device for a live stream. So, even though I have a firewire port, I'm using this analog capture device for my live in. The problem is, I hate USB 1.1 because not only is it not much bandwidth, but it seems to be a chunky, unstable, not particularly smooth data flow. The result is uneven results in the stream I'm running. Since I do lots of distortion/manipulation on a decent looking stream, I'd like to keep the quality as close to the original as possible (hehehe).

So, I'm looking for external solutions for my laptop which I can hook up via firewire, pcmcia or usb 2.0 to get better quality. Nobody ever seems to list if these devices work as generic drivers, seeing as most of them come with their own proprietary software.

Specifically, I'm wondering if anyone has tried out the Dazzle DVC150.

Or one of these.
http://ged.virtualave.net/zvcap.htm

I'm hoping somebody has some real-world experience. I'm getting sick of the little stutters from my stupid USB 1.1 device.

[petewarden]

I'm using a Hauppauge WinTV USB, I'm haven't noticed any stuttering or obvious compression artefacts, but then I'm limiting myself to 320x240 at 30fps.

My plan's to move to a better res, so I'll also be very interested in other people's setups. In particular, if anyone has got anything that would work with a PC laptop, basically PCI cards are out!

thanks,
Pete

[petewarden]

> when quality is required, it still seems to make sense to use a
> mixer for cam and the puter as the feed..

I agree with that, I can't get anywhere near the res I'd like feeding a live feed through my laptop. I have managed something that I find acceptable for my purposes though, with a combination of a capture device that does a good job on compression and VisualJockey's smooth scaling up from 320x240 input to 640x480 output.

If I could get a hardware mixer that did everything I wanted, I'd use it, but since there isn't one, I'm making the best of a bad job, resolution-wise.

> Any chance of an example output frame for reference?

I'd hate to do that, since I'm sure the constant movement hides a lot of sins that would be obvious in a still image.

I have got a webcast I did this week up though:

http://real.vibeflow.com:8080/ramgen/wrongsauce/wrongsauce.2002-11-11.synik.rm

It's compressed for web streaming, so it doesn't really give you much of an idea of the image quality, but at least it should show you what I'm trying to do that I can't do in hardware. Since this is a studio shoot, you'll have to imagine the extra cameras doing the same sort of stuff with the crowd.

Thanks to KrezRock for sorting out the night despite all the problems.

Pete

[burstingfist]

Very cool pete, a good demo of your plugins...

I usually split the live feed so that it goes to the mixer AND a computer running visualJockey. This helps to make up for the 320x240 resolution and I get a "free" digital delay effect when both signals are equally mixed. Actually, when in low light scenarios, the computer can look better than the raw feed because the noise due to lack of light gets blurred, so it is a smoother image.


According to Dazzle's description of the 150, it is 25% better quality than USB 1.0 devices. Not really sure what that means.

[KillingFrenzy]

Using this -
http://www.orangemicro.com/webcamdv.html

I'm able to translate a firewire in into a VFW device to use as an input.

640x480

Though I'm not sure exactly what the performance hit is going to be. Seems qualitatively much nicer looking and much smoother than my USB device.

I'm just running the trial version... wish you could just pay and register online, instead of having to physically order the damn thing.

I don't really do much with live camera feeds, usually am bringing in a source and using the computer for effects. Mirroring, tiling, distortion on an input, often mixed with the original source.

I actually find that throwing effects on crowd footage can bring out the accents. Flat footage or nightvision is b-o-r-i-n-g. Highlighting, edge outlines, and other "enhancing" effects seem to make people happy. Sort of like putting reverb on a kareoke mike, makes the bad dancers look better than they are.