How to get low latency video input?

vvvv beta question
1

hi guys!

will an analog capture card do this? or are there more cost efficient ways to get low latency video input?
i thought about getting a card with 3 inputs and checked the link section about the video hardware.

do they have a direct show filter, i mean can i select each videoinput just from the videoinnode? or how does this work?

could you recommend a specific card?

THX

2

nowadays i’d recommend usb2 or ethernet cameras for lowest latency, as e.g. provided by ids imaging.

cheap analog cards with multiple inputs usually only allow you to switch between inputs, but not use them simultaneously. you can use multiple cheap analgo cameras, but would then have to deal with interlaced images (in case you need the full resolution). so anyway usb2 or ethernet cameras are the way to go i’d say.

3

if you need live video from a cam i could recommend the playstation eye cam, with these drivers:

very good latency at 640x480 60fps for 35 euros. and you can attach even different lenses (s-mount).

unfortunately just one cam is possible at once without doing some crazy input device pin switching…

4

hi,

i’ve tested many cheapo usb webcam’s at 640x480@25fps and i always have to deal with a big latency… around 100 ms, the fastest usb device i use was an analog(s-video) to usb converter (pinnacle pctv) the delay was around 50 ms.

firewire camera’s(cam coders) are not a good choice regarding latency… >100 ms

is there a way to know the latency of the PS eye cam and the
GigE uEye???

for a multi cam setup does a mid range / non “cheap analog card with multiple inputs” can work with vvvv…with 3 cam’s at a time?

and finally how ethernet cameras (like the GigE uEye) can be accessed through the videoin node?

5

@circuit:

  • firewire camera’s(cam coders) are not a good choice regarding latency… >100 ms
    right, cam-corders are no good, but uncompressed firewire is just as fasta s ethernet and usb2 cams.

  • is there a way to know the latency of the PS eye cam and the
    GigE uEye???
    can’t give you any figures, but i’d say the gige uEye ethernet cameras, uncompressed firewire or usb2 cameras are all the same lowest latency you can achieve.

  • for a multi cam setup does a mid range / non “cheap analog card with multiple inputs” can work with vvvv…with 3 cam’s at a time?
    as mentioned in my first post. most likely not, as the hardware can’t do it. there are more expensive cards with multiple inputs that work at the same time.

  • and finally how ethernet cameras (like the GigE uEye) can be accessed through the videoin node?
    it is always just about a WDM-driver that the hardware has to support. if it does it will show up in the VideoIn’s Driver pin. the GigE uEye cams come with such a driver.

6

thx joreg

7

for the GIGE ueye i can only say that the wdm drivers exist only for the 32bit versions of windows, but the plug written by joreg goes vvvvery well, i use it everyday, no latency and a really good and stable stream

8

thanks screamer…
64 bit drivers here :)

9

yes, i know and i tried it, but seems that in the win7 64bit version of the driver there is’nt the wdm drivers, so videoin don’t shows up the camera. only 32bit version seems to work (with 32bit os of course)

10

Some time ago I bought a four channel survailance card on ebay.
I thought it was about 50,- euro.
If you want cheap, this is a possibility

Latency is not great though…

Here is my post from back than.

11

hey peter
thanks for the tip but i’m not sure i’ll go for
a soldering solution right now :)
and i need a pci xpress card
also found this card with WDM drivers :
Videum 4100 Xpress

not sure about latency & multi input usage
but seems MSBERGER successfully used the Videum 4400 Pci model

12

@ elektromaier

yeah i got one of those PS3 EYEs. it’s got lower latency than the Logitech Pro 9000.

could you tell me more about this “crazy input device pin switching”?

cheers

13

My next card was a videum 4400.
Because I wanted a better latency as with the kodicom card I choose this one.
Unfortunately the latency didn’t change much.
The image quality is a lot better though.

When I used this card I had some driver troubles with my video card.
Never found what the problem was, just changed the video card.
(didn’t have enough time at the moment)

BTW
The soldering wasn’t that much of a deal.
Just four short wires to disable the matrix…

14

@ elektromeier

How do you get 640x480 60fps out of the ps3 eyecam using directshow / vvvv / cl-driver ?

I installed the cl-driver (and SDK), but the highest selectable framerate is 30fps. Of course i can manually set the framerate pin to 60, but the stream format stays at 640x480@30.

What is the trick ?

Markus

15

@schlonzo: two video ins, plugin both cams. uplug/replug cams, unplug/replug connections from video in to file texture. you have to do that wildly in different orders and suddenly it shows both cams pictures… really strange and not really usable. maybe i a direct show bug that is actually a feature :D

@msberger: add this to a textfile called: cleye.config

{CODE(ln=>1)}

^
copy the file in the same directory where your vvvv.exe is.

this enables the additional frame rates…

16

@ele: your post seems to miss some lines…

17

lines are missing because it is not possible to write the xml-code as text in the post.

I attached the cleye.config to this post.

Alterrnatively the documentation can be found here

Thank you elektromeier for pointing towards the cleye.config.

Markus

cleye.config (100 Bytes)

18

hmm

if you download cleye.config it saves as cleye.xml !?

… needs to be renamed to cleye.config to be used.

Markus