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DV cams (Read 1172 times)
error
DV cams
Aug 20th, 2007, 2:04pm  

Hello,

I know that this is not exactly the right place to post this topic but I'm having some troubles and need help of any sort. And since this is the video section of the forum..

I need to capture the application on a DV cam while its running full-screen. (In order to rip it back to .avi and lay the audio track on it afterwards, using a video editor) Can anyone suggest a resource on how to make this process work? Possibly a web resource. I'm not very confident with cameras and there's no one around me who has done this kind of thing.

I'd appreciate if someone could direct me somewhere,

Thanks,

Emre.
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jaylfk
Re: DV cams
Reply #1 - Aug 20th, 2007, 2:52pm  
Hi,

what you describe can be done with Quicktime Pro, iMovie (Mac), Video9 (PC) or any Video capture software.

Why would you need to use Processing and waste the time to mix down your video with the separate audio tracks ?

You should also consider that Processing (Java) is not intented to be used for realtime video capture (320x240 is the maximum resolution to keep a decent framerate).
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error
Re: DV cams
Reply #2 - Aug 20th, 2007, 4:11pm  

hey,

I'm making a 'generative video+audio' type of thing. I was planning to use the moviemaker library, but as you said, the frame rate issue becomes a problem when running in high resolution, especially when making a movie file while running the app. Under the topic 'generative video+audio' in the 'sound' forum, I found dave bollinger's code for doing this, but I still encounter strange problems with the frame rates.

It looks decent enough or at least satisfactory when I run the app normally, so I thought the best way would be to record it on a dv cam and rip it back to .avi. Laying the audio file shouldn't be a big problem, since there should be just a few hundred milliseconds of difference between the onsets of audio and the video. If I am not missing something.

If you can suggest something practical then I'll definitely go for that.

thanks a lot,

emre.
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jaylfk
Re: DV cams
Reply #3 - Aug 20th, 2007, 9:06pm  
Error,
If you want to get good results, you'll have to use the "ANIMATION" Compression Codec Type.
This solution is the least CPU intensive but requires a fast HardDisk and Space.

The resulted file will be big but the good side is that the framerate/quality will be the best you can get. Then later, you can convert it to any Codec (h.264, divx..) you want to get a smaller file size.

I'm getting 60fps at 720x576 and 1024x576 (pal anamorphic) MovieMaker rendered files on a 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo with a 7200RPM HDD using a Firewire DV Camera. Smiley
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« Last Edit: Aug 21st, 2007, 12:41am by jaylfk »  
 
error
Re: DV cams
Reply #4 - Aug 21st, 2007, 12:30am  

hello,

file size is not important. I have tried RAW, H264, and a couple of other compression types except ANIMATION, in the BEST and LOSSLESS qualities. I'll give it a shot right now but I'm not sure it will work as good.

1024x768 is what I need. I'm using a macbook 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Duo with a 5400RPM HDD.

So, I am planning to connect the DV cam through an S-video cable which is connected to a mini DV adapter that goes into my mac. (in order to capture the screen) Can it also be done directly by firewire then?

As I said, I'll try to avoid using a DV cam to do this but it seems like thats the only option for me right now.

Thanks,

Emre.
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jaylfk
Re: DV cams
Reply #5 - Aug 21st, 2007, 12:55am  
IF you want to save a playing sketch/app as video file, just forget about the DV recording.

Save it by using MovieMaker Animation codec and setup the framerate according to your sketch's framerate.

mm = new MovieMaker(this,width,height,"mysavedsketchvideo.mov", X, MovieMaker.ANIMATION, MovieMaker.HIGH);

X = your sketch's framerate declared in setup()

PS: have you got an Overclocked Macbook ?  i think you've got a 2.16 Smiley
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error
Re: DV cams
Reply #6 - Aug 21st, 2007, 1:15am  


I'll try this as soon as I get some free disk space on my macbook Smiley in a couple of hours. but again, I don't think it would make big difference. even if I lose just one frame per second, this means that the animation's going to be useless, since there will be no audio+video sync. It simply takes a lot of processing power to play the audio file, analyse it, and make very fast visual reactions; all at the same time. (I'm not including the factor of writing a movie to hdd while doing all these)

sorry, yeah, it is 2.16.

emre.
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error
Re: DV cams
Reply #7 - Aug 21st, 2007, 2:26am  


as I anticipated, its not working properly. the reason's explained in this thread.

http://processing.org/discourse/yabb_beta/YaBB.cgi?board=Video;action=display;num=1186844463

my computer can not generate enough frames, so when I specify,say,24 fps, and the laptop manages to generate 12 fps only, the resulting animation becomes two times faster than it should be. this is why I'm trying to do this using a DV cam.
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jaylfk
Re: DV cams
Reply #8 - Aug 21st, 2007, 10:58am  
Sorry to hear you can't render and export your sketch at the same time.

The only solution in your case, considering that your sketch is optimized to the max, is actually to record the video output to a DV cam.
But you gonna lose some quality (Digital/Analog/Digital transfer), especially with the crappy Apple MiniDVI > Video Composite adapter quality.

If you can use a friend's faster computer and export you sketch as a file might be the best solution.
(as a quality fanatic, i would rather choose this solution) Cheesy
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error
Re: DV cams
Reply #9 - Aug 21st, 2007, 11:39am  


there will be some kind of decrease in quality for sure, but my last option is directing the camera to a big screen and recording it while running the app. which would be even more primitive.

anyway, thanks a lot for the help. I will be putting this stuff on a website when its finished and put a link somewhere here to get some feedback.

thanks again,

emre.
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haptic
Re: DV cams
Reply #10 - Aug 27th, 2007, 9:33pm  
Have you considered using a video screen-capture utility? Such as iShowU (http://www.shinywhitebox.com/home/home.html) I have used this app for a few projects, for me personally it seemed to have a lot less of an effect on the sketches playback than MovieMaker does.
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error
Re: DV cams
Reply #11 - Aug 27th, 2007, 9:59pm  

thanks for the suggestion, I have already considered a couple of these softwares. But I need the highest possible quality, and already found a way to record my sketch offline, (almost) without any sync problems.

thanks.

emre.
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