Tested/Working Video Capture devices for Processing & OS X

d2kagw

Hi all,

I'm working on a project that requires a live video stream from my TV. Obviously it's super easy to get Video Capture to work using web cams or the inbuilt FaceTime/iSight cameras, but I'm having difficulty finding a video capture device that works on the Mac.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this and could suggest a capture device that works without too much hassle?

So far I've tried a few variations of the EzCap 60/60+/etc devices without any luck on OS X or Ubuntu (god stuck in driver hell on Linux).

Thanks in advance

codeanticode

Adding support for specialized capture devices with the current version of the built-in video library is difficult because it would require adding the appropriate gstreamer plugins to access to the hardware. This discussion http://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/comment/2864#Comment_2864 touches on some of the current problems with the video library. Until those problems are solved, an option could be to use the capture functionality in javacv, which offers access to FFmpeg, libdc1394, PGR FlyCapture, OpenKinect, videoInput, and ARToolKitPlus. Javacv is not a Processing library, but Java, so it should be possible to incorporate it into a Processing sketch.

d2kagw

Thanks for the recommendation on JavaCV. I'll give it a go since I'm actually writing my sketch as Java classes, so might be an easy route to take.

However, I was hoping that someone might pop up with a suggestion on a device that they know works with Processing "out of the box", fingers crossed that scenario might yet present itself.

codeanticode

A possible solution/hack for this kind of problem, at least on OSX, could be to write a Quartz patch that grabs the video using capture elements available in Quartz, and then send it to Processing using Syphon. I've used Quartz only a couple of times, so I'm not sure if this would work, but just wanted to throw it out there.

Florian

Hi everyone/d2kagw,

I am currently trying to solve the same problem. I have the EzCap video Capture device and a camera pluged to it. I would like to grab the video with processing but I didn't manage to do it so far. I am on windows 7 using processing 1.5 but I have access to a Mac if needed where I can use Syphon. I am also using Java CV in my program already. Did you manage to make it work ? Any tips ?

Thanks,

Florian

d2kagw

Hi Florian, No luck my end so far - I'm actually looking at some alternate devices (will be trying an Grass Valley ADVC which seems to be a common device in other threads and forums). I'll be sure to post back here on my progress.

Florian

Hi d2kagw,

Thanks for your answer !

I found a solution which worked in my case. I used a small freeware called SplitCam available here : http://splitcamera.com/ The EzCap was recognize by SplitCam as a webcam and Processing was then seeing it (using JMyron library).

Hope it will help some people.

Florian

d2kagw

Oh great Florian, I'll give it a go today!