timeshifting live directshow feed from camcorder

[GymTech]

Hello - I need some help doing something that I thought would be fairly simple - I want to set up VLC with a camcorder live input (WinXP, directshow) and delay the display by 45sec - the application is at a gymnastics facility - the kids do 30 second drills and then can walk over and watch their drill. I tried using the caching value in the directshow options, however if this value is set to more than 10 sec, the video becomes very jerky - more like a series of snapshots than a video. Using the timeshift filter works for a short while, but than the live stream "catches up" - it doesnt stay delayed for 45 sec, it slowly creeps up to live. Any ideas on how to do a smooth 45 sec delay? Thanks in advance

[dionoea]

change input buffers to 45000ms

[GymTech]

Thanks, but how do I do this?

According to documentation, the size of the input buffers can be adjusted from the "Advanced options" dialog for the DirectShow device. However the only related option I can see in this dialog is "Caching value in ms". This works OK for timeshift as long as the delay is under 10 sec (10000ms) but over this amount and the video freezes - if I set it to 15 sec for instance, I get a screen update every 15 sec, not smooth video delayed by 15 sec. Is there something I am missing here?

[Nine]

I tested out what you said, and I got the same problem even at 10s.

Alternatively I tried something else that worked for me, a loop back stream with a delay.

Go to 'Settings'->'Preferences...', then 'Stream Output'->'Access ouput'->'UDP', check the 'Advanced Options' checkbox. You will then see caching value in ms edit box, change it to 45000. Save.

Now 'File'->'open capture device...', choose your device. Then in 'Advanced options', check the 'Stream/Save' box. Click on 'settings'. For 'output' check 'UDP', put the UDP address 127.0.0.1 (you might not need to), then choose a video codec (I tried mp4v as it was default). If you want audio, you will probably need an audio codec (I didn't though). hit okay. This will stream the video to yourself.

Now Open another VLC, 'File'->'Open Network stream...', make sure UDP is selected, then click ok. And this one should recieve the stream (might take 40 or so seconds, depending on how fast you did the other stuff ) but this works for me.