Success with VLC 0.7.2, DirectShow Input, and DigitalVideo

[kjo]

In case anyone is interested, I have had some success using the DirectShow input of VLC 0.7.2 with DigitalVideo (DV) hardware. Since this did not work under VLC 0.7.0 (no audio - see viewtopic.php?t=910&highlight=), I wanted to report the good news!

I have a Canopus ADVC-1394 capture card that shows up as an OHCI compliant 1394 device to the operating system. The ADVC-1394 takes in any analog Video/Audio source and presents it to the OS as OHCI-compliant Firewire Card connected to a DigitalVideo (DV) device. I am running Windows 2000 Advanced Server on a Dell PowerEdge 600SC Server, Pentium 4 2.4Mhz with 384Meg of RAM.

After hitting the refresh buttons, the DirectShow input screen sees the 1394 video device correctly (Microsoft DV Camera and VCR). I set the audio device to None.

I was able to view (and hear!) the program locally on the Server. I was also able to transcode and then stream the program (UDP multicast) out to the LAN. However, I could not view the program locally and stream at the same time due to CPU limitations.

I did the same thing with my USB webcam (Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000). In this case, I was even able to view the program on the server and stream at the same time.

I am continually amazed at what the VideoLAN team can do. Great Job!

Thanks,

kjo

[Gibalou]

Good to hear
Thanks for the report.

[starhaw]

I, too, am trying to setup the Logitech 4000 to stream.

I can see it locally but have had no luck seeing it on another machine.

I can stream a file and see it on the lan using UDP.

Can you elaborate on how you were able to get the Logitech 4000 and a DV device to work?

Thanks

[kjo]

Starhaw,

Since you've been able to view the output locally, I think you are almost there.

Beyond what I've already stated in my earlier post, have you done the following:

1. You have to transcode and then stream the output. I've done most of my testing with UDP multicast. I have had no success yet with http. Also, I'm not sure if all of the video encoders work. I had success with mp2v for video and mp3 for audio.

2. The process of transcoding and then streaming can be CPU intensive. You may want to check your CPU utilization. If it is pegged at 100%, then it probably won't work. You can save some CPU cycles by not viewing the file locally on your server/source machine.

Hope that helps!

kjo



[/b]

[omi]

Starhaw,
2. The process of transcoding and then streaming can be CPU intensive. You may want to check your CPU utilization. If it is pegged at 100%, then it probably won't work. You can save some CPU cycles by not viewing the file locally on your server/source machine.

Hi

On a p3 900 mhz I have 6 streams going (6 transcodes) and I would say cpu utilization doesn't get above 20%, but this is on Linux 2.6.4.

Best regards,

Oleg Mitsura

[markfm]

6 transcodes? I use about 20% doing one transcode on a high motion 320x240 original, 2.6 GHz P4, and also about 20% on a 640x480 medium motion framegrabbed series, 3 GHz P4. VLC performance seems to scale properly with CPU capability, as expected (framegrabber on a machine with 1/2 the GHz takes about twice the CPU %).

Any chance you aren't actually transcoding, but rather streaming already encoded files? Otherwise, working with really low resolution video (say, 120x90)? I'm curious, since my experience is with Windows, but VLC is, essentially, all about number crunching; i586 opcodes are the same in Linux or Windows, making use of the CPU's math instruction and data handling features. (Individual compilers optimize better or worse, but there ought not be that huge a difference when starting from the same C source code.)

[ROLIF-AV]

I'm having a hard time getting audio streams out of my Sony DCR-TRV460 camera. I'm able to stream video to file, network etc and media information shows some audio activity but no sound. I've tried all the settings that I think of including setting audio device to none.

System info
VLC version 0.9.8a
Windows XP SP3
Realtek AC97 Audio

dshow:// :dshow-vdev="Sony Digital Imaging Video2" :dshow-adev=""
:sout=#transcode{acodec=mpga,ab=128,channels=2}:duplicate{dst=display,dst=std{access=file,dst=test.ps}}

Any help will be very much appreciated. I'm very close to setting up a VLC streaming server.
thanks

[ROLIF-AV]

Well, an update on the problem of getting audio streams out of my sony dcr-trv460 (USB streaming); Under "Pin Line Input" (Default Audio configuration), I enabled microphone and was able to get audio streams using a mic attached to my sound card. I still don't know why I'm not getting audio in VLC on the USB stream. The camera works fine on Skype.