Webcam capture "Play" = 8 second startup delay?

[jukpdou]

VLC 1.1.11
Windows XP SP3
AMD Athlon II X4
4GB ram
Microsoft Lifecam Studio webcam

Open Capture Device >
Video Device Name: "Microsoft Lifecam Studio"
Audio Device Name: "none"
> Play
= starts capturing in 2 seconds


but when I enable the audio:


Open Capture Device >
Video Device Name: "Microsoft Lifecam Studio"
Audio Device Name: "Studio - Microsoft Lifecam."
> Play
= starts capturing in 10 seconds

-------------

So it takes 8 seconds longer to start when audio is being captured. Is this normal?

I've tried hitting stop and then play again, same delay. (I thought maybe some caching mechanism would shorten the 8 second delay)



Any ideas?

[jukpdou]

Tried via command line, same result:

Video + Audio: 10 seconds to start capturing
vlc.exe dshow:// :dshow-vdev="Microsoft LifeCam Studio" :dshow-adev="Studio - Microsoft LifeCam." :dshow-caching=200 --sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1024,fps=30,width=320,scale=1,acodec=aac}:duplicate{dst=standard{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=".\!\out1.mp4"},dst=display{}} --extraintf=logger -vvv

No Audio: (removed ":dshow-adev="Studio - Microsoft LifeCam." "): 2 seconds to start capturing
vlc.exe dshow:// :dshow-vdev="Microsoft LifeCam Studio" :dshow-caching=1 --sout=#transcode{vcodec=mp4v,vb=1024,fps=30,width=320,scale=1,acodec=aac}:duplicate{dst=standard{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=".\!\out1.mp4"},dst=display{}} --extraintf=logger -vvv

----------------------

Log file (only part where delay occurs):

Code: Select all

dshow debug: found device: Realtek HD Audio Input dshow debug: found device: Realtek HD Digital input dshow debug: found device: Studio - Microsoft LifeCam. dshow debug: asking for device: Studio - Microsoft LifeCam. dshow debug: asked for Studio - Microsoft LifeCam., binding to Studio - Microsoft LifeCam. dshow debug: using device: Studio - Microsoft LifeCam. dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: output pin: Capture dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin: Desktop Microphone dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: trying pin Capture ******** 8 second delay here ********* dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin default format configured dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:44100 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:44100 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:44100 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:32000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:32000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:22050 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:22050 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:11025 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:11025 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:8000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:8000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:44100 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:44100 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:22050 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:22050 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:11025 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:11025 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:8000 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:8000 bits/sample:8 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:48000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:48000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:2, samples/sec:96000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: EnumDeviceCaps: input pin accepts format: araw, channels:1, samples/sec:96000 bits/sample:16 dshow debug: CaptureFilter::JoinFilterGraph dshow debug: connecting filters dshow debug: CaptureFilter::EnumPins dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryDirection dshow debug: CapturePin::ConnectedTo [not connected] dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryPinInfo dshow debug: CaptureFilter::QueryFilterInfo dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryPinInfo dshow debug: CaptureFilter::EnumPins dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryDirection dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryDirection dshow debug: CapturePin::QueryAccept [OK] (channels=2, samples/sec=44100, bits/samples=16, format=araw) dshow debug: CapturePin::ReceiveConnection [OK] dshow debug: CapturePin::NotifyAllocator dshow debug: filters connected successfully ! dshow debug: MEDIATYPE_Audio dshow debug: selected audio pin accepts format: araw dshow debug: Playing...

[VLC_help]

That sounds like a driver bug.

[jukpdou]

That sounds like a driver bug.

A bug in the camera drivers? Or VLC? Or my soundcard?

Thanks for the help

[VLC_help]

Studio - Microsoft LifeCam related, since that is taking a too long time.

[jukpdou]

Ok, I tried other 3rd party apps, and there is no delay (unless they use VLC drivers, for ex. iSpy which has the same 8 second delay to start recording ).

Ran test with: Active Webcam
http://www.pysoft.com/ActiveWebCamMainpage.htm

With the app closed, I started recording via command line ( "C:\Program Files\Active WebCam\WebCam.exe" /R_ON ):
pressing "enter" and have the recording start = 4 seconds

So it's not the webcam drivers per se, it's more likely the combination of webcam drivers and VLC. Skype and MSN start up quickly too.

[jukpdou]

Weird update: I updated to the latest version of iSpy, and it works great now. 2-3 seconds to start recording!
I noticed in the release notes it lists "Updated to use latest AForge framework and VLC wrapper and Tesseract Wrapper." so that might have something to do with it.

The latest compiled VLC still exhibits the delay.