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4 USB cams on one system....
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Just thought I'd share my recent experience with multiple web cams on a system. I had purchased a 5 portx2 port internal USB3 interface card thinking I could put multiple USB web cams on a single connection because of the additional bandwidth available on USB3. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that, In fact, I was forced to use only 3 of my 5 external ports because they share bandwidth between ports as well. Therefore, I could only use port 1, 3, and 5 externally. Last week, I found this, ordered it, and placed it in my system last night. http://www.amazon.com/gp...03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Notice this has 4 Dedicated 5Gbps Channels! A system with built in video, and 3 x16 PCIe slots running at x4 "should" be able to handle 12 USB cameras with 3 of these interfaces! I currently have a Logitech C920 running at 1080p, 2 c270s running at 720 p and a MS lifecam runing at 1080p, all connected to this interface. All 4 ports being used on a PCIe x4 slot in my system. Just wanted to share that this is working great thus far, with all 4 cameras displaying in vmix, and the system has no complaints about bandwidth being used up on any particular port. Haven't checked to see if I can squeeze 2 cameras on a single channel yet. If I can, this is going to be very helpful to me. The C920, is currently on a channel with a USB3 hub sharing a WD external USB drive, a Behringer UCA202 Audio interface, and an Alesis MultiMix 8 USB FX 8 mixer, and all is good on that channel.
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3 users thanked madness for this useful post.
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Joined: 8/2/2013(UTC) Posts: 1,072 Location: Fairhope, Alabama USA Thanks: 553 times Was thanked: 200 time(s) in 166 post(s)
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Very interesting post. Thank you.
How is your CPU usage when using all four cams at the same time?
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1 user thanked sinc747 for this useful post.
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vMix was running around 18% on my recently rebuilt i7-920 quad core system running 2.67Ghz, on Win 10 tech preview. Primary drive is a 256g Toshiba SSD, and additional 12G memory now to supplement the original 6G.
18% was also with a Startech USB3HDCap connected, capturing my laptop HDMI to a front panel USB3 connection on another interface card. That was also a 1080p capture.
I haven't determined if this is normal or not as yet. Still have a bit of testing to do before I can be completely comfortable with it. Got some videos I had trouble with audio on recently, and the CPU was similar on the win 7 6 gig overloaded 120G SSD. I need to find out if I have similar audio issues now also.
I've been using these same 4 cameras on this system for the last couple years, but mostly utilizing USB2. I would be happy if I can get 2 cameras on each channel, so I can extend the2 cameras 5-15 meters on a single cable instead of 2.
Currently running all 4 cameras on 5M extensions.
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1 user thanked madness for this useful post.
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interesting! have you checked the overall CPU usage via Windows's resource meter?
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A couple of years ago, I was running out of USB bandwidth. I installed a USB PCI card, and switched back to a PS2 keyboard and mouse. It made things work a whole lot better.
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richardgatarski wrote:interesting! have you checked the overall CPU usage via Windows's resource meter? No, Not yet. It's something I will look at, but not sure when. This system has a lot going on currently, trying to return it to it's previous "ready" state. Loaded much of the software back onto it last eve, as well as recovered one of my accidentally deleted drive partitions that had most of my vMix content on it, including the video I was having audio issues with previously. I should correct myself also. The last 2 years I've been using 3 of the 4 webcams. I was leaving one of the c270s home.
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Just out of curiosity I have order one of these cards. Thanks, madness! I'll post my results back here.
I suspect there are a number of talk show hosts doing shows in their spare bedroom full of sofas and webcams that would love this solution.
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Was doing a "Last chance" recovery on a 2TB hard drive last night. Looks like I'll be outta work early today, so maybe this afternoon I can check out some 2 cams on 1 channel configurations, and see if it works or complains.
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I did try 2 cameras on a single channel, and it works. That's as far as I got. In the meantime, I got a weekly email from youtube that included this link from Streaming idiots speaking about this card, and vmix.
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madness wrote:vMix was running around 18% on my recently rebuilt i7-920 quad core system running 2.67Ghz, on Win 10 tech preview. Primary drive is a 256g Toshiba SSD, and additional 12G memory now to supplement the original 6G.
18% was also with a Startech USB3HDCap connected, capturing my laptop HDMI to a front panel USB3 connection on another interface card. That was also a 1080p capture.
I haven't determined if this is normal or not as yet. Still have a bit of testing to do before I can be completely comfortable with it. Got some videos I had trouble with audio on recently, and the CPU was similar on the win 7 6 gig overloaded 120G SSD. I need to find out if I have similar audio issues now also.
I've been using these same 4 cameras on this system for the last couple years, but mostly utilizing USB2. I would be happy if I can get 2 cameras on each channel, so I can extend the2 cameras 5-15 meters on a single cable instead of 2.
Currently running all 4 cameras on 5M extensions. See you mentioned running Windows 10 preview in your post. Are you also using vMix 15? Seems Windows 10 and vMix very compatable.
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15.0.0.74. I have more trouble with Windows 10 than vMix. I keep losing the start menu in Windows 10.
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madness wrote:In the meantime, I got a weekly email from youtube that included this link from Streaming idiots speaking about this card, and vmix. Ah, that would be me. Small world. Thanks for the YT posts, btw.
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1 user thanked sinc747 for this useful post.
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:D
I didn't make the connection until now... Sinc = Tom Sinclair!
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sinc747 How has this been working for you?
Mine got sidetracked with Windows 10 preview. Finally getting all my software organized again to try it further. Having some motherboard issues at the moment. Seem to have lost a PCIe slot in my computer when I lost power at the last event. Seems it wasn't plugged into the UPS like it was supposed to be, and wasn't protected as it was intended to be.
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madness wrote:sinc747 How has this been working for you?
Mine got sidetracked with Windows 10 preview. Finally getting all my software organized again to try it further. Having some motherboard issues at the moment. Seem to have lost a PCIe slot in my computer when I lost power at the last event. Seems it wasn't plugged into the UPS like it was supposed to be, and wasn't protected as it was intended to be. Thanks for sharing your info, was wondering about the very same things. Using 920s and that board is a very easy and cheap multicam system.
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Joined: 7/1/2015(UTC) Posts: 1,151 Location: Houston TX Thanks: 319 times Was thanked: 263 time(s) in 233 post(s)
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I have used 4 USB webcams on a Windows system running both vMix and Wirecast.
In truth, which cameras you use matters a lot. Since the Logitech C920 requires a dedicated driver you can only use one. However, the C930 does not require a driver, it's a generic UVC device. As such you can connect several without driver level conflicts.
The MS Lifecam you cite may be a problem. Unlike the better logitech cameras (I have at least one each of C920/C930/BCC950/CC3000e/PTZ Cam Pro) it does not have an onboard H.264 encoder. Thus it requires more bandwidth on the USB bus.
I just checked a LifeCam Studio on my system. When put in 1080p mode make sure that you select MJPEG as the video format. It will default to YUY2. Only MJPEG allows you to get decent frame rate.
I especially like the way vMix lets you set the video format for the webcam. Wirecast for Windows doesn't.
Michael
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Thanks for that Michael! I'll take a look at adjusting my settings.
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Joined: 7/6/2015(UTC) Posts: 2 Location: Lagos, Nigeria
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I want to 4 cameras to my laptop into Vmix. Previously, i use a USB video grabber that helps me grab one video into my laptop (easyworship). Now i have Vmix, i want four cameras. Can i use a USB video grabber that has multiple input to do that?
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Joined: 4/16/2013(UTC) Posts: 406 Location: Iowa Thanks: 281 times Was thanked: 32 time(s) in 29 post(s)
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That's a subject for it's own topic, as this topic is for the 4 port dedicated USB card for a PCIe slot. It won't work on a laptop, and I am not aware of a 4 port grabber using a single USB output to a laptop.
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Joined: 6/29/2015(UTC) Posts: 5 Location: Leipzig
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