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darp  
#1 Posted : Monday, June 15, 2015 2:12:03 PM(UTC)
darp

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Hello,

I got this card http://www.amazon.com/gp...h_aui_detailpage_o03_s00 a Syba 3 port 1394/Fire card for my win7 PC with i7 and 16 gigs.

The results. It works fine with one cam (GY-DV500 JVC) and a 920 Logi USB hooked up at same time, just fine. In fact the delay was about 1/2 sec on both, seemed synced perfectly,the USB and firewire time wise. vMix saw it as a "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" under cameras, but could not see it was a JVC. So for two cam system, seems so far just dandy. The color of two cams quite a bit off though, the USB much whiter, JVC yellower. The JVC closer to what my eyes see. So that would be a problem, if you are switching back and forth viewers would see color change. If that can not be fixed on cam side, is there something in vMix to match cam color/heat/white balance or whatever you want to call it? BTW the logi 920 is the flyer of 3, both DVs pretty close.

I will use separate post for difference on Logi versus old honkying big pro miniDV cam image quality.

Then got another miniDV firewire cam, a Sony DCR-HC28 (very small) It would work too, but both showed as exact same "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" in cam list, one after other. When I tried to use both vMix complained "insufficient system resources to complete the requested service".

And win7 complained too "Import media already started and running bla bla you can not start another bla bla"

Also with the Sony miniDv it did better when connected to 9pin on board, on the 6 pin would freeze, go negative, super pixelated, then be ok, etc. The JVC seemed to work fine with both 6 and 9 ports on board. I do not have two 9 pin cables, but another on the way. The board has two 9 pin one 6 pin.

It would be very nice for someone producing live 640 video to just use multi DV cams hooked to firewire ports. Any comments, has anyone got such a setup to work?

Cheers

Runnriottt  
#2 Posted : Wednesday, June 24, 2015 1:42:40 AM(UTC)
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We have just moved from Firewire (IEEE1394) recently. Not entirely, as we still use the same cameras. We are using Canon XL1s. These were upper end DV cams in their day. I ran into the very same issues you are having.

The problem with 1394 is that each lane needs its own card. You have to add a physical card each camera and that means you are limited to what your Mother board will support. Modern 1394 cards use X1 slots, but you can still source older ones that are PCI. The cool thing with X1 is they will work in all PCI-E slots. I even we nt as far as to buy an external Firewire port with its own power supply... no avail.

We wanted to expand. So...

We just switched to using the RCA out and an analog capture card. We were then able to free up PCI slots to expand USB 3.0. I actually get better resolution from this setup for these cameras. For us a good solution, and in the long run we still will upgrade to HD in the future, but breathed life in to this system for a couple years at least. We are recording and streaming now at 768x432 with no problems.

Each 1394 card would read as a camera once turned on.

We have 3 USB powered cameras as well. Again, headache from time to time as USB only works on a limited power supply from the board. A mouse and keyboard are minimal, but cameras chew up bus power. So now, with the expansion of USB 3.0 with its own power supply from the computer not the mother board we are cooking! All on the same card.

Really simplified our setup.

Short answer is you need more lanes the more cameras you add of this type (1394). Multi port cards do not pull enough power to run multi cameras at the same time.
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darp on 6/24/2015(UTC)
darp  
#3 Posted : Wednesday, June 24, 2015 11:13:20 AM(UTC)
darp

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Runnriottt wrote:
We have just moved from Firewire (IEEE1394) recently. Not entirely, as we still use the same cameras. We are using Canon XL1s. These were upper end DV cams in their day. I ran into the very same issues you are having.

The problem with 1394 is that each lane needs its own card. You have to add a physical card each camera and that means you are limited to what your Mother board will support. Modern 1394 cards use X1 slots, but you can still source older ones that are PCI. The cool thing with X1 is they will work in all PCI-E slots. I even we nt as far as to buy an external Firewire port with its own power supply... no avail.

We wanted to expand. So...

We just switched to using the RCA out and an analog capture card. We were then able to free up PCI slots to expand USB 3.0. I actually get better resolution from this setup for these cameras. For us a good solution, and in the long run we still will upgrade to HD in the future, but breathed life in to this system for a couple years at least. We are recording and streaming now at 768x432 with no problems.

Each 1394 card would read as a camera once turned on.

We have 3 USB powered cameras as well. Again, headache from time to time as USB only works on a limited power supply from the board. A mouse and keyboard are minimal, but cameras chew up bus power. So now, with the expansion of USB 3.0 with its own power supply from the computer not the mother board we are cooking! All on the same card.

Really simplified our setup.

Short answer is you need more lanes the more cameras you add of this type (1394). Multi port cards do not pull enough power to run multi cameras at the same time.


RunnRiottt, Thanks. Was guessing that, but now know it from your answer. In old days it seemed always extra slots available. But they have really cut back, made mistake in not getting a gamer or whatever PC with lots of slots. My GPU is so wide it obstructs nearby slot, leaving just one open. Wish had 5 open slots now.

You said We just switched to using the RCA out and an analog capture card. We were then able to free up PCI slots to expand USB 3.0. How did you add multiple analog input capture card and open a a slot at same time? What hardware did you use?

Also on USB3 card what cameras are you using with that?

Someone here posted about a 4 port USB card driving 4 cams, which sounded promising. Just this weekend looked into Running Canon DSLRs live thru USB. Canon has some free software it sounds like, plus SparkoCam has software for Canon and NIKON dslrs. I tried trial of spark and it seems only one cam and one instance of spark are possible.

It sounds like we are both on trail to finding simple way to have multicam setup and use older but good miniDV cams.

-darp
IceStream  
#4 Posted : Wednesday, June 24, 2015 7:09:44 PM(UTC)
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@ darp

As previously stated, multi port FireWire cards do not handle multiple cameras well...
If looking at analogue capture and you have USB 3 capability, I would strongly look into the Magewell USB Capture box

http://www.magewell.com/.../xi006ausb_features.html

Breakout cable for 6 component video connections, hard to beat that!
Although, it may be a little more than your desired 'cheap' solution.


Ice
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darp on 6/24/2015(UTC)
Runnriottt  
#5 Posted : Wednesday, June 24, 2015 7:30:14 PM(UTC)
Runnriottt

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We are using the Magewell capture box that has 6 inputs on a USB interface. Pretty slick. Pricy, but works well.

DLSRs have a hitch in you have to reset the camera all the time and they heat up. I would stay with a dedicated video camera.

If the 4 port USB interface is an EasyCap variant... wont work. Found out the hard way. computer recognizes one input. At first I thought that easycaps would fill the bill, but alas... nope. the picture quality was pretty bad and the USB bus would not handle well the load of these cards. Drivers are shaky at best and boot up and getting them stable proved a chore.

So I have a pile of them on my desk gathering dust. In a pinch maybe for a VCR type input, maybe.
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darp on 6/24/2015(UTC)
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