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USB Capture devices for three camera feeds
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mrbryce2000  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, December 4, 2012 11:35:30 AM(UTC)
mrbryce2000

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Let me first say that this software is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for creating such a software affordable for people like me!

Like many people on this forum, the supported capture cards are way out of my price range (although I would love to use them). I have researched many USB capture card devices to use with three cameras via S-Video. The Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Creator works very well, so I purchased two more. Here is the scenario:

- Three Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Creator USB devices
- Each device is on it's own USB bus (two busses on-board, and one add-on PCI-E card)
- There are no errors via either Device Manager or vMix, however only one device shows a video signal
- Each device works by itself, but only one shows video when more than one is connected.

I have a cheap KWorld device that I tried with one of the Dazzles, which worked (vMix showed two camera feeds).

So here is my theory: you can use multiple USB capture devices as long as they are each a different makes and models. Am I correct? I already know that the Dazzle and KWorld devices work with vMix, what about Avermedia or StarTech? One forum post I read here cautioned to not use Happauge USB devices.

What do you think? Which devices do you use?

By the way, my machine is an Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM running Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit.

Thank you for your assistance!
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mrbryce2000  
#2 Posted : Wednesday, December 5, 2012 10:51:09 AM(UTC)
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Ok, so here is an update:

I downloaded the updated drivers for the Dazzle DVC100 devices. That allowed me to use two of them (plugged into separate USB busses). So those two combined with my KWorld USB dongle provided the three capture devices that I needed (vMix worked with all three just fine).
Although I've tested everything, I won't know for sure until Sunday, when it's time to record the service.

I know, this is definitely not the professional way to do this. I'd rather have three firewire cards with three Canopus ADVC110 devices. However even those are too expensive for me.

This just means that I'll have to save up for the Intensity Pro cards in the future, when I'm ready to start recording in 720p. :-)

I hope this post helps someone. Take care!
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mrbryce2000  
#3 Posted : Saturday, December 15, 2012 2:38:56 PM(UTC)
mrbryce2000

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Alright, update to the update. Bottom line, you can't use two Dazzle capture devices together. Trying to do so caused a blue screen error after about 45 minutes.

So the hard lesson learned: if you have to use USB devices, use different makes and models (each input being a different device).

I'll be saving up for the recommended capture devices in the future.
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mrbryce2000  
#4 Posted : Thursday, December 20, 2012 1:40:40 PM(UTC)
mrbryce2000

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OK, the three USB capture devices are working, but not as well as I would like (yeah, I wasn't that surprised either). I want to save up for the recommended Blackmagic devices, but golly, they really confuse me! Please, what would be something simple that would work for three camera feeds (currently S-Video, eventually HD)?

I have one PCI-e slot, and one PCI slot.

The Decklink Quad is out of the question.
The Decklink Studio only has two inputs.

Would it work to install a PCI-e USB 3 adapter, and use three Intensity Shuttle devices?

Any advice would be great. My current setup is not that stable.
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Charssay  
#5 Posted : Friday, January 4, 2013 6:40:21 AM(UTC)
Charssay

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Dear mrbryce2000,

I hope you have find a suitable solution
This is my solution actually using for our live event in church and to produce some quality Show we put after in our Website
I'm using VMIX and 4 Video Input card and he cost me for this un 250 Dollar. I'm using two AverMedia SAT AV706, One AverMedia A706 Analog TV Capture, and one AverMedia M709 PCI-express Analog TV Capture all in SVIDEO. I Buy all of these card in eBay for reduce the cost and I'm quite happy, alle works fine and no error with Vmix

My actually War is to bring the Audio Quality more better.

RGds

C.
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ask  
#6 Posted : Friday, January 4, 2013 9:09:00 AM(UTC)
ask

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Have a look at this new card from Avermedia. I have been talking to them and they have tested and verified that it works with vMix. It will probably be around the US$600 mark but that seems pretty good for 4 inputs http://solutions.avermedia.com/en/products/capture-cards/hd/darkcrystal-hd-capture-sdk-duo
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mrbryce2000  
#7 Posted : Thursday, February 14, 2013 7:53:37 PM(UTC)
mrbryce2000

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Alright, I apologize for the long delay in replying to this post, but I wanted to make sure that my solution worked.

This has been a difficult learning process (especially with no budget), but being an educator by trade, I would like to share what I have learned with anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

For a tight budget (maximum two cameras)
You can use up to two USB capture devices for cameras Here are the ones that worked for me:
Pinnacle Dazzle DVD Recorder HD
Kworld DVD Maker USB

**NOTE** Each device MUST be plugged into it's own USB bus (i.e. one into your motherboard's USB connector, the other into an addon USB card).

This solution will work for a basic, simple SD recording setup.


For a budget with a little more money (this is my solution)
I am using a DV firewire setup (good for up to three cameras). Here is what I am using to send the firewire signal via CAT 5e cable:
FireNEX S400
You will have to purchase the set (two adapters), one will attach on each end of the CAT 5e cable.

**NOTE** Each firewire device MUST be connected to its own adapter card. ALSO each firewire adapter card MUST have a different chipset. The VIA and Texas Instruments chipsets are the most popular, so it can be difficult to find a different chipset.

Additional Notes:
I am not broadcasting my video mix, just recording. I have to delay the audio up to 13 ms for firewire. The USB devices required a 6 ms delay.
For this setup, it is very important that you use three of the exact same DV camcorders. I have to use a mixture of cameras right now, and I notice that the better of the three processes the DV stream a few milliseconds faster than the rest.
The good news is that I can upgrade to HD in the future by using HDV cameras.


I hope that my adventure will help someone with a low budget to use an awesome piece of software! If you do have the funds, then I HIGHLY encourage that you use vMix's recommended hardware.
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