We are a medium sized church that has been using vMix for several years. We are looking to add a third camera to our setup. We currently have two cameras coming into vMix via HDMI PCIe capture cards and Desktop Capture of our projector output via NDI. We don't have a huge budget but are looking to add a third camera via NDI (our PC we are using does not have any additional PCIe slots available). Any suggestions?

Thanks for the info. Any particular 4-input HDMI cards that you would recommend. Our vMix hardware is a Dell XPS 8500, Core i7 3770 3.4 Ghz, 24 GB RAM, Windows 10 Pro.

Unfortunately this computer's motherboard has only 3 PCI-Express x1 connectors + 1 PCI-Express x16 connector. So, unless the x16 slot is available (which I doubt of), it won't be possible to add a 4 input card.

So I guess, a USB3 capture box is your only option.
I can recommend this one by Magewell which is one of the cheapest and works very well (I have 2 of these):
http://www.magewell.com/usb-capture-hdmi
It's plug'n'Play, nothing to install at all.
Costs around $300. > https://www.amazon.com/M...eo-Dongle/dp/B00I16VQOY/
But there are many resellers

Another model is Aja U-Tap. I know that Martin from vMix uses one of these from time to time.
https://www.amazon.com/U...d-Capture/dp/B01LXKKT0E/
A little bit more expensive : $345

Any cheap camcorder will work out-the-box with these capture devices. So adding a third camera to your setup could be as cheap as $500 in the end (if you need to buy an extra cam).

FYI, both the magewell and the aja also exist with SDI connector which has one advantage over HDMI : you can use much longer cables to connect. HDMI is limited to 15m when SDI goes to 230m.

Finally, as Tom suggested, another option is to use a camera over the network with a RTSP feed. This can work too. However RTSP might introduce a noticeable latency issue when used along with HDMI cameras. I also tend to believe that image quality with RTSP is not as good as an uncompressed signal via HDMI to capture card. It's also much more expensive. But I think Tom is also a Magewell reseller.

Hope this helps
Guillaume

Here's the YouTube video from yesterday's service:

I recorded it as a MP4 at 1080p 30fps and uploaded to YouTube. We are using the normal church lighting, nothing special for the video. I've used the Canon Vixia HF R100 in the past with about the same results video-wise. There is about a 200ms latency from live with the PTZ cam. That may not be a good match for your Canons, you'll need to check.

@Guillaume

It is a PTZ Optics PT12X-SDI-GY-G1 using auto focus. Sometimes the auto focus will not focus on the speaker and instead focus on the altar behind him or wall behind them.

- Tom

A slight variation could be to add a Bescor motorized head to getting another Canon Vixia camcorder. That would give you some of the benefits of a PTZ Optics cam, but not the latency issue. Also, matching cameras is a good thing.

You can control the Bescor with PanTilt controller, something DWAM mentioned in an earlier post

http://expedition-electrics.mark-ju.net/pantilt/index.htm



The Magewell USB capture devices are solid, Tom is a dealer.