Direct capture to computer/webcam use?

[Simon Askham]

Just wondered anyone know of any way to capture direct to your computer or hook up the hv20 as a webcam in microsoft mess.....:hv20-smilie81:

[Mal]

...hook up the hv20 as a webcam in microsoft :hv20-smilie81:

Blasphemous!!! :hv20-smilie54:

:hv20-smilie03:

[rev29]

I thought I read somewhere it could be done. Haven't figured out how though as Firewire doesn't output anything to the computer when in camera mode (only playback).

Was hoping DV Messenger would work, but HV20 isn't listed
http://www.canon.com.au/products/visual/digital_video_cameras/home/dvmessenger_support.aspx

[Melachrino]

Just wondered anyone know of any way to capture direct to your computer or hook up the hv20 as a webcam in microsoft mess.....:hv20-smilie81:

If I understood your question correctly, which I interpret as whether you can use the HV20 camcorder to capture live and direct from the camera to the PC (in HD of course) the answer is yes via firewire and the appropiate capture software.

I have done that several times in testing both the camera and the required capture software.

As for its use as a webcam, I refer you to Mal....

[bluegrass]

Wow! Use the HV20 as a webcam. I never thought about that use for it.

"Can you see me ok good buddy"?

"i'ma pushin' about 4 gigapixels at ya"

"10-4 buddy, could you downsize a couple gigapixels, i'm getting constipated at my end?"

[santucci]

Check blackmagicdesign. They have a HDMI card connector. It might work.

[David]

Firewire doesn't output anything to the computer when in camera mode (only playback).

Not true. I hooked my HV20 up to a mac via firewire and opened iMovie HD and it not only shows the image that my camera is seeing but easily allows me to capture it straight to the HD (in AIC, I believe)

My guess is that you're having software issues. IOW, whatever software you're using either isn't recognizing the camera or isn't set up to do what you're wanting it to do.

What's your setup?

[rev29]

Windows XP. Tried detecting the Canon firewire device in Windows Live Messenger under Audio and Video tuning wizard and nothing pops up. Haven't tried in Windows Movie Maker yet.

[bluegrass]

Not true. I hooked my HV20 up to a mac via firewire and opened iMovie HD and it not only shows the image that my camera is seeing but easily allows me to capture it straight to the HD (in AIC, I believe)

My guess is that you're having software issues. IOW, whatever software you're using either isn't recognizing the camera or isn't set up to do what you're wanting it to do.

What's your setup?

The dirty little secret is that your most likely not really capturing umcompressed 60i. I bet it's dropping frames right and left or downgrading the resolution to keep at a good frame rate, as it writes to disk.

If it was that simple, there wouldn't be a bunch of people racking there brains trying to come up with a method to capture uncompressed unadulterated video from the "twenty" right to disk. Plus do it on a laptop to boot.

[David]

The dirty little secret is that your most likely not really capturing umcompressed 60i.

??? Huh? In fact, I'm 100% positive I'm not capturing uncompressed through firewire but it's not "dropping frames right and left". Obviously a modern computer's hard drive can read and write HDV at real time without dropping frames, otherwise none of us would be editing on our computers.

[bluegrass]

??? Huh? In fact, I'm 100% positive I'm not capturing uncompressed through firewire but it's not "dropping frames right and left". Obviously a modern computer's hard drive can read and write HDV at real time without dropping frames, otherwise none of us would be editing on our computers.

I'm speaking about feeding live 1920X1080 60i via firewire to your disk & not feeding tape from the camera via firewire to the disk. If you're able to do it, you better get over to the dvinfo.net forum and explain how you do it. You'll be a hero David.

Hey David. How about after you have captured live video from the "twenty" to disk, you do a properties on the file (by the way, what is the file extenstion) and see what resolution it is? Also I'd like you to do a timed capture of say a minute and see what the resultant file size is. thanks

[bluegrass]

Windows XP. Tried detecting the Canon firewire device in Windows Live Messenger under Audio and Video tuning wizard and nothing pops up. Haven't tried in Windows Movie Maker yet.

I'm not sure about the webcam aspect of it but I think if you recorded SD video, you should be able to capture it in MovieMaker just like MovieMaker recognizes and can capture from most any camcorder.

I just haven't taken the time to try and use my "twenty" as a webcam. I'll get around to it someday maybe. How about others. Remember you probably would need to put your camcorder in the record mode, where you can see a live picture on the LCD before you start up Messenger or other IM's that support video.

[jkatme]

Hey Simon
I did a bit of research and got a some software (trial version which goes for 10mins) which turned my hv20 into a webcam. Here's the link: http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/webcamdv.html

So it is definitely possible.

j

[maffle]

1. It can be done over standard XP tape driver
2. HV20 doesn't need to be in playback mode, it works with sd card mode too
3. You can save the live stream directly to disc
4. It is HDV 25mbit (1440x1080) mpeg2

So it is the same data which would go to DV tape, but you can capture live over firewire. Perhaps there is a way with a hacked firmware to set the cam to transfer uncompressed data over firewire.

[SenorKaffee]

Yes - it is possible to capture the HDV stream over Firewire. HDV Data Monitor does that for instance to analyze the data, although it doesn´t write to disc. It is only the standard 25 Mbit/s of data.

No, the is no way to transfer uncompressed data over Firewire, the camera is just not built that way.

WebcamDV is the way to go, although you may need to activate DV lock, it is only meant to be a bridge between DV cams and messengers, not HDV cams.

[maffle]

I didn't mention that, but you don't need WebcamDV if you only want to capture the live stream, which was the main question. You can do that e.g. with VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)

[kuuuli]

I use my HV20 as a webcam within standard Messenger. I just put it to NTSC DV 4:3 mode instead of HD...

Works out-of-the-box with XP SP3

[ginsu_widget]

Hey Simon
I did a bit of research and got a some software (trial version which goes for 10mins) which turned my hv20 into a webcam. Here's the link: http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/webcamdv.html

So it is definitely possible.

j

This thread and a few others on streaming the HV20/webcam use helped me use my HV20 in Skype. I thought I would add my observations:

WebCamDV does work as does a program called Willing Webcam, although it is a bit pricey if you just need to use the camera in an IM app. SplitCam (free) enables you to use the Microsoft DV and Camera output in Skype. There is a slight lag compared to WebCamDV and Willing. For all choices DV lock has to be enabled under the Play menus and HD Standard set to DV in Record menu.

As others have suggested VLC, can also be used to output the stream. For VLC I found that DV Audio had to be set 16 bit to avoid getting awful noises from the speakers. Transcoding with VLC taxes the CPU and you can't use for Skype or ooVoo but you do get a variety of streaming options.

BTW this is a great forum. I've lurked for some time but because I've always found the answers have not had a chance to post.

Cheers

[WhiteFox]

About WebCamDV:
has anyone been able to use the 'zoom' and 'focus' controls in the "WebCamDv Controls" window (with the HV20 or any other camera)? My attempts with the HV20 have been unsuccessful. (and I did use the DV locked option and HD Standard set to DV)

I'm just curious to know if the HV20 can accept focus commands over firewire. If it could do so in HDV, it would open the door to doing the focusing over software on a PC, which could be pretty nice in some cases (although hardware heavy): imagine hooking a laptop to your HV20, previewing the result on a 15" or 17" screen (which would make it that much easier to see if the HD image is in focus) and using a scroll bar (for example)to adjust the focus...

...as you can guess, I've had a few problems in the past with getting perfect focus and judging of the focus quality on the cam's tiny LCD!

[Breeze]

Well my hv20 is out for repair at the moment (it didn't record anything to tape) but before I sent it away I used Vegas Pro to stream what I was recording, so in vegas you can preview what you are shooting (although with a lag of like 1 sec), combine this feature with a laptop and you can use your laptop as a monitor. I'm sure there are other ways aswell but Vegas is the only way I used with success. Don't think you can adjust the focus through firewire though...but who knows

[mljones]

I was able to get ustream.tv to pick up my hv30 automatically after I set it in NTSC DV 4:3 mode.