Capture with multiple ADVC devices

[b1morris]

Hey everybody just wondering if anybody had an idea. I contacted customer support but the reply wasn't super helpful.

Question:
Hello. My lab has been using ADVC 55 (and 100) to capture video from NTSC cameras. In the past we used a direct show filter "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR" and were able to capture multiple video sources in a single program. recently we lost this capability and would like to know if this is still possible or if there is some sort of Windows SP2 firewire driver issue here. We find that when more than a single device ADVC device is plugged into a computer they no longer work properly. When the first device is connected the video can be previewed in an Explorer window. Once the second device is added, the new device is able to display a preview but the original device give the error:

Video Preview Failure
Creation of video preview failed.
Please check the device connection and make sure the device is not being used by another application or user.

Our basic question is how can we connect multiple ADVC devices and have them ready and available for capture. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Response:
The limitation on the ADVC's connected depends on the capture software that is used. Most capture software out there will become confused when multiple video sources are made available, so typically you will have to disconnect all but one. If the capture software is written to properly use multiple video sources however we have not seen any issue with using multiple ADVC's. Drivers are provided by the native operating system. We do not provide drivers.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Brendan

[THoff]

This is not a ADVC problem. It sounds to me as if the application you are using to capture / preview is using the hardware video overlay, of which there is only one, and it cannot be shared.

You can try disabling hardware acceleration using the DirectX applet in the Control Panel. With hardware acceleration disabled the system should fall back to using software-only rendering.

[GrassValley_CP]

Response:
The limitation on the ADVC's connected depends on the capture software that is used. Most capture software out there will become confused when multiple video sources are made available, so typically you will have to disconnect all but one. If the capture software is written to properly use multiple video sources however we have not seen any issue with using multiple ADVC's. Drivers are provided by the native operating system. We do not provide drivers.

This is an accurate response and similar to what you would get from most people here. The limitation is with the software you're using for capture and your OS--most computers and standard DV capture programs or NLEs cannot see or capture from multiple DV devices (be they ADVCs, cameras, or decks) because they all behave the same and transmit the same kind of information in the same way via firewire, especially if you are connecting all of these DV devices to the same firewire bus on the same computer. Having multiple firewire buses (i.e. multiple, separate firewire PCI cards, not just additional firewire ports) will help, as well as having software that is specifically designed for seeing and capturing from multiple DV sources simultaneously.

[b1morris]

Having multiple firewire buses (i.e. multiple, separate firewire PCI cards, not just additional firewire ports) will help, as well as having software that is specifically designed for seeing and capturing from multiple DV sources simultaneously.

Thanks for the info. Using multiple firewire cards did indeed help the problem. I was able to use graphedt to insert the 2 Microsoft DV Camera and VCR filters and access the video streams. When the ADVCs were placed on the same bus I get

Error 0x800705AA: Insufficient system resources

Does this mean Windows does not provide a means to "see" multiple DV devices? Are there any suggestions on software that can do this. Our application calls for synchronized capture of 4 streams. I would rather not have 4 firewire cards as space is limited. Thanks for all the help.

[GrassValley_CP]

Does this mean Windows does not provide a means to "see" multiple DV devices?

I believe that is the case. Someone else may want to chime in here with a more technical reason why...

Are there any suggestions on software that can do this. Our application calls for synchronized capture of 4 streams. I would rather not have 4 firewire cards as space is limited.

I believe something has been mentioned on the user forum before, so you may want to do a search. Or, if someone else knows the answer, feel free to chime in.