Two USB webcams at once?
_Gareth_
Hi everyone...
I recently posted a message for a friend looking to purchase a good
quality webcam.
She currently has a Quickcam Web which is *horrid*. However, she wants
to keep it and use it as a second cam.
Is it possible to use both cams simultaneously, using different cam
programs to send cam grabs to different sites?
Or would there be a problem with drivers, selecting which cam to use
etc etc.
Thanks,
- Gareth
Kevin Kadow
> She currently has a Quickcam Web which is *horrid*. However, she wants
> to keep it and use it as a second cam.
>
> Is it possible to use both cams simultaneously, using different cam
> programs to send cam grabs to different sites?
Yes and no.
Yes, you can connect two USB webcams to the same PC,and switch between
them, and it _might_ be possible to send frame grabs to two different
sites using two different instances of webcam capture software
programs.
No, you cannot stream video or capture from two different cameras on
the same USB bus at the same time, as there is not sufficient
bandwidth in USB. If both programs try to request a frame from their
camera at the same moment it is likely that one or both will receive a
truncated or corrupt image.
If you decide to try this, please post your results and what software
you use.
> Or would there be a problem with drivers, selecting which cam to use
> etc etc.
Most webcam software gives you the option to choose between available
video sources.
One program I've heard good things about (haven't tried yet) is
TrackerCam, which solves the opposite of your problem. TrackerCam has
a trick to permit running both their software and another webcam
package simultaneously with the _same_ camera.
BlackShadow
what you can do is use the Software "WebCam32" the can you switch to the 2
cams, like every 5 seconds!
cu BSH
"_Gareth_" <gareth...@hotmail.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3cda760e...@news.dingoblue.net.au...
Brian Buckley
with a Philips ToUcam Pro and a Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 - they are
using the same drivers (WDM) and Webcam32 only sees one camera as a
result.
If I could find out how to use different drivers for one of the cams
then I might stand a chance, but no-one in this group has been able to
shed any light on that for me.
Good luck :-)
On Thu, 30 May 2002 11:17:45 +0200, "BlackShadow" <b...@blackshadow.de>
wrote:
Brian
(replace con with com for email)
kad...@chicagotribune.com
In article <n3ucfu88svtj4j0k9...@4ax.com>,
Brian Buckley <use...@frodo.u-net.con> wrote:
>It's not as simple as that as I tried it and couldn't get it to work
>with a Philips ToUcam Pro and a Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 - they are
>using the same drivers (WDM)
IIRC, there is an issue with using multiple USB cameras. Sometimes upgrading
to DirectX 8.x will resolve the problem.
The problem is not specifically WDM (Win32\xae Driver Model), rather, the
root of the problem is that most every USB-connected camera is derived from
the same generic chipset (and thus the same WDM driver) so software
only sees one generic "USB Camera" device available to select.
This is a known bug with Microsoft USB drivers. You might be able to work
around this by using one USB camera and the second camera as an Osprey
or other PCI video capture card.
>and Webcam32 only sees one camera as a result.
A program should see multiple WDM devices and allow you to choose which one
to source video from. Most of my software sees both a Logitech driver and
the generic USB-WDM interface.
>If I could find out how to use different drivers for one of the cams
>then I might stand a chance, but no-one in this group has been able to
>shed any light on that for me.
There are cameras that do not use the WDM device driver, but I'm not aware of
(non-proprietary) webcam software that is sure to work with such devices. The
whole point of the WDM mechanism is to standardize driver interfaces.
There are other problems related to trying to use two USB cameras on the
same machine, such as USB bus bandwidth.
Kevin
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Brian Buckley
wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>In article <n3ucfu88svtj4j0k9...@4ax.com>,
>Brian Buckley <use...@frodo.u-net.con> wrote:
>>It's not as simple as that as I tried it and couldn't get it to work
>>with a Philips ToUcam Pro and a Logitech QuickCam Pro 3000 - they are
>>using the same drivers (WDM)
>
>IIRC, there is an issue with using multiple USB cameras. Sometimes upgrading
>to DirectX 8.x will resolve the problem.
>
>The problem is not specifically WDM (Win32\xae Driver Model), rather, the
>root of the problem is that most every USB-connected camera is derived from
>the same generic chipset (and thus the same WDM driver) so software
>only sees one generic "USB Camera" device available to select.
>
>This is a known bug with Microsoft USB drivers. You might be able to work
>around this by using one USB camera and the second camera as an Osprey
>or other PCI video capture card.
>
>
>>and Webcam32 only sees one camera as a result.
>
>A program should see multiple WDM devices and allow you to choose which one
>to source video from. Most of my software sees both a Logitech driver and
>the generic USB-WDM interface.
*None* of mine does; Webcam32, Pryme, Spycam, Biromsoft Webcam to name
but 4. What software of your sees multiple WDM decices?
>
>
>>If I could find out how to use different drivers for one of the cams
>>then I might stand a chance, but no-one in this group has been able to
>>shed any light on that for me.
>
>There are cameras that do not use the WDM device driver, but I'm not aware of
>(non-proprietary) webcam software that is sure to work with such devices. The
>whole point of the WDM mechanism is to standardize driver interfaces.
>
>There are other problems related to trying to use two USB cameras on the
>same machine, such as USB bus bandwidth.
This funnily isn't a problem as I've had both the Philips and Logitech
cameras plugged into the system and have watched 30fps video from
both, simultaneously, through their own software.
I'm more concerned as to why I can only see the WDM driver listed as
the device in for example, Webcam32.
Thanks for your reply.