EasyCAP video device fails with PHD2

[wer...@zoho.com]

Hello Everyone,

I have a problem using PHD2 2.6.1 with the EasyCAP usb video capture device connected to a Mallincam video camera.
I select Camera as Windows WDM ... and click on USB2.0 Grabber as the camera, this is the name Windows gives the EasyCAP.
The Camera Mode windows then comes up with res. choices.  I select 640x408 (I420) or (YUY2), all modes result in the same error using
I420 or YUY2.  Click Ok then Connect and a popup Error box comes up with "Failed to start image capture|".
The funny thing is one time the modes had (RGB8) on the res and PHD2 worked.  I cannot get the mode (RGB8) to appear again.
I am using Windows 8.1.

Any ideas?

William Rison

[Andy Galasso]

Hi William,

That sounds like an EasyCap device driver issue.  Have you tried updating the driver or confirmed that you have the latest driver installed?

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

[wer...@zoho.com]

Hello Andy,

The driver is fine.  Everything works with SharpCap 2.8 and the VideoView program that comes with Windows 8.1.
I have the latest driver installed.

Do you know how PHD2 determines the color modes displayed in the popup windows after I select the WDM camera?

William

[Andy Galasso]

On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 5:20 PM <wer...@zoho.com> wrote:

Do you know how PHD2 determines the color modes displayed in the popup windows after I select the WDM camera?

We use the OpenCV library to access WDM cameras. The list of video modes in PHD2 is the result of calling OpenCV's APIs to enumerate the available video modes. (source code) 

We have not updated the version of OpenCV used to build PHD2 in some time.  We can try updating that to see if it helps.

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

I'll try PHD2 with the updated OpenCV any time you have it ready.

William

[Andy Galasso]

Thanks, I'll post back here when we have something for you to test.

Andy

[Andy Galasso]

William,

My earlier response was not accurate. PHD2 on Windows has two video capture methods:

 - OpenCV: these are the cameras "OpenCV webcam 1" and "OpenCV webcam 2" (using OpenCV's cv::VideoCapture code)

 - The "windows WDM webcam camera" option uses the Windows DirectShow interface via some wrapper code called "CVVidCapture". I mistakenly thought this was related to OpenCV but that is not the case.

At this point it would probably be a good idea to try "OpenCV webcam" in phd2 to see if you can access the camera that way.

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

I tested PHD2 with the WDM capture on Windows 7 and it works fine.
Looks like PHD2 and the driver for Windows 8.1 do not work together.
Since all my other programs work find with the EasyCAP on Windows 8.1 I will just give up on PHD2.

William

[Andy Galasso]

William,

Just to make sure I understand... are you saying that you tried both "WDM Webcam camera" and "OpenCV webcam" in PHD2 and neither one worked?

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

Andy,

No, I tried the same WDM camera with Windows 7 64bit and it works.
The same WDM camera that does not work with PHD2 works with all my other software on the same Windows 8.1 laptop.  It has no problems with SharpCap 2.8 or the Windows program VideoView.exe.

William

[Andy Galasso]

William,

Could you please try connecting to the camera as "OpenCV camera" in PHD2.  That may work where connecting as "WDM webcam camera "is not working.

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

Andy,

Did not work.  Both OpenCV webcams are not associated with my EasyCAP device.  One is the built in web cam on the laptop and the other just produces a white screen.  Both only have Camera 1 as a choice when I click on the check box.

William

[Andy Galasso]

Ok, thanks, it was worth a shot.

I'm not sure what to suggest at this point, especially since the camera does work with Win 7 but not Win 8.1.  Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

Andy

[wer...@zoho.com]

Andy,

So is everyone else I have tried.  Anyway the video camera is not the main autoguider camera I use any, have a ZWO for that.
This one is used with the Vixen Star Book Ten Advance Unit to autoguide using the Vixen Video In jack of the Advance Unit.
I was just trying to do double duty with it and saw PHD supports WDM cameras.  I have also tried a Diamond VC500 on my
Windows 8.1 laptop and it does the same thing with PHD.  Other programs also work fine with it.

William

[wer...@zoho.com]

Here is a link to the full log file on the Windows 8.1 laptop that fails.

http://ip.miltonhill.us/PHD2_DebugLog_2016-05-30_100752%20WDM%20Fail%20W8-1.txt

Have a look and give me any suggestions.
The driver I am using is for a Syntek STK1160 Grabber.  Driver version is 7.12.0.2 and is very hard to find.
If anyone knows of a later version for W8 64bit I'll give it a try.

William

[Sandy MacPherson]

I'll just add that I received the same error with WDM capture so I tried openCV and it did the trick.    I have a Windows 10 laptop, camera 1 was the built-in webcam, camera2 was the ez frame grabber.  WDM capture drivers work with sharpcap

[wer...@zoho.com]

Yes, using your settings it works for me now also.
Thank you very much for figuring it out for me.

William