Question / Help Advice for a CamCorder

[riconsch]

Hey everyone,

thx for having me. I am new to this board.

I have a pretty simple question regarding the usage of OBS and a camcorder. Is there a list of working and tested one's ?

I am concerning to buy a panasonic camcorder for around 100 € and i dont want to spend the money without being sure it will work.

I used the "search" function but found no matching entries. Sorry if i used wrong search phrases...

Many many thanks and best regards
riconsch

 

[DigitalTA]

Hi and welcome!

Without knowing the exact model, I will assume if it is a recent device, it will have a (mini)HDMI output for live video. You will need a capture card for your computer and as such, OBS, to receive input from it. If it happens to have a USB output, that is most likely going to be for retrieving already saved video clips from the internal memory or a plugged in SD card of the device, not live video.

Naturally, with a capture card the device connected to it is of little importance as long as it adheres to standards and can keep focus etc while output to HDMI is active.

If you do not have a capture card, using a camcorder will be tricky if not impossible unless it supports live video via usb. I have no idea if this is the case nowadays but this is what you will need to verify. Other than that, OBS isn't really device dependent as long as no weird proprietary drivers or non-conventional means of receiving video are used.
(someone please correct me if I'm wrong here in the last part)

-DTA

 

[riconsch]

Hey DTA,

thanks for the detailed answer! This means all capture cards should be working with OBS as far as i got it now. Is there any capture card for camcorders which can be connected via USB? The Notebook which should be used for streaming has no PCMCIA / FireWire / HDMI input.

THANKS a lot !

riconsch

 

[ThoNohT]

No, not all capture cards work with OBS. There is a lot of info lying around everywhere about which capture cards are supported and which aren't. What he was saying is that as long as you have a capture card that works with OBS, they should be usable with nearly all camcorders that have a hdmi output.

I personally can't tell you which capture cards work and don't, as I never used any myself, but there should be enough people around here who can tell you which one best to get.

 

[dodgepong]

Are you hoping to be able to connect the camera to the computer via USB and treat the camera as a sort of webcam? That would entirely depend on the drivers provided by the camera manufacturer.