Question / Help Camera Limit? 3 work fine, 4th has problems

[tripletopper]

I got 5 video sources going through 3 USB inputs: 2 stereoscopic cameras and a video capture. My old Mac OAS can sense 5 cameras, (with both strereoscopic lenses as separate camera perspectives). I know my Mac OS can do 5 cameras, and was wondering if there was a way I can "chunk" the 2 webcams into one image by combining them into a twin B/W -> red and cyan anaglyph picture?

also It looks like the Mac OS sees them as as 5 cameras on 3 ports, but the 2 cameras from one stereoscvopic view cannot be on at a time, because they plug into the same USB port, like there are condidred 2 cameras on a hub.
So it thinks one view is 2 separate cameras.

 

[carlmmii]

was wondering if there was a way I can "chunk" the 2 webcams into one image by combining them into a twin B/W -> red and cyan anaglyph picture?

Stereo Cam 1:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to red

Stereo Cam 2:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to cyan
- Image/mask filter, use a pure white image, set opacity to 50%

In the scene, set Stereo Cam 2 above Stereo Cam 1, and them to a group. You can add another color adjustment filter to the group if the resulting image is too dark.

 

[chris bono]

Yes Harold, but the video card is already using the only PCIe slot so, I guess i will have to try with the PCI.
Thank you all!

I have similar issue - but I have laptop with only 2 USB ports . I would like to use 3 USB cameras .
two are working fine - one in each 4 port hub (non powered). Any solution for getting more than 2 webcams to work on laptop with only 2 ports using hubs ?? Other options ? All cameras are working in windows and showing up in OBS - just not showing video in OBS when it comes to second cam on hub . Appears I can only use 1 cam per hub. Thanks for your expertise

 

[tripletopper]

Stereo Cam 1:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to red

Stereo Cam 2:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to cyan
- Image/mask filter, use a pure white image, set opacity to 50%

In the scene, set Stereo Cam 2 above Stereo Cam 1, and them to a group. You can add another color adjustment filter to the group if the resulting image is too dark.

I think that would work if I can "remove the chroma portion" and have a black and white image and convert THAT b/w to a black and red image for left eye and black and cyan image for right eye.

Also on pre USB 3 computers, the limit is one camera per native USB 2.0 port on OBS. twin cameras can only read one camera. The OS can read more than that I got 5 cameras once, but IBS recognized only one per native USB port.

 

[BluePeer]

I have similar issue - but I have laptop with only 2 USB ports . I would like to use 3 USB cameras .
two are working fine - one in each 4 port hub (non powered). Any solution for getting more than 2 webcams to work on laptop with only 2 ports using hubs ?? Other options ? All cameras are working in windows and showing up in OBS - just not showing video in OBS when it comes to second cam on hub . Appears I can only use 1 cam per hub. Thanks for your expertise

Illustration: You have a street (laptop) with 2 gates (usb ports) one to the left and one to the right of the main street.
You can build additional gates on the left or right (usb hubs), but you still have the limitation by the main street.

you can try to open up new roads by using virtual USB adapters over the network or a conversion kit like the one "cyclemat" posted. that can, but does not have to work. laptops are not designed for such a workload

 

[tripletopper]

Stereo Cam 1:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to red

Stereo Cam 2:
- Color adjustment filter, colorize to cyan
- Image/mask filter, use a pure white image, set opacity to 50%

In the scene, set Stereo Cam 2 above Stereo Cam 1, and them to a group. You can add another color adjustment filter to the group if the resulting image is too dark.

I already know how to make it a black and white camera by setting saturation to -1.0. I do not see an option on the current version of OBS that says colorize too I see options like Luma key, chroma key, color key, color correction. I know the first step is to make black and white by going to color correction and setting saturation to -1.00

I would do a second color correction but I don't know if it'll let me to turn that dichromed picture from black and white to black and red and the other two black and cyan.

I tried this with an older version of OBS but it won't let you do two color corrections simultaneously on the same picture

 

[tripletopper]

I already know how to make it a black and white camera by setting saturation to -1.0. I do not see an option on the current version of OBS that says colorize too I see options like Luma key, chroma key, color key, color correction. I know the first step is to make black and white by going to color correction and setting saturation to -1.00

I would do a second color correction but I don't know if it'll let me to turn that dichromed picture from black and white to black and red and the other two black and cyan.

I tried this with an older version of OBS but it won't let you do two color corrections simultaneously on the same picture

Well I found I could combine two pictures into one. But it seems to be the the opacity system. I would prefer RGB edition because all the red pixels would be red from various degrees from 0 to 1 and all the green and blue simultaneous would be degrees of cyan from 0 to 1. unfortunately it seems like I have to prefer one or the other and not have them equally balanced. either the red goes in front and it looks mainly like a red picture or the cyan goes in front and it looks mainly like a cyan picture. I noticed you could go halfway in between a picture and a blank screen but how do you go halfway between two live filters like this so that you can have red and cyan B/W footage live in motion.

it seems like I have to find some other way to do this because it's kind of hard to balance between the two and there's no control within the pair that lets you balance between A and B AFAICT

 

[LeeHockHin]

1) Download USB Tree View from https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Info/USB-Device-Tree-Viewer.shtml
2) Install and Run it on your computer

3) Check for the number of USB Root Hubs available
4) I think limitations of number of cameras is a limitation of the USB bandwidth that can be supported by each USB Root Hub
5) Unfortunately for me, the first USB Root Hub does not have any physical USB ports. Part of the NVIDIA video card.
6) Each USB Root Hub can safely support 2 Full HD (1920x1080) videos plus some USB 2.0 stuff like mouse, etc
7) The camera app by Windows works for all cameras even when overloaded is because it only activates one camera at a time. On the other hand, OBS runs all camera simultaneously

 

[LeeHockHin]

One way to circumvent the USB Root Hub bandwidth limitation is to use an external video switcher. There are several limitations using this method, but it basically combines 4 HDMI cameras into one USB 3.0 connection. An example of a simple video switcher can be seen in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXRl5dFrXx4&t=2s
There are many video switcher alternatives available

 

[tripletopper]

First of all I have Macintosh not Windows. Second of all I noticed that the tree shows only one USB 3.0 hub for my 2014 computer.

But I think I may have found a way to add extra USB 3.0 hubs by using Thunderbolt 2 and a converter I bought for real cheap.

I know there is a difference between a thunderbolt one two and three. Thunderbolt 3 is a special type of USB C that could also be used for Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt 2 and 1 look more like a Mini DisplayPort.

If my theory is right if I bought an apple black Thunderbolt cable that's a thunderbolt one and therefore things that are one way like monitors work perfectly fine but things that are two-way like USB ports and firewire ports don't work right.

If my suspicion is correct getting a white Apple Thunderbolt cable will get me a thunderbolt 2 cable which is able to do two-way transactions better than a thunderbolt one cable.

I'll find out tomorrow when my Apple White Thunderbolt cable comes in to see if that is true that black is Thunderbolt one and white is Thunderbolt two.

By the way it seems like Apple's packaging is deceptive on this issue. you would think a thunderbolt 2 package would be ballyhood as a thunderbolt 2 cable so that if you want to upgrade to Thunderbolt to you know you have to replace the cables with Thunderbolt 2 otherwise if you have a black Thunderbolt one why would you want to replace a perfectly working black Thunderbolt one with a white Thunderbolts unless you knew for a fact it was a thunderbolt 2. it seems like retconning by Apple

 

[therentabrain]

I've been looking into this for the ROG G14 laptop. I also see a Root Hub that doesn't seem to be accessible at all in any way. Does anyone know how to figure out what that is?

If it's part of the NVIDIA GPU (which it does have), is there a way to open the case and tap into it? I'm quite frustrated that my super nice fast Windows machine taps out after one multichannel audio USB device and three webcams. Two of the cams are at 720p and I'm only going for 30fps, but one of the four cameras I want to use (it varies which one) won't start.

 

[cyclemat]

One Methode is use NDI cams or an External PC with Webcams and send it over NDI to your PC, Third method when you have an Express port you can use a card like this https://www.amazon.de/Express-Karte...sprefix=notebook+pcie+usb+card,aps,60&sr=8-21

Or Remove the Wifi Card and use one of this
https://www.amazon.de/Powered-Capac...ix=notebook+pcie+usb+card,aps,60&sr=8-86&th=1 + a USB 3.0 card

https://www.amazon.de/demiawaking-E...AifQ==&sprefix=pci+usb+notebook,aps,74&sr=8-3

but the laptop is then not moveable !

 

[.norman.]

I've been looking into this for the ROG G14 laptop. I also see a Root Hub that doesn't seem to be accessible at all in any way. Does anyone know how to figure out what that is?

If it's part of the NVIDIA GPU (which it does have), is there a way to open the case and tap into it? I'm quite frustrated that my super nice fast Windows machine taps out after one multichannel audio USB device and three webcams. Two of the cams are at 720p and I'm only going for 30fps, but one of the four cameras I want to use (it varies which one) won't start.

sadly on a laptop you are limited by the number of USB controllers preinstalled. i have 2 laptops that have the same issue, after the 3rd webcam i am out of resources and cannot support any more cameras. My solution was to use 2 computers, 1 has 3 cameras connected and another with 2 connected, i grab the output via NDI connections. there is a small amount of latency across the network but it is hardly noticeable when you are watching.