Question / Help How to Troubleshoot Camera Issue

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TheBishop

New Member
Hi
New to the forum and to OBS Studio.
I'm migrating from the Original Livestream platform to DaCast as Livestream are stopping their free ad-suppotred service.
I have Adobe Flash Live Media Encoder on the PC which all works fine.
I installed the DaCast branded version of OBS Studio, and created a Video Capture source. It sees my DV camera in the list of things it can add and lets me add it but I only get a black screen. If I exit OBS studio and start FLME that sees the camera fine and everything works.
The camera is a DV camcorder that connects to the PC by firewire cable and a firewire adapter card in the PC. In Windows the device shows up as 'Microsoft DV Camcorder/Webcam' or something similar. This is a desktop PC running Windows 8.
What steps should I go through to troubleshoot this please?
And do you think it would be worth trying the official version of OBS Studio or should the DaCast branded one be fine?
Thanks!
 
T

TheBishop

New Member
Nobody?
To further update this I built a completely new PC with a fresh install of Win 10. Did nothing else to it and straight away Installed the official version of OBS. Just like before it knows the DV device is there by name but when I select it as a source all I get is a black screen. Next I install Flash Media Live Encoder 3.2 and with zero configuration I simply open it for the first time and there's the camera. Why won't OBS work with the camera when FMLE and Windows clearly can and do? Just for completeness I feplaced the 1394 device driver with the legacy driver from Microsoft but still no joy, OBS doesn't work with the DV camera, FMLE does. I'd really like to fix this, does anyone have any suggestions?
 
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Tomasz Góral

Active Member
OBS don't have mpeg2 encoder via Video Capture Device, 1394 device working only with standard resolution (like 576i) why ? because 576i is <400Mbps speed link, when you use hdtv resolution you have still signal is encode via mpeg2.
 
C

computers

New Member
I have the same issue. And the DV camera works in xSplit broadcasting software out of the box.

Is there a workaround to get the DV camera to work in OBS?
 
C

computers

New Member
Yes I have used that, but I'm trying to do this as a scheduled task that starts VLC and then OBS with screen capture in a batch job. It works as long as I'm logged in. As a scheduled task, both VLC and OBS are running, but there isn't any VLC screen to capture, so it doesn't work.

That is why I'm trying to get OBS to use the DV camera in device capture mode. So is there a way to get OBS to use the camera? e.g. change some settings or add a library, etc?
 
I

#_I_can_solve_it_#

New Member
You guys are wasting your time ...the only best way to convert DV camera footage via firewire or usb is as follows :

I use linux:

1. install DVGRAB and use this to record your DV video via firewire or usb onto your hard drive which will be in .dv format which is raw....just make sure that your camcoder has usb /firewire "STREAMING" set to "ON" position.

2. Because a 60 min sp tape the size of the recording will be between 13-15 gigabytes ....large isn't it !

3. Using the program FFMPEG convert the .dv file to the format of your choice .mp4 .mkv.....

I have managed to compress a 13.5gig .dv video to 1.5gig .mp4 and .mkv with very little loss....you just need a good cpu or even better render it through your GPU if you have a good graphics card ..I use a NVIDIA card and used it with 264_nvenc encoder I installed via ffmpeg .....you will have to learn how to use both dvgrab and ffmpeg and install the 264_nvenc encoder, it's not difficult at all
 
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PRS

New Member
Tomasz Góral said:
Run VLC, open camera and set output as opengl (settings/ preference / picture / output) in OBS grab VLC window.
Click to expand...
Tomasz, could you please indicate where exactly that setting is. Where is "camera"? I can find nothing in OBS or VLC that follows that chain of commands.

It would be a heckuva lot easier if OBS simply implemented DV capture over firewire so that we wouldn't need to messing about trying to go through VLC. Geez, how difficult could it be to incorporate? Yes, I'm aware that other programs can be used to capture DV, but I want to experiment with deinterlacing during the capture process, as I've had good success doing this with HDMI captures.
 
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Tomasz Góral

Active Member
VLC
Menu: Media / Open Capture Device - select device
Menu Tools / Preferences / Tab Video / Position Output, select OpenGL

OBS
Capture window

Remember VLC window must be visible on monitor (only part of window), i move VLC window on edge of screen.
 
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PRS

New Member
Tomasz Góral said:
VLC
Menu: Media / Open Capture Device - select device
Menu Tools / Preferences / Tab Video / Position Output, select OpenGL
Click to expand...
Thanks Tomasz, that's much clearer, but still no joy. One further clarification please... There are two choices for OpenGL. There is "OpenGL video output" and "OpenGL video output for Windows". I've tried both to no avail, but which one is preferable if I ever get this to work?

Tomasz Góral said:
Remember VLC window must be visible on monitor (only part of window), i move VLC window on edge of screen.
Click to expand...
I've read over a lot of threads regarding this VLC to OBS issue, and that's the first time I've noticed someone referencing this. I was hoping that would solve the problem, but no, still no luck

Here's what I've found so far...

I can record DV footage coming through my firewire card via VLC to OBS using Game Capture, so that indicates to me that the VLC setup is fine. So why not be satisfied with that? Because Game Capture does not have an option (right click on capture window) to Deinterlace during capture, and that's specifically what I'm after.

When Game Capture is selected, OBS asks for the Window being captured to be set. (This appears just below the video window(s) in the UI.) Once this has been set, this value ([vlc.exe]: dshow:// - VLC media player) appears under Properties for Game Capture.

Now it's interesting to note that when VLC Video Source is selected, nowhere does OBS ask anything further. In Properties for VLC Video Source, there is an empty Playlist with provisions for adding Files, Directory, or Path/URL. Out of desperation, I tried adding the Path ... "[vlc.exe]: dshow:// - VLC media player" (with that exact spacing, and without spaces) but it made no difference.

I'm running 64-bit Win7, with VLC 3.0.11 Vetinari and OBS 26.1.0 (64 bit).

This shouldn't be so difficult.

What the heck am I (and plenty of other frustrated people) missing here?
 
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Tomasz Góral

Active Member
Don't use deinterlace in OBS when capture picture from VLC because you don't have full information about interlace.
Solution in VLC click on menu Video / Deinterlace and now grab picture.
 
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P

PRS

New Member
I should probably start a new thread, as I feel I'm starting to take this old thread in a different direction. However...

The whole reason why I've been tearing my hair out the last couple of days is that I've been wanting to capture DV footage (miniDV and Digital8) using OBS to take advantage of the Yadif 2x deinterlacing available while capturing. I've had very good results with OBS while doing HDMI captures through a Blackmagic card. I had no idea that I'd be spending hours and hours down a rabbit hole trying to do something that should've been so simple... capturing DV over firewire ( IEEE 1394 ) with OBS.

Tomasz Góral said:
Don't use deinterlace in OBS when capture picture from VLC because you don't have full information about interlace.
Solution in VLC click on menu Video / Deinterlace and now grab picture.
Click to expand...
I have no idea what type of deinterlacing is offered by VLC. Nothing is stated within the program. I would still like very much to make use of the Yadif 2x deinterlacing offered by OBS during capture. What is the reason that it can't be implemented if I ever get to actually capture DV using OBS in conjunction with VLC?

Tomasz, I appreciate your responses. I'm just trying to better understand why this relatively simple process has turned out to be so frustrating!
 
P

PRS

New Member
PRS said:
I have no idea what type of deinterlacing is offered by VLC. Nothing is stated within the program. I would still like very much to make use of the Yadif 2x deinterlacing offered by OBS during capture.
Click to expand...

I dug a little deeper into VLC... and what do you know, complete control over deinterlacing during capture! I am now busy experimenting. Looks like my perceived need to use OBS for this purpose is over. My thanks to Tomasz for pointing me in the right direction.

VLC deinterlace.jpg
 
W

wociscz

New Member
Hi, in another thread I've posted solution for DV/firewire cameras with NDI plugin usage

Question / Help - DV cameras are not supported?

Hey guys! I want to use a DV camera (using FireWire/iLINK) with OBS Studio. The camera is working fine in any other software. Even in the original OBS, VLC Media Player, Sony Vegas, etc. In OBS Studio i got nothing. It shows the device as "Microsoft DV Camera and VCR", so it's recognized, but...
obsproject.com obsproject.com
 
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