Question / Help Multiple Video Capture cards of same name not working

[Victor Dmitriev]

I have five exactly the same video capture cards. They have the same Device_ID in the Windows 7 (64 bit) registry. They all simultaneously work stably for several hours at OBS Studio.
Hint: it is important to connect and configure each card in turn, one after another.
I started setting up a multi-camera configuration recently, there are other problems that have not yet been resolved.

 

[BigYuckFou]

try one device, if it works try two. if it works try three. adding any type of external hub wont increase the bandwidth of the final attached device. i would assume only one or two will work.

The only way is to get a better computer or dedicated streaming device that typically accept HDMI.

 

[BensTechLab]

My current capture card setup
Triple Avermedia Live Gamer 4K Internal
Single Avermedia Live Gamer Ultra External USB 3.0 Capture

This is exactly what I'm trying to do! Great find there on the overloaded USB bus. Internal is the way to go for high bandwidth (lots of sources, high res/framerate). Is there a reason you sold the Elgato brand devices and switched to Avermedia brand? I was considering 2-3 Elgato's right now (Like the internal 4k60 Pro MkII). I'm searching these forums for compatibility info before I drop coin on some capture cards.

 

[rkmaddox]

I am having a similar problem. Two different USB2 capture cards (though both show up as "USB Video") going at 1080p 30 fps plugged into a USB3.0 hub which plugged into a USB 3.0 port on my laptop. I can only get one to work at a time. When taking one and plugging directly into a different port on my laptop it still doesn't work so the hub isn't the problem.

The really weird thing is I can use both capture cards, simultaneously, in Zoom. One as the "me" camera and the other as a second camera in the advanced screen sharing screen showing my dry erase board desk setup. Both feeds are reliable and quality is good in Zoom. Any guesses why it won't work in OBS? Zoom is closed when I try OBS, so it doesn't seem to be a conflict between programs.

Edit: the capture cards do both work with OBS when deactivating when not viewing, but I am hoping to overlay me in the lower corner of the dry erase board. This is in Win10.

 

[Tangential]

It is very difficult (if not impossible) to get 2 video capture cards to work reliably on the same USB bus. Most notebooks and desktops have multiple USB buses. For notebooks its often a function of which side of the device. For desktops it can be the front ports vs the back ports. By plugging them both into a hub you are guaranteeing that they are on the same bus. I would try very hard to move one of them to a different USB bus.

 

[rkmaddox]

Thanks--I have done just this and it does not work. With one plugged into the bus into the USB3.0 on the left side of my laptop, and the other plugged into a USB-C converter in the USB-C jack on the other side of my laptop. Still works in Zoom, does not work in OBS.

 

[Thecrishadow]

I have the exact same problem, I have 2 USB video capture and when I connect them only works one, it's curious because OBS shows two "USB video" devices. But manycam it's showing the two USB video captures without problem at the same time.
I'm using Win10 and I tried the same configuration in a Mac book pro mid 2012, with the same USB hub, and OBS was working perfectly there.

 

[obnew10]

I have also the same problem, I can only use 1 USB video capture at the same time , but OBS shows two USB video devices. No idea why is this happening.

 

[maximuz]

Same problem here, very anoying, I still don't have a workaround

edit: found a workaround, same as i read a couple of post behind... try diferent USB Bus, definetly do not use USB Hub for both Capture Cards...

 

[Hutch]

I had the same issue on my laptop running 2 of the same capture cards. In Zoom both cards popped up and ran simultaneously but in OBS it wouldn't. My solution was dropping the cards from 1080x30 to 720x30. The change must have been below the USB Bus threshold as they run simultaneously now.

 

[ColaJon]

I am having the same issue. I have more than one HDMI to USB converter of the same brand. I can't get them to work on the same USB 3.0 hub together. BUT...if I put one of them on a (separate) USB 2.0 hub, it will work.

I realize many have said this is because of bandwidth issues. But, please consider these points:

1) USB Bandwidth: Since the device works on USB 2.0, the bandwidth can't be more than 500 Mbps. So, two of them would not require more than about 20% of the USB 3.0 bandwidth, which is around 4800 Mbps. Note that the adapter in question is 1080p30.

2) No problem when using devices that are NOT identical: I can connect 5 cameras (that's all I had available for testing) without any issues if they're not the same model/brand. The PC in question has only 3 USB controllers. So, it's clear that more than one camera *can* be connected to a single hub.

So, I would like to put forward an alternate hypothesis: This is a naming conflict. Maybe having three devices named "USB Video" is just as confusing to OBS as it is to me when I'm trying to select one...unless they are connected through different USB hubs/controllers. The difference in USB hub/controller means that the connection is logically distinct, even if the device name is the same.

If my hypothesis is correct, the solutions to this problem would be very different. For example, we could look for a modification to OBS that automatically assigns sequentially numbered names to identical devices. Or, we could find a solution for renaming the devices. Or, we could develop a database of chipset use by brand/model, to aid users in buying multiple devices that won't conflict (I recently bought a device of a different brand with a different case in an effort to sidestep this issue. Unfortunately, the Win10 device name and drivers appear to be the same.)

Any thoughts?

 

[ColaJon]

PS--just to be clear

I want to acknowledge that there probably ARE cases where bandwidth is the cause. For example, if you have devices with 4k output, especially with moderate to light compression, it may use more than 50% of a USB 3.0 hub's bandwidth. I saw a post about this on the Elgato website, and I'm not inclined to disagree with them on their own products. But, these products have much higher throughput. My concern is with devices that only output 1080p30.

 

[Ares9323]

Same problem here, very anoying, I still don't have a workaround

edit: found a workaround, same as i read a couple of post behind... try diferent USB Bus, definetly do not use USB Hub for both Capture Cards...

I had the same problem with my desktop PC, my 2 cards were next to each other and they were visible in obs (as USB VIDEO), but only one was working at a time.

I think it's not a bandwidth problem, it looks like an "overlapping" that the driver does when 2 or more identical devices are plugged in the same bus.

I moved one to a PCI Express usb 3.0 port and now they work at the same time, the only "problem" is that I can get the audio from only one of them, fortunately one is a ps4 and the other one is a camera (and I don't need the camera audio since I alreadyhave an externam mic).

 

[ColaJon]

Thanks, Ares9323. I was wondering along the same lines and ordered a Startech PCIE USB card with 4 independent controllers. It's marketed for additional bandwidth, but I was interested in the 4 additional controllers. So far I have gotten two "USB Video" devices working on it. When I have a chance, I'll add two more (I don't have access to all four presently). This doesn't settle the question of whether it's bandwidth or a naming conflict. But if it works, it's about an $80 solution, which isn't too bad if it enables me to use $10 capture cards.

 

[princesskatja]

Having the same exact problem. Windows 10; OBS is up to date. I was experiencing my new 4K IPEVO webcam being able to be recognized and added to my list of display devices on OBS - but no video feed. Zoom and all other apps recognize it fine so it's obviously working, permissions are all fine for OBS etc. I've been using its older sibling for a few years and with OBS with rarely any issues.... in my experience this past year occasionally OBS doesn't want to show a camera but then restarting OBS will sometimes cause it to recognize/display it again. Annoying, but usually once OBS recognizes the camera again (this tends to happen after I've unplugged a camera) there is no further problem.

Played with it again tonight after reading this and a similar posting about webcams not showing a display in spite of being recognized - and found the following. OBS will display only ONE of my IPEVO webcams - and it must have be activated ("eye" icon active) upon closing the program previously. Whichever camera had been designated as active when the program was shut down - OBS would activate it again upon restart. I tried having both cameras active and then restarting...no joy. It would only reactivate one of them. Either or...never both. So technically both cameras are now showing up, but i have to choose which one in advance to actually use. This is not the case with all my other cameras (I had 4 different cameras active during this test). Those can be deactivated during previous sessions and still reactivate and display just fine upon reopening a new OBS session.

In my instance I wonder if OBS just can't differentiate between the two even though it shows both separately as available devices (they have different default device names but are same manufacturer). Unlike the OP mine do at least have different default names from the manufacturer, since the new one is upgraded. I have no issues switching back and forth between the two in Zoom and similar applications (and do regularly while teaching/streaming). It's definitely an OBS problem as I can't replicate it with any other apps using my camera array.

... and now I finally saw the workaround for using a different USB. Will try. But since I can easily switch back and forth between the devices with other apps, it still seems worth investigating as a potential fix for OBS.

 

[JauJau]

Having the same Problem. Only one of them work at the same time

 

[ColaJon]

Just a quick update. I am successfully running four cheap 1080p30 capture cards (all with the device name "USB Video") at the same time. All four are connected via the 4-port/4-controller USB PCIE card mentioned above. It is critical to plug them all in before configuring any scenes. Never remove any of them or move them around. Otherwise, OBS gets cranky and one (or more) won't work. I have labeled the ports, capture cards and cables so that this can be easily corrected if any of them are accidentally pulled out.

 

[JauJau]

I also have an update on how to use them without external pci express.

Using multiple Capture Cards at once! [SOLUTION]

I had some problems with capture cards thinking i was going to be able to run as many cards as want. Thats not the case! In this Video I explain why and my w...

youtu.be

 

[Stan Strong]

I think you may be onto something here. For a brief moment I got OBS to recognize all three devices, but as soon as I added a second scene all 3 went back to black. Which leads me to believe that it may be my USB hub mot being able to handle the load. I'm using a Microsoft Surface for this set up, and there is no way to add internal capture cards. Do you have a suggestion possibly to solve this with still using external capture cards? Possibly a faster USB hub?

I use three USB cameras on three 3.1 ports to avoid external capture devices - I know, the cameras are doing the capture - all three are the same brand. I don't know why this works, but I think it is because they use a driver common to Windows rather than an external product driver.
I do have a hard time keeping track of which device is which because they are all called "USB Camera". They all run fine - I want one more camera so they can all be fixed position.
I find that "Deactivate when not showing" causes a delay after Scene changes and occasionally a camera has been dropped by OBS (which requires deactivate.activate cycle).

 

[MidniteOil]

I'm having the same problem. I have 2 of these Rybozen 4K capture cards. I installed one, attached it to my Canon T2i and it works great.
I then installed a second one and attached it to a Sony HDR-CX150 camcorder and get no signal. If I unplug the Canon and plug that cable into the Sony I get signal.

Both show up as usb video.

The first is plugged into a usb port on the front-top of my desktop, the 2nd in a port on the back.

I've tried the Deactivate when not in use check box. I also tried deactivating the Canon source and still get nothing from the Sony.

Is it possible to rename the source in the registry? If so, where in the registry is it? I've tried searching for "usb video" and didn't find anything).

Thanks!