Suggestions for USB Bandwidth thrift,: managing 6 cameras and game footage.

I noticed a few different things when I looked at the results of my playback on various different shows.

First let me start by saying that I film in binocular stereo with two cameras representing a left eye and a right eye view from a particular perspective.

I have three 3D camera shots usually on my shows one on my face approximately one on my hands to show real movements with the game and sync with the CRT TV or TN based monitor, and something I like to call a money shot which is a third angle, Plus game footage.

I'm trying to see whether there's an issue with my USB pathways or with an issue with my bandwidth or with an issue with my cameras.

The computer I have is a 2023 M2 Mac Mini.

My capture card is a fairly generic HDMI to USB capture card found on Amazon typically.

My audio is routed through surround sound analog capture and conversion into headphone sound using a Turtle Beach DSS, and sent back into the computer using a two-track analog stereo input.

My cameras are sq11s mainly because those are the only cameras I can find that I can place within 2 in of each other people to pupil and guarantee they're on the same plane and pointing in the same direction with a rig I recently created to do such things more accurately.

I have a total of five 3d angles but I always unplug whichever two angles I am not currently using. It seems like Mac OS has a limit of nine identically named cameras as a maximum so it cannot get all 10 possible so I have to alternate and reset.

When I run my camera videos through OBS's processes of dechroming the camera and then dying the whites red and cyan respectively in each eye, I get good constant easily 30 frames per second binocular vision where both eyes move.

However if I tried to do a 32 by 9 side by side half even though I do get accurate 3D through through Google cardboard, one eye from one persepective does not seem to want to move and is frozen still in color.

By the way my internet is fiber internet from the county which gets 100 megs in 100 megs out, and sub 50 milliseconds ping time.

I'm trying to find a way to do a full color broadcast in 3D. I noticed cameras sometimes get still when I use six different camera angles (three left eyes three right eyes) and try to keep the color info and use positional placement to put a 32x9 side by side proper ratio element together which works well in Google cardboard on YouTube but not so well because one of my eyes are frozen.

Is there a way you could reduce the capture size in terms of pixels for frame, because for my hand cam I'd rather have more frames and less detailed pictures of my hands as opposed to less frames and more detail pictures of my hands.

Before a Minoru camera worked, but the maximum frame rate I could get was 15 frames per second.

Is there a way you could turn down high definition camera resolutions so that it takes less space on the USB bandwidth?

By the way for my USB ports I have two thunderbolt 4 cables going to two different thunderbolt 3 hubs. I noticed most of the hubs lose space with going down from USB C 3.1 to USB A 3.0. Are there any devices that can have multiple USB 3.1 ports which I know are identical in physical hookup to thunderbolt 3 and 4 ports?

Would that help my cameras better? Just wondering whether the bottleneck is at the thunderbolt level the USB level or the broadband level or the camera level.

Also could I have numbers of megabits per second it takes to do a camera depending on the resolution, frames per second, and whether it's color or monochrome? I assume the reason why my red and cyan cameras come out well is because I save USB bandwidth by not capturing chroma information.
 

rockbottom

Active Member
2 maybe 3 seem to be doable, more with the Pro version. Each camera needs to be on a separate header for best performance.

Connections and Expansion​

  • Two Thunderbolt 4 ports (M2) or four Thunderbolt 4 ports (M2 Pro) with support for:
    • DisplayPort
    • Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
    • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
    • USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
    • Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI, and VGA supported using adapters (sold separately)
  • Two USB-A ports (up to 5Gb/s)
  • HDMI port
  • Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet)
  • 3.5 mm headphone jac
 
Is that two ports with a single thunderbolt for bus or is that two ports with a thunder single thunder Port bus each?

I know the Mac Mini M2 has an HDMI port for its output so the monitor is not contributing to thunderbolt bandwidth as well as two USB A 3.0, one of which I use for full camera capture.

I was thinking of paying $70 for an OWC Mac compatible thunderbolt for hub. I assume with a thunderbolt 3 Hub I only get 20 meg combined in and out.

How many Megabits per second does 640x480 take at 60 frames per second "normal color settings".

What do you say each camera must be on a separate header that means that each single camera must go to USB A 3.0? I noticed I have two connected to a USB a 3.0 and they seem to fit together when monochrome but not together when full color when using pixel size "High". I assume dropping the bit connection to 640 by 480 will save the bandwidth I need to run two Stereo full color cameras.

Also set up time is kind of tough what I want to switch from my classic setup to my modern setup (or my athletic setup for Wiimote and similar games).

I got a question I noticed that I don't use my computer for anything except streaming out and use consoles to game and a Android phone to do email and communications.

If I'm just using sq-11s would I be able to rename them on a PC infrastructure because apparently the Mac sees them as identical cameras and doesn't give a sequential number to each of them and limit them to nine instances of the same type in one system. (Just one shy of what I need if I want easy setup)

Does anyone know of any other stereo camera (or a pair of cameras that could be cobbled together as such) that goes by a different name that is 60 frames per second that would work well with Macintosh other than a pair of SQ11s?

Does anyone know how to rename an sq-11?

Will Apple eventually read custom names to USB items that are UVC class video products?

If I get a PC what do I have to know about Security in the house? I know one time I tried using the PC on the Macintosh side and I said, never again, but that was 18 years ago when we had dial-up. Is it fair to give a second shake for that especially my only use is going to be outstreaming?

Also is 100 MB/s out on economy fiber considered good enough for outstreaming?
 
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