Question / Help USB capture device only visible on one scene

[buckettraveler]

So I have a few scenes all with the same USB capture source but only the scene I have selected when I start up OBS is seen. So if I have Scene 1 selected and then close OBS and open it I can see the capture on Scene 1 but not Scene 2, Scene 3, ect. So then I can select Scene 2, shutdown OBS, and on opening OBS I can see the capture on Scene 2 but when I select Scene 1 again it isn't visible.

OBS version: 23.2.1
Linux: Linux Mint 19.1
Capture Device: Magewell USB Capture Plus

Any other info needed on my setup? Do I need to update something or downgrade something? I just got my capture device today and although it works, and I installed Magewell's software so I can change settings, I can't get it working well enough with OBS.

EDIT: Just saw a thread on the V4L2 plugin and it works on OBS and VLC. However, it seems only one program can use it at a time, so if OBS is running I can't open it on VLC. Is this the problem with OBS? Like one Scene on OBS is using it so none of the others can? Once I apply a crop filter does that Scene 'take control' of the device? If so is there any 'refresh' option on OBS?

What I was thinking of doing for a work around was open the video capture device on VLC and just do a window capture of it for each scene. Kinda a crappy work around but if that is what I need to do then I guess that is what I need to do.

 

[buckettraveler]

Ok, so what I ended up doing, because capturing the stream from VLC added TOO much lag, is I just selected the same source in each scene, or V4L2, and then making special filters for each crop I wanted. So, I select the scene and then right click the capture in the window, select filters, then un-mute the filter I want.

I wish scenes remembered which filters were used on the USB capture source.

Is this making any sense? I could make a video on what I'm trying to explain.

 

[Tuna]

Hardware devices such as cameras usually only allow a single instance being accessed.

To reuse the camera in multiple scenes you reuse the existing source instead of adding a new one.

To have different filters applied for the same source you usually organize this by creating "dummy" scenes. Reuse the v4l source here as single source. You won't directly switch to these scenes but include them as a scene sources in other "real" scenes. In these scenes you can apply a filter to the "dummy" scene you have added. That way you can have different filters applied in different scenes from the the same source.