Looking for a C/C++ library for capturing video on Win32. 

I need it to compile in VS6.

Obviously MS supplies libraries to do this, but they are far too
complex. Namely I'm not using any of their class libraries already. I
want something that just looks roughly like.

VidGrabInit();
RGBA_Data * = Grab_Frame();

Where can I find it?

I'd be very happy if it supported all video devices, but at least it
should support Firewire cameras. Also I need to capture synchronized
from two cameras at once.

Obviously most camera vendors will give me their flavor of this
library, but I'm tired of changing my code everytime I switch cameras,
thus I want something that either talks IEEE1394(firewire) directly,
or goes through the WDM Windows driver layer and supports any camera.
The goal is to be not tied to a specific vendor.

Best would be free, but if its full featured enough I could pay
several hundred dollars for it.

I am already aware of the CMU 1394 library. I'm checking for alternatives.

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 21 Nov 2003 19:10 PST

Hi,

Dscaler is an open source capture/tv tuner application.
The code you require is probably in its code somewhere.

Dcsaler:
http://deinterlace.sourceforge.net/

Thanks.
endo

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Clarification of Question by jamesdavis-ga on 24 Nov 2003 15:49 PST

Thanks for the pointer. I will check it out, but since its embedded in
the middle of another application, I'm pretty sure its not going to
have the nice easy interface I was looking for. As long as I have to
understand convoluted code, I might as well learn DirectShow.

But anyway, I do appreciate. You never know, it might have a beautiful
clean API in there. =)

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Request for Question Clarification by endo-ga on 27 Nov 2003 22:09 PST

Hi,

I'm wondering if you had a look at this:

Microsoft Vision Technology
http://www.research.microsoft.com/projects/VisSDK/

The Vision SDK can be used to create the following types of applications: 
Applications that grab images to be processed from a camera. (Cameras
supporting the Microsoft Video For Windows (VFW) and DirectShow APIs
are supported, as is the Matrox Meteor video capture card. Users can
also write DLLs that will let the library work with other digitizers.)


Thanks.
endo

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Clarification of Question by jamesdavis-ga on 28 Nov 2003 02:58 PST

In fact I use the MSR Vision toolkit already for AVI read/write. I
thought it only supported VFW and not direct show. I'll go look again
at that portion of the interface. But yes this is perhaps a good
solution.

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Clarification of Question by jamesdavis-ga on 28 Nov 2003 03:06 PST

Since I already knew that the MSR Vision toolkit existed, but didn't
realize it supported DirectShow I think you deserve some payment, but
not the full $10. I changed the question value to $4. Give me an
"answer" and I'll click through that you should get paid.

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

Intel also makes a similar library:

Open CV Library Overview
http://www.intel.com/research/mrl/research/opencv/overview.htm

This might suit your needs more than the Microsoft one. Open CV is
very straightforware to use.

I hope this helps and please let me know if it better suits your
needs. If you need any more help or clarifications please do not
hesitate to ask.

Thanks.
endo

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Request for Answer Clarification by jamesdavis-ga on 28 Nov 2003 11:29 PST

Does the Intel OpenCV library handle video capture easily? I didn't
know that. As before, I have used that library for certain other
routines, but not for video capture. I'll check on that option as
well.

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Clarification of Answer by endo-ga on 28 Nov 2003 11:34 PST

Hi,

It claims the following:

User Contributed Utilities Windows Specific 
How to find any Direct Show camera driver with the CAMSHIFT demo 
Matrox Meteor Direct Show capture filter 

So I guess there's a way to do it.

The details are in the help file that comes with the installation:

OpenCV\docs\ref\OpenCVRef_Highgui.htm

Hope this helps.

Thanks.
endo