Archived from groups: rec.video.desktop (More info?)
Hello - any input on this problem would be appreciated
Hypersnap is a great program for automatically saving sequential images of
the desktop to the pc (and there are others). www.hyperionics.com
I think screen capture programs could have a much wider application, which
is to capture sequential images of a camera window displayed on a desktop.
There are millions of analogue security cameras in place which are connected
to time-lapse video tape recorders, or which can record video clips to the
pc via a video capture card, but none of these methods can store good
quality recordings of the camera scene.
The results of such cctv recordings are very poor, as can be seen from some
crime images on www.londoncctv.com You can also see the results of cttv
recordings on the America's Most Wanted Website at www.amw.com The plain
fact is you can't recognise suspects from cctv recordings, which is
regrettable when one considers that Man has put a very good camera on Mars
that can take time-lapse images of the Martian landscape!
Saving video clips to the pc involves converting the analogue signal from
the camera to a digital signal, using the video capture card. The computer's
graphics card then uses the digital signal to display the camera scene in a
preview window on the desktop, and video recording can be compressed for
storage on the pc. This process results in interlacing and compression
artifacts, even when using a good digital camera via firewire. One cannot
capture in DVD quality for cctv purposes because the hard drive would
quickly fill up in a few hours, whereas one needs to be recording
continuously for up to one month for cctv purposes.
So what is the solution to recording on a continuous basis for cctv
purposes?
A workaround solution is to simply display the best possible view of the
camera scene on the desktop, and then capture the camera window using
Hypersnap's automatic saving utility or some other screen capture program.
This creates sequential images automatically, and is better than recording
from the camera.
The only issue to solve is how to display the best possible image of a
camera scene on a desktop monitor whether the camera is a video or stills
camera connected to the pc. Hypersnap can take 1 or more shots of the
desktop per second and is very useful because it also has an in-built
'motion detector' - it will only take a fresh snap shot of the camera window
if there is some change in the camera scene pixels!
I am experimenting with a Win TV capture card and an Nvidea graphics card on
windows xp, with a CRT monitor (which are supposed to be clearer than flat
screen monitors). The camera scene as viewed on the destop is mediocre- so I
would like to improve it much more to sharpen the image as best as possible
before using Hypersnap to capture screen shots.
One aspect I am exploring is to purchase a better graphics card such as an
ATI X800XT graphics card, http://www.homepage-link.to/x800xt because it is
the graphics card which displays the image on the screen, while the Win TV
video capture card simply converts the analogue signal to digital before
sending it to the Graphics card. I am also going to take the plunge and
purchase a Matrox RTX10 capture card to see if it is any better than the Win
TV capture card. A pentium 4 processor, 1gb of 533mHz DDR2 SDRAM with
windows xp should complete the configuration. The analogue camera is a
panasonic WV-GLR920; a Sony TRV900e digital camcorder is not great for
viewing the camera scene on the desktop.
The only other tweak I am going to explore is to look at pixel scaler
programs http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidscale.htm which can help to
sharpen the camera scene on the desktop by taking the source pixels and
mapping them to the desktop resolution. If anyone has any tips foe this type
of program please say so.
If you can assist in any way with this research please let me know as a
workaround solution would enable many people to create a very good cctv
system using an analogue camera and pc.
John Aidiniantz
www.londoncctv.com
Hello - any input on this problem would be appreciated
Hypersnap is a great program for automatically saving sequential images of
the desktop to the pc (and there are others). www.hyperionics.com
I think screen capture programs could have a much wider application, which
is to capture sequential images of a camera window displayed on a desktop.
There are millions of analogue security cameras in place which are connected
to time-lapse video tape recorders, or which can record video clips to the
pc via a video capture card, but none of these methods can store good
quality recordings of the camera scene.
The results of such cctv recordings are very poor, as can be seen from some
crime images on www.londoncctv.com You can also see the results of cttv
recordings on the America's Most Wanted Website at www.amw.com The plain
fact is you can't recognise suspects from cctv recordings, which is
regrettable when one considers that Man has put a very good camera on Mars
that can take time-lapse images of the Martian landscape!
Saving video clips to the pc involves converting the analogue signal from
the camera to a digital signal, using the video capture card. The computer's
graphics card then uses the digital signal to display the camera scene in a
preview window on the desktop, and video recording can be compressed for
storage on the pc. This process results in interlacing and compression
artifacts, even when using a good digital camera via firewire. One cannot
capture in DVD quality for cctv purposes because the hard drive would
quickly fill up in a few hours, whereas one needs to be recording
continuously for up to one month for cctv purposes.
So what is the solution to recording on a continuous basis for cctv
purposes?
A workaround solution is to simply display the best possible view of the
camera scene on the desktop, and then capture the camera window using
Hypersnap's automatic saving utility or some other screen capture program.
This creates sequential images automatically, and is better than recording
from the camera.
The only issue to solve is how to display the best possible image of a
camera scene on a desktop monitor whether the camera is a video or stills
camera connected to the pc. Hypersnap can take 1 or more shots of the
desktop per second and is very useful because it also has an in-built
'motion detector' - it will only take a fresh snap shot of the camera window
if there is some change in the camera scene pixels!
I am experimenting with a Win TV capture card and an Nvidea graphics card on
windows xp, with a CRT monitor (which are supposed to be clearer than flat
screen monitors). The camera scene as viewed on the destop is mediocre- so I
would like to improve it much more to sharpen the image as best as possible
before using Hypersnap to capture screen shots.
One aspect I am exploring is to purchase a better graphics card such as an
ATI X800XT graphics card, http://www.homepage-link.to/x800xt because it is
the graphics card which displays the image on the screen, while the Win TV
video capture card simply converts the analogue signal to digital before
sending it to the Graphics card. I am also going to take the plunge and
purchase a Matrox RTX10 capture card to see if it is any better than the Win
TV capture card. A pentium 4 processor, 1gb of 533mHz DDR2 SDRAM with
windows xp should complete the configuration. The analogue camera is a
panasonic WV-GLR920; a Sony TRV900e digital camcorder is not great for
viewing the camera scene on the desktop.
The only other tweak I am going to explore is to look at pixel scaler
programs http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidscale.htm which can help to
sharpen the camera scene on the desktop by taking the source pixels and
mapping them to the desktop resolution. If anyone has any tips foe this type
of program please say so.
If you can assist in any way with this research please let me know as a
workaround solution would enable many people to create a very good cctv
system using an analogue camera and pc.
John Aidiniantz
www.londoncctv.com
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