I have 2x approved USB PCI cards and 4 PS eye cameras. I have connected one camera to each card for maximum bandwidth and I am writing video data to a RAM Disk for maximum throughput. However, I cannot record 4 cameras @ 640x480 at 60 FPS; I get greened-out cameras.

Why would this be?

Hi, Mike

By "approved", do you mean these cards a built on USB chipset that has no known compatibility issues with PS Eye?
Can you record at less frame rate values or with less number of cameras?
Do you connect other 2 cameras to motherboard's USB ports?
Does "greened-out" means that the image from cameras consists of solely green pixels?
Does it happen to all 4 cameras, or some cameras produce normal video?

These cards are not build on a USB chipset listed and others have said these cards work well for PS-Eye capture.
I can record at lower frame rates and with fewer cameras (for example, one camera at 320x240 at 180 FPS is fine, or 4 cameras at 640x480 at 30 FPS is fine).
I connect 2 cameras to their own PCI cards and 2 cameras to the computer USB ports which has 2 controllers, and make sure they are all on different channels.
Greened-out means the image is solely green, yes.
It happens to all 4 cameras.

Do you have a consistent effect regardless of the USB ports used to connect cameras?
For example, try connecting all 4 cameras to built-in USB ports (2 per each USB controller), or connecting all to PCI cards (2 per each).

How did you manage to record at 320x240@180, as iPi Recorder does not provide high FPS modes for PS Eye?

Yes. Here are some example scenarios of testing:

Single Test:
PS3 Camera -> USB3 port

-CL-Eye Test software records 320x240 @ 187 FPS no problem, no skipped frames, no issues with disk. (SSD and/or RAMdisk)
-CL-Eye Test software also records 640x480 @ 75 FPS no problem, no skipped frames, no issues with disk. (SSD and/or RAMdisk)
-ipiRecorder 1.8 drops massive frames at 640x480 @ 40 FPS
-ipiRecorder 1.8 greens out camera image 640x480 @ above 40 FPS

Separate Bandwidth Test:
PS3 Camera -> USB3 port (labeled camera #1, so it is used by CL-Eye Test software)
PS3 Camera -> USB2 port using separate PCI card
PS3 Camera -> USB2 port using another separate PCI card

-CL-Eye Test software records 320x240 @ 187 FPS no problem, no skipped frames, no issues with disk. (SSD and/or RAMdisk)
-CL-Eye Test software also records 640x480 @ 75 FPS no problem, no skipped frames, no issues with disk. (SSD and/or RAMdisk)
-ipiRecorder 1.8 drops massive frames at 640x480 @ 40 FPS
-ipiRecorder 1.8 greens out camera image 640x480 @ above 40 FPS
(USB3 camera tends to drop fewer frames but is still unusable)

I know the 1.x software isn't supported but as I've said many times on the forum, frame rate is exceedingly important to me and it appears the CL-Eye driver really DOES work at 75 FPS with a single camera and should if all cameras have separate bandwidth (I am willing to buy multiple PCI to USB3 adapters for this). Is there any reason why the CL-Eye Test software would work but iPi Recorder does not despite way lower frame rate settings?

(iPi Recorder is using YUY2 settings because the Bayer RAW format is unusable since no one seems to know how to convert from RAW to RGB; I am not sure how CL-Eye Test records it but it is not in RAW, it is in RGB AVI format)

I am very willing to pay for a version of software that records 4+ cameras at 75 FPS @ 640x480 and 180 FPS @ 320x240 if it's a reasonable sum. Just frustrating since those modes very obviously work using the CL-Eye Test software but do not in iPi Recorder.

Additionally, testing iPi Recorder 2 (newest version) shows this:

-Dropped frames at 60hz @ 640x480 on both cameras connected via USB2, no dropped frames on camera connected to USB3
-No dropped frames at 50hz @ 640x480

So it appears code is better in iPi Recorder 2, I guess? Though the iPiVideo format is obviously proprietary and multi-channel video can't be converted to AVI (sigh).

So then it's better to use USB3 than USB2 ?

If so, what USB3 PCI expansion card would you recommend with 8 ports, and 4 controllers (if any in the existence) ?

In my experience, USB 3 works better. Even if the connected devices are USB 2 they still benefit from the expanded bandwidth of USB 3, just not as much as USB 3 devices. Just be sure to get a compatible USB 3 card.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

I can't recommend any USB 3 myself because my gear is getting pretty old but I believe the iPi Soft Wiki has some recommendations.

G.

_________________
Greenlaw
Artist/Partner - Little Green Dog | My Demo Reels (2013,) (2015,) (2017,) and (2019)

Watch a one minute excerpt on Vimeo now!

iPi Recorder can export video from a single camera in iPiVideo to an AVI file. Then combine multiple AVI files into a single file using video editing software.



From my experience, it's just a matter of compatibility between PS Eye and specific USB chipsets, not USB version. Intel USB chipsets built-in CPU/motherboard never had any problems with any cameras. NEC USB 3.0 works smoothly with PS Eye. There are numerous USB chipsets from other vendors, as well as new models from NEC and VIA. But I had not tested them, so cannot say anything certain.
I cannot recommend any USB card with multiple USB controllers, because did not experiment with them. The safe way is to use several 2+ ports PCIe cards, each with single USB controller (NEC USB 3.0 preferred for compatibility with PS Eye). Usually you do not need more than 2 cards (4 cams on built-in USB ports + 4 cams on 2 cards).