Hey guys, I'm having some problems getting two Kinects to play nicely with my new Windows 7 gaming desktop.

One Kinect works fine but when I plug in two either they both freeze or "color" on one doesn't work...

Here is my device manager and "normal view" of all my devices - Are both Kinects connected to the same USB controller? How do you tell?
http://imgur.com/AUdkGJV

Here is the screen im seeing in iPi Recroder. Both screens are frozen. One is completely yellow.
http://imgur.com/JZErkhB

Here are the diagnostics for my graphics card. As you can see its a GTX 770
http://imgur.com/LJJA7SD

This is the computer im working with. From my understanding the specs should run everything perfectly...
http://www.costco.com/CyberPowerPC-Desk ... 54257.html

It has to be the bandwith for my usb controller....

But I dont understand why there isn't enough power??? I bought an external powered "hub" but that didnt fix the issue??? Maybe because that "hub" is going through the one and only usb controller??

Another weird thing is that one of the front USB ports on the tower isn't working and Im not sure why.

Any help would be amazing. This has me stumped :(

Thanks,
Carlo

Hello carlo,

to be sure about USB controllers it's required to switch Device Manager to "Devices by connection" view (View -> Devices by connection menu item).

But based on your description and provided screenshots I can assume that the cause of your troubles is your USB controllers model and/or USB controller drivers. Please try to search for driver updates for your USB controllers and/or your motherboard.

Some information about relevant issues with USB you can find in the official Microsoft documentation: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/develop/release-notes.aspx#_6._known_issues ("USB host controller compatibility" section).

Thanks for the feedback Andrew :)

Here is a screen shot of the Device Manager in the "Devices by Connection" view:

http://i.imgur.com/ad5eJel.jpg

Its weird because all devices plugged into USB 2.0 ports are still showing up under "USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller" ...

I also updated the drivers for my USB controller and motherboard but the dual kinects are still not connecting properly :(

Maybe Ill try to reinstall windows...

Do you think it could have to do with the new 4th generation Intel core in the computer?

Carlo

Hello Carlo,

Most likely re-installing of Windows will not help. From your last screenshot one can see that both Kinects are plugged through one and the same USB 3.0 controller. It seems that this controller couldn't operate with two Kinects bandwidth usage.

What you can do in this case:
1. Please try all possible pairs of USB ports on your PC. According to specifications it has 8 USB ports and only 4 of them (2 front, 2 rear) are USB 3.0. Probably there's pair of ports that will work fine for your.
2. If previous doesn't help, you can try to turn off color streams from Kinects. To do this select depth only mode during setup stage in iPi Recorder. It should reduce bandwidth usage by a factor of 1.8.

my system works with usb 2.0 ports fine. what you should care is to see kinect under diffent usb host controllers. try what andrew says in #1. each time check device manager if you see kinects are not under the same usb controllers.

Attached is a screen shot of my device manager again...

I still cant get anything (mouse, keyboard, kinect) to connect to the Intel C220 USB EHCI #1 and #2

Are those USB controllers?

I dont want to have to turn off the video and reduce the resolution. I bought this computer specific for shooting/tracking animations.

Thanks again for all the help. I hope we can sort this out :(

Carlo

Hm. May be this question can be addressed to computer manufacture and/or seller? Why all USB ports are connected to one and the same USB 3.0 controller meanwhile two USB 2.0 controllers are not in play? Probably, it's a bug in internals cord connections?

Thanks Andrew. I called Power PC but they weren't able to fix the issue. The tech support mentioned it might be that the USB isn't getting enough power from the motherboard.... I still understand why all the USB get routed through that controller tho...

If I drop the resolution to 320 and dont use color video then they seem to work... How will that effect the tracking quality?

Carlo

I didn't realize you could lower the resolution for Kinect--I thought that was only for PS3 Eye. Anyway, the higher resolution for PS3 Eye is important if you're doing 20 x 20 ft capture because the performer's image will be small in the recorded video.

I'm not sure how lower resolution affects Kinect data--I imagine it makes the volume data less detailed but it's not like the Kinect data has a lot of detail in it anyway.

The color video is nice but not necessary. I use it to check the accuracy of the capture and to visually assist with tracking corrections. It's also useful for matching finger poses using the new Hand Pose system, but obviously less so if you use handheld PS Move controllers.

iPi Soft said they may start using the Kinect video data to enhance tracking quality but the software does not do this yet.

Anyway, if it was me, I'd keep trying to get full resolution from the Kinects. Frame rate is actually more important than resolution but since the Kinect is limited to 30 fps, resolution is all you really have to work with for accurate capture/tracking.

Hope this helps.

G.

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