txesmi wrote:
When i record with 320x240 resolution, my poor lighting conditions doesn't let me track my records properly. But when i record with 640x480px it works pretty better. The issue is that i can't record more than few seconds. Can i get bigger recording cache size?
Cache size is not a good solution, as with 4 GB cache size you can still record just a few seconds of high-quality video. (But we will try to make cache size configurable in future versions.)
Earlier you mentioned that you have a fast CPU (Intel Quad Core), so I believe there should be a way to record 4 streams of 640x480 on your PC using current version of iPi Recorder.
I suggest that you use the following approach for increasing your recording resolution:
1) Do not plug more then 2 cameras into one USB controller. That means, do not plug all cameras ino the USB ports on that back of the PC. Instead, plug two of them to the back (one under another) and two to front pannel. Every modern motherboard should have multiple USB controllers (typically, 8 per PC) - that's the feature of chipset. Usually, pins for controllers are designed in such a way that two USB ports can be plugged into one controller (look how your front panel USB ports are attached to motherboard to see what I mean).
The best approach is to plug 1 camera into 1 controller. To do this, you may use additional front panel extender like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820131010(but do not use front panel extenders with USB hub, e.g. 3 or more USB ports - it will just slow things down).
2) Use a faster codec. Best codec is MJPEG codec. We recommend
http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/technicalsV3.htm - it is inexpensive ($30) and comes with 2 month free trial. In MJPEG, each video frame is compressed separately using the JPEG still image compression standard. No frame differencing or motion estimation is used to compress the images. This makes it very fast and very high-quality, at the expense of bigger file size (which is not a problem for motion capture).
XVID is also a great codec but it is designed for smaller file size, not for fast compression. You may increase the speed of XVID compression by tweaking the Quality option. At 320x240, most modern PCs should be fast enough to compress 4 video streams at 30 frames per second using XVID quality 1 (max) in real time. At 640x480, you may need to change quality setting to 4 or so. You may also need to tweak "Other options...->Encoding->Multiple threads" and "Other options...->Common->Force optimizations".
3) iPi Recorder is known to work much faster on Windows XP, as compared to Vista.
4) Make sure you turn OFF the RightLight, Anti-flicker and similar options for your cameras.
5) Make sure you have latest camera drivers.
txesmi wrote:
I got 4 logitech9000 webcameras. I have stored their properties camera by camera, plugging and unplugging them. When i plug every cameras together, logitech software doesn't let me control its parameters. Only two are controled by their driver. It looks like becomes to an automatic diod control and focus. Is there any way to control all plugged cameras? I did look in google but i didn't find a solution.
This is a clear indication that you do not have latest camera drivers. Logitech offers outdated drivers for download on their website. To get latest drivers, you need to use Logitech Autoupdate. Use the "Check for Latest Software" button on Help Dashboard (activated via the help icon) on Logitech Webcam toolbar.
txesmi wrote:
Otherwise, congratulations for your software! it works great!
Thank you!
