Capturing 3 video sources Simultaneously

[Mama Sumae]

hi guys doing a uni experiment morrow and need to capture video from 3 different sources (webcams) at the same time.

Tried quite a few applications but most don’t support multi sources or are unreliable which is bad since i am running the experiment only once.

Dont need nothing fancy actually something light would be great but not a priority. The experiment will run for +-20 minutes so it would be good if the software would allow some sort of compressing.


Also if its Free better xD


Thanks in advance.

[TAKTAK]

will any of the programs you have let you run multiple instances of them, so you can have a different source for each instance???
either that or the easyiest way i can think off the top of me noggin, is borrow a couple of friends computers for 20mins and run the program on 3 computers....
in fact if your near me i can hook you up with some for an hour or so...
edit: just looked at your location and your nowhere near me so thats not really feasible

[tom18230]

Wait, so you want to use 3 webcams, to capture at the same time?

Are the webcams directly connected to the computer you want to capture from, or connected through the interwebz?

[Craig321]

I know it sounds stupidly simple, but when you plug them in choose the autorun option of recording with Windows Movie Maker - do the same for all three. Could work, you never know

[SiM]

wow... 3 dimensional, multi-angled pr0n!

Like taktak suggested, using 3 laptops is your best bet imo... Since you are at uni, every one has a laptop so borrow some!

[arthurleung]

3 Laptops is probably your best bet. USB is quite a slow connection, depends on resolution you'll be lucky to get 5FPS out of USB at 1.3MPixels

If you use 3 cameras on the same laptop, you basically splitting that 5FPS into 3.

Might as well just try and borrow 3 cameras and use the movie mode on the camera? Surely that will be much better than any webcam.

[directhex]

usb 1.1 is slow - 2.0 has more than enough bandwidth

[Mama Sumae]

Thanks guys all done went great too


Originally was going to use 3 different programs or simply open 3 instances of the same application like TAKTAK said. But most applications like movie maker can only be open once or dont allow other programs to record whille they are active.

The 3 laptops way was my last resort but this morning i found a small exe application that did the job. Its called CaptureFlux_52en and can be run several times simultaneously and better its free xD

Ended up using 5 webcams but 1 failed i guess being inside an acid and water solution didnt help quality could be better but i wouldnt risk using normal recoding cameras in those conditions

[Craig321]

Sounds like you have an interesting project going on... cameras in acid/water solution

[Agent]

Ohh, you have me interested now

Whats the project mate ?

[Lee H]

Cheers for naming the application.

Now I can setup my infra-red cameras on USB and go capturing like on ghost hunters

[Mama Sumae]

The whole idea was to simulate the combustion process inside a plane's gas turbine engine.

So, I passed a mixed solution of alkaline and water thru an acid solution ,representing fuel and air respectively, inside an early plane combustion chamber.
The result was a visual representation of the flame length and shape during combustion, captured on the webcams.

Still there ?

[Mama Sumae]

Cheers for naming the application.

Now I can setup my infra-red cameras on USB and go capturing like on ghost hunters

Hey Lee,
I came across a free software yesterday that has movement sensors, so it only records when there's movement. Only problem is that it only allows one source.

Tryin to remember the name ........... but ur ghosts might fool that anyway