WebCam integration with SageTV?

[fiatmonkey]

Hi,

It's been a LONG time since I posted last but it is now time again...

I would like to be able to stream USB webcam(s) into SageTV. Logitech quickcam 3000 and a new logitech C270 (HD). I followed some posts using SGR graphRecorder (which I have working GREAT for my comcast).

Having issues even getting graphedit to stream the data to a file. So my question is - has anyone had success with integrating USB webcams with Sagetv using SGR? Can you share your experience? Do you have suggestions on building the GRF file?

Really appreciate anyone's input.
-FM

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by fiatmonkey

Hi,

It's been a LONG time since I posted last but it is now time again...

I would like to be able to stream USB webcam(s) into SageTV. Logitech quickcam 3000 and a new logitech C270 (HD). I followed some posts using SGR graphRecorder (which I have working GREAT for my comcast).

Having issues even getting graphedit to stream the data to a file. So my question is - has anyone had success with integrating USB webcams with Sagetv using SGR? Can you share your experience? Do you have suggestions on building the GRF file?

Really appreciate anyone's input.
-FM

Web Feed Encoder (WFE) is your friend for this.

[fiatmonkey]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Web Feed Encoder (WFE) is your friend for this.

Thanks for the post...Reading WFE notes...

[wayner]

Let us know if you get it working. I tried a bit but was never successful - I think I was trying to use VLC to broadcast a stream.

I would also be interested in getting the stream from an IP camera viewable in Sage. I have a few Trendnet video cameras that I can view from a web page, software like IP Camera Viewer, and iPad apps, but I don't kow if or how you could get it into Sage.

If you have a plain analog video camera and you want to stream that through Sage you can use an old tuner card with a composite input, like a PVR-150.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by wayner

Let us know if you get it working. I tried a bit but was never successful - I think I was trying to use VLC to broadcast a stream.

I would also be interested in getting the stream from an IP camera viewable in Sage. I have a few Trendnet video cameras that I can view from a web page, software like IP Camera Viewer, and iPad apps, but I don't kow if or how you could get it into Sage.

If you have a plain analog video camera and you want to stream that through Sage you can use an old tuner card with a composite input, like a PVR-150.

Really Wayner, what was the issue?

I have successfully setup rtsp streams from my web cams, as well as usb based cams without issue..

[wayner]

VLC seems to have a tendency to crash on a very frequent basis, at least it did for me, whenever I tried streaming of a webcam or other device. My other idea to do this was to just have the webcams up on a PC and broadcast that webcam using VLC. But I could never get the desktop broadcast to work properly either.

As is mentioned in the WFE thread, there are many updates to VLC and each new version seems to break as many things as it fixes.

I should be nice since it is free and is Open, but VLC is in many ways the most crash-prone unstable piece of software that I have used in many years and this has been my experience across many PCs, and many versions of VLC.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by wayner

VLC seems to have a tendency to crash on a very frequent basis, at least it did for me, whenever I tried streaming of a webcam or other device. My other idea to do this was to just have the webcams up on a PC and broadcast that webcam using VLC. But I could never get the desktop broadcast to work properly either.

As is mentioned in the WFE thread, there are many updates to VLC and each new version seems to break as many things as it fixes.

I should be nice since it is free and is Open, but VLC is in many ways the most crash-prone unstable piece of software that I have used in many years and this has been my experience across many PCs, and many versions of VLC.

Yeah the old version of VLC that WFE requires is a bit finicky. what also works quite well is to use a loopback channel and capture card via svideo input or composite input.

[wayner]

But for that sort of a loopback you need a video card that outputs to composite or s-video, which is getting tricky to find. I guess you could also use a Colossus or the new HDPVR2 since they have HDMI inputs, assuming that HDCP doesn't screw you up.

On second thought, maybe one way to go is to use a Raspberry Pi as your streaming source. It is only $35 and has a composite video output. And you could use SSH or VNC to control what you are streaming. It is probably cheaper than buying a video card with s-video or composite out.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by wayner

But for that sort of a loopback you need a video card that outputs to composite or s-video, which is getting tricky to find. I guess you could also use a Colossus or the new HDPVR2 since they have HDMI inputs, assuming that HDCP doesn't screw you up.

On second thought, maybe one way to go is to use a Raspberry Pi as your streaming source. It is only $35 and has a composite video output. And you could use SSH or VNC to control what you are streaming. It is probably cheaper than buying a video card with s-video or composite out.

Thats an awesome idea for that little rpi! wish i had one to give it a whirl on...

[wayner]

They aren't hard to find now as they seem to have finally balanced supply and demand.

http://www.newark.com/jsp/bespoke/be...pi-Accessories

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by wayner

They aren't hard to find now as they seem to have finally balanced supply and demand.

http://www.newark.com/jsp/bespoke/be...pi-Accessories

My wife doesn't know you, but she doesn't like you right now :-)

[wayner]

To get back to the original issue, one thing to be careful of when you do this is to make sure that you are watching "live". I occasionally keep an eye on my kids using an analog camera streamed through a PVR-150 and you can get accidentally end up watching content that is an hour or more delayed.

The other thing is that the digital transcoding process will likely cause a few second delay vs "real-time". The good thing is that you can always rewind a bit if you have to!

[wayner]

Originally Posted by wayner

I would also be interested in getting the stream from an IP camera viewable in Sage.

D'Oh...

I guess I should RTFP - post 1 of the WebFeedEncoder thread has:

Headline changes this release

Support for latest VLC.
Support for IP cameras.
Support for MPEG2 IP TV.
Support for Audio only devices.
New feature to ensure VLC sessions die.

I will try this out and post my results.

[fiatmonkey]

Originally Posted by wayner

Let us know if you get it working. I tried a bit but was never successful - I think I was trying to use VLC to broadcast a stream.

I would also be interested in getting the stream from an IP camera viewable in Sage. I have a few Trendnet video cameras that I can view from a web page, software like IP Camera Viewer, and iPad apps, but I don't kow if or how you could get it into Sage.

If you have a plain analog video camera and you want to stream that through Sage you can use an old tuner card with a composite input, like a PVR-150.

Sorry for the late reply - I had this working pretty quickly with no major issues. I just made sure to upgrade the proper VLC (according to the notes for WFE plugin).

I integrated 2 usb cams; an old low-res quickcam 3000 and a c270HD(?) both logitech. The video is choppy and lower res by default AND the quickcam is stuck in black and white. Anyone know how I could change these settings somewhere?

With that, it does work. However the overhead can be high if I am streaming, recording and watching a web cam. CPU and memory get pretty hot. I also notice the tuning time for SageTV to display the feed is really long. Like 10 seconds.

Originally Posted by wayner

To get back to the original issue, one thing to be careful of when you do this is to make sure that you are watching "live". I occasionally keep an eye on my kids using an analog camera streamed through a PVR-150 and you can get accidentally end up watching content that is an hour or more delayed.

The other thing is that the digital transcoding process will likely cause a few second delay vs "real-time". The good thing is that you can always rewind a bit if you have to!

I get your point there on real-time vs. delayed. I see about a 3 second delay at minimum. I also have to make sure I FF once I start watching if I want to keep the delay down to 3 sec.


I would really like to give SGR another chance. WFE is really cool, but overkill for my needs I think.
Thanks,
FM

[wayner]

Originally Posted by fiatmonkey

I would really like to give SGR another chance. WFE is really cool, but overkill for my needs I think.

I don't know if you have been following the WFE thread but mkanet has figured out some changes that make things work a bit better. You still need VLC to broadcast the stream but for many streams you don't actually have to reencode as Sage can display the original video file. This means that the quality should be better, there should be fewer problems and you aren't using as many CPU resources.

[fiatmonkey]

Originally Posted by wayner

I don't know if you have been following the WFE thread but mkanet has figured out some changes that make things work a bit better. You still need VLC to broadcast the stream but for many streams you don't actually have to reencode as Sage can display the original video file. This means that the quality should be better, there should be fewer problems and you aren't using as many CPU resources.

Thanks Wayne. I will read threw the posts on WFE.

-FM