Capture Live Video from Various Video Devices

Introduction

This is an attempt to create an application that captures live video from a video capture device and USB-attached WebCam together in the same application. While developing my project, I needed to capture the video from various video devices, including TV. Although I found some sources for capturing video, they were not sufficiently efficient. That prompted me to develop my own independent application. Initially, “LiveVideo” detects the availability of the video capture card and WebCam whether attached or not. Otherwise, it shows the message. Most of the API functions used are from the DirectX SDK.

Steps to Use

1. Create a Dialog-based application.
2. Insert a Picture control 320×240 pixels in size.
3. In the properties of the Picture control, set TYPE as “Rectangle” and COLOR as “Black.”
4. Add the files “CaptureVideo.cpp” and “CaptureDevice.h” to your project.
5. Add “CaptureVide.h” into your implementation header file.
6. Create an Object of the class “CCaptureVideo” using the Class wizard.
7. Link the strmbasd.lib, wmvcore.lib, and wmstub.lib libraries in your project settings.

Now, using the object, invoke the InitializeVideo(HWND hWnd) function to initialize the video.

HRESULT hr = capVideo.InitializeVideo(hWnd) ;

Where “hWnd” is the window handle of the picture control.

• StartSVideo()—To start capturing from SVideo.
• StartCompositeVideo()—To start capturing from Composite Video.
• StartTVTuner()—To start capturing from TVTuner.
• StartWebcam()—To start capturing from WebCam.

IMPORTANT

Don’t forget to unintialize the video by using UnInitializeVideo() before you destroy your application.

Requirements

• Video capture card. I’ve tested with the “WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Video Capture” card. I hope it will work with all video capture cards.
• USB cam.
• You need to install DirectX, which is available freely from Microsoft. You can download DirectX 9.0 from Microsoft.
• For development, install DirectX 9.0 SDK. You can download DirectX 9.0 SDK from Microsoft.

I hope this article is of some use to you. I will add configuration settings of the video features and video quality in my next version. Feel free to use these classes as you like. Any comments or improvements would be appreciated.