DirectShow .Net camera capture encode output?

Question

recently i have started workin on project of my own which is capturing a camera output using DirectShow .Net. There are few problems that i don't know how ot solve 1) How can i encode the captured stream into H.264 format.I understand i should some how add filter in the filter graph. But i wasn't able to find where and how . Also i was not able to find if there is standart H.264 filter or should i download it form some where? If i need to download it can it just be a dll to wich i add reference or should it be installer? 2) Is there a way to save the captured output into a memory object, some kind of stream or it can only be written to file? Best Regards, Iordan

Answer 1

You're can use commercial software from VisioForge or Viscomsoft .

AForge potencial problem - no audio during capture, only video. Also output formats is a very limited. But - it's free and open source, if you're have any DirectShow experiense you can add audio support.

Answer 2

1. You will need to use something like FFMpeg or Handbrake. Check out http://vidcoder.codeplex.com/ . AForge also has some video editing abilities and you can also pass filters to it. There are also several FFMpeg C# wrappers you could use such as https://github.com/crazyender/FFMPEG.net

2. You should use AForge.net. All of the hard work is done for you already. Use VideoFileWriter http://www.aforgenet.com/framework/docs/html/4ee1742c-44d3-b250-d6aa-90cd2d606611.htm . I appears that the AForge framework uses FFMpeg under the hood as well (See AForge.Video.FFMPEG namespace). You just create a writer and pass it the bitmap/frame writer.WriteVideoFrame(bitmap);

You should fully investigate the video abstractions in AForge. You could save yourself considerable amounts of time.

Example: http://www.aforgenet.com/framework/samples/video.html

Answer 3

1) Yes, You should download encoder filter library. Most of decoders are supplied with free. But encoder is not. If you don't want to pay, you have to find open source Encoder. And To use at the graphedit program, you should do dll register with that dll file. Or the installer program do this instead. And you also need to check container type like mp4, mkv... In other words you need mux filter to save that in a file. I think someone will link available urls. Sorry I don't have urls now.

2)What is that the means of capture? Is that Movie? or Image?

• In case of Image, There are many sample projects and SampleGrabbers. You can save it to both of a file and memory.

• In case of Movie, I'm sure your pc memory is not enougth to them with out encoding. Make memory stream and pass it to capture manager.

You can also make a filter in order to customize filter to your needs. All of information are included in Windows SDK samples.