Using DirectX with a network camera

[Jerry Spence1]

I'm struggling to get started on this subject as I can find out so little
information about DirectX

I have some IP Cameras and I am trying to display the video and also save
the file, and I am hearing that DirectShow may have the answer. However,
after downloading the latest DirectX SDK it says that DirectShow is now
obsolete but it doesn't say what I should be using.

I am thinking that I need to set up some tcp network streaming to get the
file and to save it (MJPEG or MPEG4), but I have no idea how to do this -
any help would be appreciated. I've played with Webrequest, WebResponse etc
but haven't quite got there yet. Having got this bit sorted I need to be
able to display the video - I think using DirectX. Again any help would be
appreciated.

-Jerry

[The Frog]

Re: Using DirectX with a network camera

Hi Jerry,

Does the manufacturer of the cameras have an SDK available? What type
of data transfer are the cameras using? Have you tried connecting to
the cameras with the Windows Media Encoder (download from MS website)?
Make, model, brand?

Sorry to bug you with all these questions, but after having worked
with cameras in this type of context for years I have learned that
there are a lot of ways that manufacturers can approach this. What you
need to do is to first understand the output that comes from the
camera. You need to know the transmission type (usually TCP/IP based),
perhaps they are using an HTTP feed of some sort etc... Then you need
to know the format of the video stream itself, perhaps one of the MPEG
types, or MJEPG, H.264, Wavelet, etc... So if you can find out what it
is transmitting and how it is transmitting it that would be a very
good place to start.

Probably even easier if you can get an SDK.

Cheers

The Frog