[AG-TECH] Sending audio/video/desktop from Access Grid PCs to traditional conferencing systems (Tandberg, Polycom)

[Andrew Rowley]

Hi,

I have used multiple KWorld DVD Maker USB 2.0 cards (well, 2 at the same time) on the same computer.  I haven't tried them with AG or VC, but they can capture up to 720 x 576, so they should work well with a Sony EVI-100P (which claims to have 752 x 582 effective pixels).

Andrew :)

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   Andrew G D Rowley
   Senior Development Officer

   Research Computing Services
   The University of Manchester
   Devonshire House, Oxford Road
   Manchester, M13 9PL
 
   t :  +44 (0) 161 275 0685
   e :  Andrew.Rowley at manchester.ac.uk
   w :  www.manchester.ac.uk/researchcomputing
 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov [mailto:ag-tech-
> bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Lloyd Pearson
> Sent: 04 March 2010 03:54
> To: 'Tran, Quang V.'
> Cc: 'ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov'
> Subject: Re: [AG-TECH] Sending audio/video/desktop from Access Grid PCs to
> traditional conferencing systems (Tandberg, Polycom)
> 
> Hello Quang Tran,
> 
> We have used Sony EVI-100P cameras connected using composite video
> captured through a Spectra8 capture card and also using the S-video output
> captured using a "Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 DVD Creator" Model F5U228. (The
> Belkin device captures composite or S-video to USB.)
> Image quality was significantly better via the S-video and Belkin than
> with the composite video into the Spectra8 card.
> 
> However the cable quality in both cases was highly significant for image
> quality: Composite was close to S-video quality when a high quality coax
> cable was used, but very much poorer when audio type RCA-Phono leads were
> used.
> S-video quality was also very noticeably affected by cable quality. Of
> four S-video cables tested, all about 6m long and with molded connectors,
> the quality varied from excellent to poor. The better two of these cables
> were about 8mm in diameter, the poorer two were about 5mm. I don't know
> the construction of any of these, but twin-coax is almost certainly going
> to be better than simple 4-core.
> 
> We have used Mirial for H.323 communication on our Access Grid PC's
> running Windows XP.  It has one significant problem:  When using the
> Spectra8 capture card, the maximum resolution available is 352 x 288.  No
> similar restriction when using the Belkin device whether capturing
> composite or S-video.
> 
> We have been unable to use multiple Belkin devices successfully on one PC
> - a second Belkin tends to drop frames and give jerky video, but I haven't
> investigated this in any detail.
> 
> Regards,
> Lloyd Pearson
> AVCC Operator
> University of Otago
> Ph +64 3 479 8997
> lloyd.pearson at otago.ac.nz
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ag-tech-bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov [mailto:ag-tech-
> bounces at lists.mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf Of Tran, Quang V.
> Sent: Thursday, 4 March 2010 7:53 a.m.
> To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: [AG-TECH] Sending audio/video/desktop from Access Grid PCs to
> traditional conferencing systems (Tandberg, Polycom)
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> We are testing 2 software from Polycom (Polycom PVX) and from Tandberg
> (ConferenceMe) that will allow us to connect existing Access Grid PCs to
> traditional video conferencing systems.  These software work on Windows
> platform and they allow us to join traditional video conference by
> connecting to a Tandberg or a Polycom bridge.  We install the software
> on our existing Access Grid computers and are able to send
> audio/video/desktop to the bridges.
> Both software only work with USB or DV cameras.  They do not work with
> video capture cards but we think that it is possible to convert S-Video
> or composite feed from our Sony EVI-D100 PTZ cameras to DV using the
> Canopus ADVC110.  More testing will be done and we will post the
> results.
> 
> Thanks,
> Quang Tran
> IT Analyst
> LSUHSC - New Orleans
> (504) 568-2877 Office