Capturing and stopping via command line

[diamond187]

Hello all,

I'm trying to come up with a bullet-proof and extra simple capture utility to replace the aging VCR's that currently capture our meetings at work. The idea behind it is to make it as EASY as possible for the USER (with any and all pain being felt by the people setting it all up. )

So far, I've tried a number of utilities, programs, etc. and haven't found anything that will do a simple record/stop without putting in a preset time or other limit. Here's the ideal walkthrough:

1. Meeting starts. User presses Record [via remote control likely since PC is not in same room.] {done, CLI scripted through ATI Remote Wonder}

2. LED illuminates and recording starts {the LED is done, simple parallel port hack utilizing the data channels.. I can turn the silly thing off and on through the command line, and with some simple CLI error routines can pretty feasibly know whether or not it's recording by the led. The recording I can get to start easily enough, but stopping is another story}

3. Meeting Finishes. User hits another button, recording stops and light goes out. {remote and light are again taken care of}

4. Meeting is automatically or near-automatically converted to MPEG-2 and burned onto DVD. {haven't even looked into this yet, though it shouldn't be the hardest part.}

Here's some of the software that I've tried:
Snapstream / BeyondTV {webadmin will allow you to remote start a recording, just not stop. It does look good, but the usage isn't good enough for this application... Though it's nice at home! }

VirtualVCR - It's old, moldy, and loves the Huffy codec. I've gotten it to work to start CLI, but to end all I've been able to do is a taskkill... Not clean, and who knows whether or not the file gets closed properly.

VirtualDub / VDStart Pro - I have a sneaking suspicion that the circa 2001-2002 articles on the VDStart Pro may be a little outdated. It starts fine, but doesn't stop; instead creating another instance of itself and leaving virtualdub open as well.

ATI TV - The first thought. It sucks.... Period.


I have a feeling that with the newer VirtualDub versions I should be able to do this [start/stop via command line] without a problem... am I right? I'm seeing that on vdub.exe there is a /cmd <quick script command>, though I don't know enough about vdub itself to know what the command may be.

Here's a ultra-psuedo batch file idea I thought I'd tie to the ATI Remote that lights the light and starts recording

@echo off
REM Light up the LED on data pin 2
C:\tools\lptlight.exe 16
REM start recording
start /wait C:\VirtualDub\VDStart.exe -START
REM turn off light if this stops for any reason
C:\tools\lptlight.exe 0
REM end

... and stops recording

@echo off
REM stop recording
start /wait C:\VirtualDub\VDStart.exe -STOP
REM Rename file
ren C:\Recordings\Meeting.avi C:\Recordings\Meeting-%DATE%.avi
REM Shut off the LED light
C:\tools\lptlight.exe 0
REM end

Anyone know what the command line would be to start up VirtualDub to record directly. Additionally, if you happen to know if there's a better codec to use than divx, let me know. I know I could just capture in Mpeg-2 directly, but we're outputting the meeting to both a DVD and a computer based cable channel [local government], so I'd rather capture in a smaller filesize if it's feasible just to reduce copy times and storage requirements to the other cable channel. I realize that I'd have to transcode with some loss of quality to Mpeg-2 for the DVD archive; however, the loss of quality in this case isn't a big deal.

Quality-wise, we've been using a VCR on SLP mode, so you can imagine the wonderful quality that we've always had. By capturing at 720x480 UYVY and 910 kilobits per second low motion, it will give more than adequate quality from a fixed camera pointing at a board room!

If anyone has any ideas on this I'd greatly appreciate it; ideally someone else has done just this [maybe without the fool-proof light] and can share their experience, otherwise, anyone knowing how to do a simple -RECORD and -STOP in vdub.exe would also be very appreciated!

Lurker turned registered user,

Diamond187

(PS, the system specs are for the capture machine in question, my outside work is done on a little better machine, but the AIW is all I had to work with here.. )

[Nelson37]

Recording directly to Divx is a bad idea.

I have that card, among several other AIW, and the MMC software will do everything you are asking for, right out of the box, using the supplied remote.

The trick is to get the best version of the MMC software for your particular card and PC. Each version has its own quirks, but they will make DVD-compatible MPG on the fly with no re-encoding necessary, and the remote easily handles the start and stop functions.

While MMC has its issues, compared to the Kluge work you have already done, IMO it is far easier to set up. Will certainly produce results far superior to a VCR, in any mode.

Can you describe more completely the issues you have had with the software which came with the card, including version number?