Sharpcap a successful install

[Aussie Dave]

I finally had a successful install with Sharpcap last night, I was using AMCap. I looks like a fine piece of capturing software with some welcomed useful features.

The live histogram will come in handy and I'm looking forward to using the live stack feature too. I'm curious about the focus score feature with the Bahtinov mask, I'm hoping this will work with my Xbox 360 cam on a bright star. The contrast detection and FWHM measurement look to be very helpful too for capturing better data, can't wait to test these two out.

The FX drop down box also looks interesting, I'll have a play with those options later on with some lunar.

What I really liked was the fps feature in the video format setting to capture up to 60 fps. This is something I've been trying to do with other software with little success for a while now. I did a quick test inside and can achieve up to 60fps at 320x240, with no dropped frames on a bright object (inside light) so hopefully lunar, with 30fps at 640x480. However any higher resolution it's only giving me one option which is 7.5fps. The Xbox cam is capturing at 7.5fps at 960x720 and also at 1280x960 in extremely low light (covering the Barlow lens with my hand) and brighter inside light.

I also tested the frame divisor option which I thought and was hoping for longer exposures for my frames, but I don't think this is the case and I don't think the Xbox 360 cam supports longer exposures anyway. I did a quick test at 5.6 second frames and they are no different to a single 30fps video frame as far as exposure goes. Could someone explain to me what the frame divisor does?

I'm hoping the Sharpcap Developer here reads this thread as it would be nice if there were higher frame rates to choose from on higher resolutions or could there be a way to force it somehow? Is there an way to get in to the code with an editor, specifically for the frame rate settings for the default camera setting ie - video camera? Or isn't it possible, is the fps setting dependent on the video capture device?

[cgarry]

16 minutes ago, Aussie Dave said:

I'm hoping the Sharpcap Developer here reads this thread

@rwg is the developer and should now know he is being talked about!

[rwg]

As if by magic... @rwg appears

Unfortunately, the selection of resolutions and frame rates is determined by the camera driver - SharpCap just shows the options that are available. There are of course cameras that give much higher resolutions and frame rates (I've been playing with an IMX178 based USB3 camera recently that does 3000x2000@50fps - and it's a real challenge making the software keep up with that!). Of course, the downside of those cameras is the $$$ cost which is far more than you'll pay for an XBox cam or PS Eye.

cheers,

Robin

[Aussie Dave]

If by magic Yes, that was quick!

Thanks for the quickest response ever Robin.

Yep looking to buy one of the latest ZWO colour astro cams, the 224, but for now I'm still playing around and gaining much needed experience with the Xbox 360 cam.

I can't wait to test drive Sharpcap

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btw thanks cgarry for the call out

[rwg]

Ah yes, the 224 is an excellent choice too I have a 224 in my stash of testing cameras too and it's very impressive. Noticeably more sensitive than the AR130C sensor and a truly enormous range of gain values to play with.

cheers,

Robin

[Aussie Dave]

and the Frame Divisor option Robin, could you explain to me what that does please?

*ponders how to edit a driver file* should be easy, just need to find where it is...

[rwg]

Yeah, I need to think of a better name for that option...

It limits the rate at which frames get saved to the capture file while you are capturing. i.e. set it to 30 and 1 frame in 30 will get saved to file. Mainly aimed at people using analogue cameras (which can do long exposures) and frame grabbers that grab at 25 or 30fps regardless of the fact that the output is the same for 10s or 100s of frames at a time. It doesn't alter the speed at which the display is updated.

cheers,

Robin

PS. If your webcam has dedicated drivers, you can sometimes get better control / different colour spaces / frame rates by going to device manager and deliberately changing the driver to 'USB Video Device'. Sometimes the official drivers for a camera (looking at Microsoft and their Cinema series here) are so dumbed down to appeal to the consumer sector that they hide useful controls or other options that the camera supports.

[Aussie Dave]

Cheers for both of those explanations Robin, excellent!

From memory I don't think I needed a driver for the Xbox cam, but I did download a driver and installed it afterwards, just can't remember the file name now. Will look in to the device manager option you mentioned and give it a go if it's possible, thanks