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SharpCap - free Astro Webcam Capture Software

rwg

By rwg
in Imaging - Discussion

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Sara,

sadly no way to tweak the location in the current version, but to be honest I've been getting more annoyed with that box recently - from my point of view it's annoying because if you have a delay of only a few seconds by the time you have moved the mouse to the 'cancel' button it's gone... I think a notification bar above the image but under the menu/taskbar might be a better plan. Something for 2.8 :)

cheers,

Robin

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PeterCPC

PeterCPC

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I thought that I should report some issues I am having with 2.7 (the latest). Last night I was trying to use it in LX mode with a ASI224 and it kept freezing up on me and everything greyed out and I had to do Ct/Alt/Del several times. No log available because I couldn't get into it. Then I used it for some Moon AVIs and all seemed ok but then it did it again and again no log available. I didn't have any issues with 2.6 so is there something in 2.7?

Peter

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Peter,

sadly a lot of changes in 2.7, so difficult to work out which of them might be causing this. I'm going to release a new version soon anyway, so I will add some code to save the log to file which will help get at the log in cases like this. If you see it happen again, do let me know - sometimes it's only with a lot of reports that the pattern of what is causing a problem becomes clear.

cheers,

Robin

 

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swag72

swag72

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Hi Robin.

Just thought I'd give you a bit of feedback. I've just uploaded and am running the latest version. Thank you for changing the box that covered the camera image when set to capture!

However I seem to have found an issue. I set the capture as always ........ This allows me to capture x still images over a specified time. All it will do is capture two then the programme freezes up and nothing can be done except close it. This didn't work in the previous Beta that was only valid until 29th Feb.

 

sharpcap.jpg

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Sara,

Hmm, a one second delay - I wonder if that's the issue that it is too short for the new UI to show and then dismiss itself or similar. I will try it out with a short delay and see if I can get it to break too :)

cheers

Robin

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gnomus

gnomus

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I was trying out 2.8 the other day and had a couple of issues.  One: whenever I tried the Bahtinov Mask assistant, the program crashed.  Secondly, a number of my 5000 frame AVIs did not seem to capture properly.  The AVIs would not play in Windows Media player - not only that but when I tried to process them in AS2, they seemed to consist of one static frame.

I really like the interface.  And the Bahtinov assistant seemd to work normally in the previous version.

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rwg

rwg

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I know about the Bahtinov issue and I think I have it fixed for the next version. Not sure about the broken AVI issue - can you share the contents of the 'CaptureSettings.txt' file that is saved next to the AVI? That should be enough for me the repro what you were doing and to see if I can spot the problem.

cheers,

Robin

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swag72

swag72

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32 minutes ago, rwg said:

Hi Sara,

Hmm, a one second delay - I wonder if that's the issue that it is too short for the new UI to show and then dismiss itself or similar. I will try it out with a short delay and see if I can get it to break too :)

cheers

Robin

Sorry Robin the 1s delay was only for testing - I had it on 2m usually and still the same problem.

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gnomus

gnomus

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33 minutes ago, rwg said:

I know about the Bahtinov issue and I think I have it fixed for the next version. Not sure about the broken AVI issue - can you share the contents of the 'CaptureSettings.txt' file that is saved next to the AVI? That should be enough for me the repro what you were doing and to see if I can spot the problem.

cheers,

Robin

I'm travelling at the moment and so am unable to comply.  May be able to do something in a couple of weeks time. (That is if I didn't delete everything).

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rwg

rwg

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@swag72 - found your bug - will be fixed in the next version

@gnomus - if you happen to remember which camera you were using and what colour space you'd selected (RAW8, MONO16, RGB24, etc), that would give me a chance to test.

cheers,

Robin

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rwg

rwg

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SharpCap 2.8.2260 Available

Bugs fixed since 2.8.2231 include :

  • Dark capture - fix for DirectShow cameras and ignore first frame in case it's not really dark
  • DirectShow cameras now show correct exposure time in ms/s rather than raw value
  • AVI output from astro cameras - fix orientation
  • Fix bug which caused crash if capture profile has invalid value
  • DirectShow cameras - start in highest resolution rather than lowest
  • QHY - add support for built in filter wheel (don't use ASCOM driver).
  • Live Stacking - write capture settings file for each capture
  • Live Stacking - improved alignment code
  • Fix bug with sequence of single frame captures locking up
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gnomus

gnomus

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8 hours ago, rwg said:

@swag72 - found your bug - will be fixed in the next version

@gnomus - if you happen to remember which camera you were using and what colour space you'd selected (RAW8, MONO16, RGB24, etc), that would give me a chance to test.

cheers,

Robin

Camera was a ZWO ASI224 colour.  It was capturing in RGB24.  I'm brand new to OSC - is RGB24 the correct colour space to use?

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rwg

rwg

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@gnomus for colour astro cameras I'd always recommend using RAW capture format and saving to SER format. For a start the files are 3 times smaller as you only save one byte per pixel rather than 3. Secondly your stacking software can deal with the de-bayer during processing (and therefore use a nicer but slower algorithm if that helps). SERPlayer is a great tool for viewing SER files.

@Stub Mandrel It's not supposed to be a beta version - I was fairly confident that the 2.8 release didn't have anything major wrong with it, although a few bugs had crept in and are fixed in the new build. I have had one report this morning of a moderately nasty issue with webcams in 2.8.2260 that wasn't in the previous build, but I haven't been able to reproduce it so far.

cheers,

Robin

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gnomus

gnomus

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1 hour ago, rwg said:

@gnomus for colour astro cameras I'd always recommend using RAW capture format and saving to SER format. For a start the files are 3 times smaller as you only save one byte per pixel rather than 3. Secondly your stacking software can deal with the de-bayer during processing (and therefore use a nicer but slower algorithm if that helps). SERPlayer is a great tool for viewing SER files.

...

Robin

Thanks Robin.  So do most folks shoot in RAW8 then?  That might also explain why I was having occasional issues with dropped frames.

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rwg

rwg

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Hi Neil,

when I remember I try to make it so that you can install different versions on the same machine (ie 2.6, 2.7, etc). I must do that for 2.8.

cheers,

Robin

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rwg

rwg

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1 hour ago, steviemac500 said:

Are there compatibility issues with windows 10 and Sharpcap? I'm trying my ZWOASI20 and it seems to freeze all the time.

Thanks,

 

Steve

Hi Steve,

no, no problems with Windows 10 (I use it to develop SharpCap). The ZWO ASI120 can be sensitive to USB port speed on some machines - things you can try include

* shorter cable - don't go over 3.5 to 4m without a hub
* try adding a hub - sometimes that helps, oddly
* use a different USB port - again sometimes helps
* turn down the 'Turbo USB' parameter in the camera controls - this reduces the frame rate you will get but can help stability
* turn off high speed mode too - same effects
* try picking a slightly smaller capture area (ie 1280x720)
* if you are seeing frames that seem torn then try turning on the 'discard split frames' option. Then again I haven't seen any of them for a while, so maybe ZWO fixed that in the driver/SDK

cheers,

Robin

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