Video Analysis Software by AllSportSystems

For FIREWIRE video connections you will need two firewire controllers, one per camera. Unfortunately you cannot connect two cameras to a single firewire expansion card, even if the card has multiple ports. Firewire cards simply do not provide enough performance to support two simultaneous video streams. Note that this is a hardware limitation, not a software limitation. For laptops you will require an on-board firewire port, built into the laptop. You can then add a firewire expansion card to handle the second camera. The onboard port will use a 4-pin to 4-pin cable, while the expansion card will use a 6-pin to 4-pin cable.

For USB connections you will need one USB Video Grabber per camera, along with a free USB port for each.

Most consumer cameras in the U.S. take 30 pictures every second. This is a constant, and is known as the Frame Rate or Frames Per Second. The amount of time the shutter is open during each of these pictures is determined by your shutter speed. So if you set your shutter speed to 1/100th of a second, then during each of those 30 images the camera will capture 1/100th of a second worth of action. If you set the shutter to 1/10000 then each image will capture only 1/10000 of a second. The camera will not take ‘the next’ picture until 1/30th of a second has elapsed. Therefore, a faster shutter speed will reduce the amount of blurring you see in high speed actions, but it will not increase the total number of images captured during any period of time. The following image illustrates this for a camera filming 30 frames per second, with the shutter speed set to 1/100th of a second.

Yes it can! We have customers with cameras that shoot 1,000 frames per second using MotionView to analyze the video. These cameras store the footage internally during capture, so the video is first transferred to the computer outside of MotionView, where it can then be opened and analyzed.

If you use our USB Video Capture Cable you can connect any analog video source to our software and capture video. This includes TV tuners, VCRs, DVD players, VHS and 8MM camcorders, etc.

We frequently get asked questions about how to choose the best camera for use with our video analysis software. There are so many options out there that it can be quite confusing. Well the answers are easier than you might imagine!

THE BEST CHOICE: MINI-DV TAPE BASED CAMCORDERS
It might surprise you to learn that inexpensive, mini-DV tape based camcorders are the best choice, but it’s true! These cameras almost always include the vital FIREWIRE, or 1394 port, needed to deliver real-time video directly to your computer in 720×480 or larger format. Since the cameras have the firewire port you can also control the tape mechanism from our software screens, without touching the camera! So save your money and buy a MINI-DV camcorder with firewire!

Choose a camcorder with a MANUALLY ADJUSTABLE shutter speed for the best results. This will allow you to run the shutter as fast as possible (based on the available light), thereby minimizing the blurring you get in the final video.

Using DVD or Hard Drive Camcorders
These cameras are the latest rage, and usually quite expensive. Unfortunately they rarely include a firewire port, and the USB connection they offer usually does not support the standard windows camera drivers for real time video. These cameras also compress their video files deeply, usually into an MPEG format, which does not perform well for video analysis work.

You can still make use of these cameras by means of our USB Video Grabber cables. We have a section on our website dedicated to these devices. Basically you will connect the analog video output signal from the camera to the USB video grabber, and then plug the other end into your computer’s USB port. The video grabber will convert the video signal into a real-time digital video signal, providing a live video feed right into our software. Another advantage of the USB video grabber is that you can capture video from ANY analog source, such as a VCR, DVD player, or TV tuner.