Surely there is a program out there that will do this? (WDM-VfW conversion)

[Aryko]

Alrighty... my head is basically buzzing after trying to interpret all the information out there, but here's the problem. Essentially the question is, 'how come a camera that's connected by a firewire connection can't be detected by netmeeting'?

From my research, the answer is that the program is written to interpret devices operating under the video for windows (VfW) specification, and digital camcorders connected by firewire operate under the Windows Driver Model (WDM) specification inherent in DirectShow/DirectX.

Microsoft apparently has support for a VfW-WDM mapping protocol, so that older devices which came with programs that are meant to be interpreted under the VfW spec are translated into a WDM spec and therefor compatible with DirectX.

But what I can't find is a WDM-VfW protocol. Surely this would be a very marketable commodity? I can see some immediate uses, the least of which would be to enable programs like AVI_IO and VirtualDub to capture Type 1 DV and recompress it with different codecs.

Anyone able to shed some light on this?

- A

[Dr Mordrid]

The WDM-VfW translation layer has been part of Windows since Win98 SE. You don't have to buy or "get" it.

Go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base;

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Select your operating system and search for;

netmeeting IEEE-1394

You'll come up with a cornucopia of issues related to its use with firewire.

Dr. Mordrid

[bill2]

Hi Doc.

Have you ever managed to broadcast (or even watch) a DV/IEEE 1394 picture in Netmeeting?

According to a huge research I did a few months ago - no one had manage to operate it - with Microsoft assistance or without it. Until they will launch Netmeeting 4 which (according to rummers) will support IEEE 1394 there is probably no way to make it work.

As a heavy user of Netmeeting I would be more then happy if I'm wrong and it is possible to use DV with Netmeeting. I would appreciate if someone could tell me how ....

[Aryko]

Well this is just it.

I've read up and down that there's a WDM-VfW transition layer in Windows 98/2000, but when the rubber hits the road it doesn't seem to work.

The only workaround I've heard about was posted at www.meetingbywire.com -

"I have managed to use the camera with netmeeting, with help of a product named "SoftCam" from Luminosity Software (www.softcam.com), together with the "AMCAP.EXE" program, which is part of Microsoft's DirectShow SDK. Here's the setting: amcap.exe runs in a corner of the screen and displays a real-time preview of the DV cam. It can be resized at will. When running Netmeeting, I choose the "SoftCam" video source. In the SoftCam control panel, I select "live" mode, and make sure that the capture frame matches amcap's preview area. "

I haven't tried this myself yet, as I'm more interested in recompressing DV on the fly to another codec, something that only seems possible with VfW.

- A.

[Dr Mordrid]

Bill2,

Netmeeting doesn't follow MS's own programming standards so no, it won't work AFAIK.

Dr. Mordrid