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USB Webcams, PCI Capture Cards & IP/Network Cameras & Video Servers

i-Catcher supports a wide range of capture sources including USB cameras/web cams, composite/S-Video cameras connected by suitable capture device (e.g. PCI capture card), and digital Network/IP cameras and video servers.

However, not all devices are compatible, due to limitations involving proprietary interfaces. This limitation is most common on network cameras, but applies to some PCI devices as well.

The following is a list of devices that have been tested with i-Catcher, and shows their compatibility. Note that a device being listed here does not guarantee its compatibility with i-Catcher. Any device not listed here is untested, and may or may not be compatible. If you have experience of using i-Catcher with any device not listed here, please contact us with your experience via icatcherenquiries@icode.co.uk.

We also provide a programme for manufacturers to ensure their products are supported in future versions of the i-Catcher software. For more information, please see the i-Catcher Manufacturer Support programme.

Devices by manufacturer - PCI, PCI-Express and USB devices

 

Devices by manufacturer - Network/IP devices

 

Capture Devices

These cards historically use proprietary drivers which either provide no standard interface at all, or only provide access to one input on multi-input cards. Some people have reported that the more recent WDM drivers provide better support for these cards.

Pico cards

These cards use proprietary drivers that do not provide a standard interface, and as such are not supported by i-Catcher.

These cards use proprietary driver interfaces to use multiple inputs, and only provide a standard interface to use one input at a time.

Euresys capture cards provide a standard interface to access multiple inputs simultaneously by default. i-Catcher's compatibility extends to providing a direct interface to the card driver, allowing each input to be used as a single capture source. A full list of supported Euresys cards is here.

The Osprey range of cards use standard WDM drivers, but typically for only one input at a time. i-Catcher Console supports switching inputs on these cards to achieve multiple port use at the cost of reduced framerate. The Osprey-50 USB device will operate with i-Catcher, but is not recommended for long-term use.

The Hauppauge range of PCI cards have historically been completely compatible with i-Catcher with the limitation that only one input may be used at a time. More recent revisions of the Hauppauge drivers seem to have broken compliance with the WDM standard and now only operate with the supplied Hauppauge software. Our enquiries to Hauppauge on this matter have been ignored by Hauppauge. The same is true for USB devices, as Hauppauge now uses a "unified" driver for both PCI and USB devices.

"eBay" DVR Cards

There are a number of cards being sold on the online auction site eBay that are advertised as "DVR" cards, often promoting connection of up to 4 cameras at once. Unfortunately, this description is a little misleading. The cards are nearly always BT878-based cards (the same chip used in the WinTV series, the Osprey cards, the Euresys cards, and 90% of all other PCI video capture cards).

The software supplied with them that allows multiple camera connections is the Pico 2000 software and driver, which is not a WDM standard compliant driver and will not operate with i-Catcher. It is possible to install a generic driver for these cards, however it will typically only allow one input to be used at a time.

i-Catcher Console supports switching inputs for multi-port use on capture cards that correctly implement the Microsoft WDM standard for video capture devices and those cards that can be used with the generic BT878 driver, though frame rate will be reduced when more than one input is in use.

IP/Network Cameras & Video Servers

The following cameras/video server devices are listed by manufacturer, along with any notes on compatibility and setup with i-Catcher. If you have successfully used a manufacturer and/or model not listed here, please contact us with the details including manufacturer, model, and any URLs and video types used with the camera.

Key

 The device supports video output in this format, or PTZ control for this device is supported.

 The device does not support video output in this format, or PTZ control for this devices is unsupported.

 Support for this video format or PTZ control of this device is unknown or undetermined.

 This feature does not apply to this device.

 PTZ on this device is supported, but may limited or inaccurate as a result of limitations of the camera.

 PTZ on this device is supported using the Simple PTZ driver. This driver does not support presets, patroling or accurate click-to-move. Please contact us if you require this driver.

Still JPEG: Images are captured by repeatedly requesting a single JPEG image file from the network device. This is slower than MotionJPEG, as there is the additional overhead of repeatedly connecting and disconnecting, and the camera processing the request.

MotionJPEG: Images are captured by making a single connection to the network device, and requesting a MotionJPEG stream. The device then continuously sends video frames as JPEG images on the same connection. This is the preferred method for i-Catcher network video capture.

Last updated at 10:57 2/11/2009.