From: "James Lerch" 
To: "ATM List" 
Reply-To: "James Lerch" 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob May" 


>
> When you get a developer's kit, you get the various software routines needed
> to run the camera and how to use those routines.  You also often need to
> sign a confidentallity form so that the company is somewhat sure that you
> aren't going to copy their design and sell yourself for less.
> That may not sound like a lot but it generally allows you to make the
> hardware do things that the manufacturer didn't think of.

Hi Bob,

The 'gotcha' with the Direct Show SDK is only ~5% covers video capture. 
Direct Show covers all aspects of reading, decoding, displaying, saving to
disk, etc that has anything to do with any type of video.

The hardware vendors don't provide an SDK with their products, only a
Direct Show mini-driver.  Its up to the developer to figure out how to
enumerate all the possible input filters, figure out how to configure the
output pins of the input filter, how to figure out which intermediary
filters are need to decode the input filter, and finally render the final
stream of data.  In the end its all about selecting filters and connecting
'pins' in the right order.  For a novice like me it's entirely frustrating!


Oh, and to add insult to injury, MS Direct Show doesn't support Visual
Basic, I have to work with 3rd party Wrapper Dll's which there aren't many
of!

Its enough to drive someone insane!

James

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