CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c++camerawindows-mobiledirectshow
Nick
Nick

Reputation: 10499

Capture camera using DirectShow

I'm developping a SmartDevice application (Pocket PC 2003 template) in C# for a device with Windows Mobile 6.1. I need to use the camera of this device (photos, video); to do this work i tried using the CameraCaptureDialog class but it does not work for Pocket PC applications. So, I documented on the internet and found that I probably refer to DirectShow API, but the problem is that I do not know where to start because I can't found a working/correct example.

My questions:
Is this the right way? Are there alternatives?
Where I can find a very good example that shows how to do this work?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 5836

Answers (4)

Roman Ryltsov
Roman Ryltsov

Reputation: 69724

DirectShow is the video capture API in Windows Mobile 6. There is a Video Capture Filter there and all in all things are designed pretty much the same way they are in Windows.

The problem is that however that this is a native API, and not just in Windows Mobile. To develop in C# you need some bindings and they are missing. On desktop there is DirectShow.NET, which is a missing piece, but it does not seem to fit well for CE. Yet you still need to fill this gap in Windows Mobile.

To work it around you have a few ways, the first would be to go through DirectShow.NET and update it appropriately to start working on your device, strip parts missing in mobile OS etc. This would get you a twin for DS.NET but for mobile operating system.

Another option would be to do some C++ development and implement the minimal sufficient feature set in that domain, exposing the component via COM. Then you will reference this from managed code and things will get connected together. And another obvious option would be to use a third party solution which already does one of the mentioned above.

Upvotes: 1

user349026
user349026

Reputation:

This might be useful to you to understand the DirectShow technology. Basically gives a start to DirctShow and explains some of the important points. But its C++ not C#. Hope this help

Basic Video Capture

Upvotes: 1

josef
josef

Reputation: 5959

You may try directshowbetcf: http://alexmogurenko.com/blog/directshownetcf/ if you really want to go with DirectShow and NetCF.

Upvotes: 4

MikeKulls
MikeKulls

Reputation: 3049

There's plenty of examples of directshow on the web. There is a site dedicated to converting the API over to C# which makes it a lot easier, maybe this was it http://directshownet.sourceforge.net/about.html. I struggled with DirectShow until I read the book "programming directshow" from microsoft press. About a third of that way through that book it all seemed incredibly easy and I was able to complete what I wanted. In the end it's a lot like referencing any library and using the classes from within that library. The added difficulty is that you need to add wrappers because they are all COM objects but that has been done for you.

Upvotes: 1

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