C# Bitmap to AVI / WMV with Compression

Question

Prelude:

I'm going to preface this with, I have been learning C# in my spare time at work, and that I have been staring at code for a solid two days trying to wrap my head around this problem. I am developing some software to be used with a visualiser that connects by USB to a standard Desktop PC, the software detects the capture device and loads frames into bitmap using a New Frame Event, this is then displayed in a 'picture box' as a live video stream. The problem as it sits is trying to encorporate the ability to record the stream and save to file, preferably a WMV or a compressed AVI.

What's been tried:

I have considered and looked into the following:

SharpAVI - cant seem to get this to compress or save the frames properly as it appears to mainly look at existing AVI files.

AForge.Video.VFW - AVI files can be created but are far too large to be used, due to restrictions on the user areas of the individuals who will be using this software.

AForge.Video.FFMPEG - Again due to considerations of those using this software I can't have unmanaged DLL's sat in the output folder with the Executable file, and unfortunately this particular DLL cant be compiled properly using Costura Fody.

AVIFile Library Wrapper (From Code Project) - Again can't seem to get this to compress a stream correctly from Bitmaps from the New Frame Events.

DirectShow - Appears to use C++ and unfortunately is beyond my skill level at this time.

The Relevant Code Snippets:

Current References:

using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Resources;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.IO;
//Aforge Video DLL's
using AForge.Video;
using AForge.Video.VFW;
using AForge.Video.DirectShow;
//Aforge Image DLL's
using AForge.Imaging;
using AForge.Imaging.Formats;
using AForge.Imaging.Filters;
//AviLibrary
using AviFile;

Global Variables:

    #region Global Variables

    private FilterInfoCollection CaptureDevice; // list of available devices
    private VideoCaptureDevice videoSource;
    public System.Drawing.Image CapturedImage;

    bool toggleMic = false;

    bool toggleRec = false;
    //aforge
    AVIWriter aviWriter;
    Bitmap image;


    #endregion

Code for Displaying Stream

    #region Displays the Stream

    void videoSource_NewFrame(object sender, NewFrameEventArgs eventArgs)
    {
        picBoxStream.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.Zoom;
        picBoxStream.Image = (Bitmap)eventArgs.Frame.Clone();// clones the bitmap


        if (toggleRec == true)
        {
            image = (Bitmap)eventArgs.Frame.Clone();
            aviWriter.AddFrame(image);
        }
    }

    #endregion

Current Code for Recording Stream

    #region Record Button

    private void btnRecord_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (toggleRec == false)
        {
            saveAVI = new SaveFileDialog();
            saveAVI.Filter = "AVI Files (*.avi)|*.avi";

            if (saveAVI.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                aviWriter = new AVIWriter();
                aviWriter.Open(saveAVI.FileName, 1280, 720);

                toggleRec = true;
                Label lblRec = new Label();
            }

        }
        else if (toggleRec == true)
        {
            aviWriter.Close();
            toggleRec = false;
        }
    }

    #endregion

I apoligise if the above code doesn't look quite right, I have been swapping, changing and recoding those three sections a lot in order to find a working combination. This means that it's rather untidy but I didn't see the point in cleaning it all up until I had the code working. That being said really any help that you can provide is greatfully recieved, even if it's a case of what I want to do just cannot be done.

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: 2019:

It's been awhile since I posted this and it still gets the odd bit of interest here and there. Back when I posted this I was teaching myself to code and I had this weird quirk that I didn't like using 3rd party libraries if I could avoid it, I wanted to do my own work, since then I've learnt a lot and one of those things is that the open source world is immense, impressive and kind. So if there is a 3rd party library that does what you want just use it, it'll save you time.

Answer 1

namespace ip_androidcam
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {   
        MJPEGStream stream;
        AVIWriter writer;
        bool toggleRec = false;
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent() ;

        }

        void stream_NewFrame(object sender, NewFrameEventArgs eventArgs)
        {
            Bitmap bmp = (Bitmap)eventArgs.Frame.Clone();
            bmp.RotateFlip(RotateFlipType.Rotate90FlipNone);
            pictureBox1.Image = bmp;

            try
            {
                if (toggleRec == true)
                {
                    bmp = (Bitmap)eventArgs.Frame.Clone();
                    bmp.RotateFlip(RotateFlipType.Rotate90FlipNone);
                    writer.AddFrame(bmp);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
            }

        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                stream = new MJPEGStream(textBox1.Text);
                stream.NewFrame +=stream_NewFrame;
                stream.Start();
            }
            catch
            {
            }
        }

        private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                if (stream.IsRunning == true)
                {
                    stream.Stop();
                }
            }
            catch
            { 
            }
        }

        private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                pictureBox1.Image = (Bitmap)pictureBox1.Image.Clone();
                pictureBox1.Image.Save("D:\\Pictures\\pix-" + DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy_hh-mm-ss" + ".jpeg" + ImageFormat.Jpeg));
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Capture Image First");
            }

        }

        private void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            OpenFileDialog ofd = new OpenFileDialog();
            if (ofd.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
            {
                pictureBox1.ImageLocation = ofd.FileName;
            }
        }

        private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
        {

        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {

        }

        private void button5_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            if (toggleRec == false)
            {
                SaveFileDialog saveAVI = new SaveFileDialog();
                saveAVI.Filter = "AVI Files (*.avi)|*.avi";

                if (saveAVI.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
                {
                     writer = new AVIWriter("XVID");
                     writer.Open(saveAVI.FileName , 480, 640);
                     toggleRec = true;
                     Label lblRec =new Label();
                }
            }


        }

        private void button6_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                writer.Close();
                MessageBox.Show("video recorded successfully");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }

    }
}

Answer 2

the same problem as i just solved :) here is my code how to use the AviFile library dll to make avi file :)

    private void MakeAvi(List<Bitmap> maps)
    {
        AviManager mana = new AviManager("local.avi", false);

        //false means do not show the diag of the Compression 
        //21 means the fps of the video
        //maplist[0] cover of the video  the maplist is the val you should insert 
        VideoStream avistream = mana.AddVideoStream(false, 21, maplist[0]);

        for (int i = 1; i < maps.Count; i++)
        {
            avistream.AddFrame(maplist[i]);
        }

        mana.Close();
        MessageBox.Show("AddOk");
    }