Pulling multiple live video streams into WPF

Question

I'd like to create an app that pulls multiple live video feeds, supplied either by coax, hdmi or some other standard, into WPF for manipulation (i.e. apply a few transforms or pixel shaders) which is then output to monitor. What would I look at to get started with this app - is there any hardware that would make things easier?

Answer 1

If you are pulling in standard broadcast via coax or over the air, a $100 ATSC HD TV tuner will do. I don't have any experience with HD capture cards (I think they run for about $1000), or more specifically, cards that take in a raw HD stream.

When you install a capture device (TV tuner, webcam, capture card) in Windows, it creates a DirectShow source filter wrapper for it. Based off what kind of hw you are targeting, determines how you create the DirectShow graph. I have no reason to expect HD capture cards to be different than any capture card or webcam (TV tuners are slightly different).

You can use my WPF MediaKit as a base. The web cam control may work out of the box or just require slight changes for an HD capture card. A TV tuner would require a lot more than just this.