How to capture live camera frames in RGB with DirectShow

Question

I'm implementing live video capture through DirectShow for live processing and display. (Augmented Reality app).

I can access the pixels easily enough, but it seems I can't get the SampleGrabber to provide RGB data. The device (an iSight -- running VC++ Express in VMWare) only reports MEDIASUBTYPE_YUY2.

After extensive Googling, I still can't figure out whether DirectShow is supposed to provide built-in color space conversion for this sort of thing. Some sites report that there is no YUV<->RGB conversion built in, others report that you just have to call SetMediaType on your ISampleGrabber with an RGB subtype.

Any advice is greatly appreciated, I'm going nuts on this one. Code provided below. Please note that

• The code works, except that it doesn't provide RGB data

• I'm aware that I can implement my own conversion filter, but this is not feasible because I'd have to anticipate every possible device format, and this is a relatively small project

  // Playback
  IGraphBuilder *pGraphBuilder = NULL;
  ICaptureGraphBuilder2 *pCaptureGraphBuilder2 = NULL;
  IMediaControl *pMediaControl = NULL;
  IBaseFilter *pDeviceFilter = NULL;
  IAMStreamConfig *pStreamConfig = NULL;
  BYTE *videoCaps = NULL;
  AM_MEDIA_TYPE **mediaTypeArray = NULL;
  
  
  // Device selection
  ICreateDevEnum *pCreateDevEnum = NULL;
  IEnumMoniker *pEnumMoniker = NULL;
  IMoniker *pMoniker = NULL;
  ULONG nFetched = 0;
  
  
  HRESULT hr = CoInitializeEx(NULL, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);
  
  
  // Create CreateDevEnum to list device
  hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_SystemDeviceEnum, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ICreateDevEnum, (PVOID *)&pCreateDevEnum);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Create EnumMoniker to list devices 
  hr = pCreateDevEnum->CreateClassEnumerator(CLSID_VideoInputDeviceCategory, &pEnumMoniker, 0);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  pEnumMoniker->Reset();
  
  
  // Find desired device
  while (pEnumMoniker->Next(1, &pMoniker, &nFetched) == S_OK) 
  {
   IPropertyBag *pPropertyBag;
   TCHAR devname[256];
  
  
  // bind to IPropertyBag
  hr = pMoniker->BindToStorage(0, 0, IID_IPropertyBag, (void **)&pPropertyBag);
  
  
  if (FAILED(hr))
  {
   pMoniker->Release();
   continue;
  }
  
  
  VARIANT varName;
  VariantInit(&varName);
  HRESULT hr = pPropertyBag->Read(L"DevicePath", &varName, 0);
  
  
  if (FAILED(hr))
  {
   pMoniker->Release();
   pPropertyBag->Release();
   continue;
  }
  
  
  char devicePath[DeviceInfo::STRING_LENGTH_MAX] = "";
  
  
  wcstombs(devicePath, varName.bstrVal, DeviceInfo::STRING_LENGTH_MAX);
  
  
  if (strcmp(devicePath, deviceId) == 0)
  {
   // Bind Moniker to Filter
   pMoniker->BindToObject(0, 0, IID_IBaseFilter, (void**)&pDeviceFilter);
  
  
   break;
  }
  
  
  pMoniker->Release();
  pPropertyBag->Release();
  
  
  }
  
  
  if (pDeviceFilter == NULL) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Create sample grabber
  IBaseFilter *pGrabberF = NULL;
  hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_SampleGrabber, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IBaseFilter, (void**)&pGrabberF);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  hr = pGrabberF->QueryInterface(IID_ISampleGrabber, (void**)&pGrabber);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Create FilterGraph
  hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_FilterGraph,
   NULL,
   CLSCTX_INPROC,
   IID_IGraphBuilder,
   (LPVOID *)&pGraphBuilder);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // create CaptureGraphBuilder2
  hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_CaptureGraphBuilder2, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC, IID_ICaptureGraphBuilder2, (LPVOID *)&pCaptureGraphBuilder2);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // set FilterGraph
  hr = pCaptureGraphBuilder2->SetFiltergraph(pGraphBuilder);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // get MediaControl interface
  hr = pGraphBuilder->QueryInterface(IID_IMediaControl, (LPVOID *)&pMediaControl);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Add filters
  hr = pGraphBuilder->AddFilter(pDeviceFilter, L"Device Filter");
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  hr = pGraphBuilder->AddFilter(pGrabberF, L"Sample Grabber");
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Set sampe grabber options
  AM_MEDIA_TYPE mt;
  ZeroMemory(&mt, sizeof(AM_MEDIA_TYPE));
  mt.majortype = MEDIATYPE_Video;
  mt.subtype = MEDIASUBTYPE_RGB32;
  hr = pGrabber->SetMediaType(&mt);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  hr = pGrabber->SetOneShot(FALSE);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  hr = pGrabber->SetBufferSamples(TRUE);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  // Get stream config interface
  hr = pCaptureGraphBuilder2->FindInterface(NULL, &MEDIATYPE_Video, pDeviceFilter, IID_IAMStreamConfig, (void **)&pStreamConfig);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  int streamCapsCount = 0, capsSize, bestFit = -1, bestFitPixelDiff = 1000000000, desiredPixelCount = _width * _height,
   bestFitWidth = 0, bestFitHeight = 0;
  
  
  float desiredAspectRatio = (float)_width / (float)_height;
  
  
  hr = pStreamConfig->GetNumberOfCapabilities(&streamCapsCount, &capsSize);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  videoCaps = (BYTE *)malloc(capsSize * streamCapsCount);
  mediaTypeArray = (AM_MEDIA_TYPE **)malloc(sizeof(AM_MEDIA_TYPE *) * streamCapsCount);
  
  
  for (int i = 0; i < streamCapsCount; i++)
  {
   hr = pStreamConfig->GetStreamCaps(i, &mediaTypeArray[i], videoCaps + capsSize * i);
   if (FAILED(hr)) continue;
  
  
  VIDEO_STREAM_CONFIG_CAPS *currentVideoCaps = (VIDEO_STREAM_CONFIG_CAPS *)(videoCaps + capsSize * i);
  
  
  int closestWidth = MAX(currentVideoCaps-&gt;MinOutputSize.cx, MIN(currentVideoCaps-&gt;MaxOutputSize.cx, width));
  int closestHeight = MAX(currentVideoCaps-&gt;MinOutputSize.cy, MIN(currentVideoCaps-&gt;MaxOutputSize.cy, height));
  
  
  int pixelDiff = ABS(desiredPixelCount - closestWidth * closestHeight);
  
  
  if (pixelDiff &lt; bestFitPixelDiff &amp;&amp; ABS(desiredAspectRatio - (float)closestWidth / (float)closestHeight) &lt; 0.1f)
  {
   bestFit = i;
   bestFitPixelDiff = pixelDiff;
   bestFitWidth = closestWidth;
   bestFitHeight = closestHeight;
  }
  
  
  }
  
  
  if (bestFit == -1) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  AM_MEDIA_TYPE *mediaType;
  hr = pStreamConfig->GetFormat(&mediaType);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  VIDEOINFOHEADER *videoInfoHeader = (VIDEOINFOHEADER *)mediaType->pbFormat;
  videoInfoHeader->bmiHeader.biWidth = bestFitWidth;
  videoInfoHeader->bmiHeader.biHeight = bestFitHeight;
  //mediaType->subtype = MEDIASUBTYPE_RGB32;
  hr = pStreamConfig->SetFormat(mediaType);
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  pStreamConfig->Release();
  pStreamConfig = NULL;
  
  
  free(videoCaps);
  videoCaps = NULL;
  free(mediaTypeArray);
  mediaTypeArray = NULL;
  
  
  // Connect pins
  IPin *pDeviceOut = NULL, *pGrabberIn = NULL;
  
  
  if (FindPin(pDeviceFilter, PINDIR_OUTPUT, 0, &pDeviceOut) && FindPin(pGrabberF, PINDIR_INPUT, 0, &pGrabberIn))
  {
   hr = pGraphBuilder->Connect(pDeviceOut, pGrabberIn);
   if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  }
  else
  {
   goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  }
  
  
  // start playing
  hr = pMediaControl->Run();
  if (FAILED(hr)) goto ReleaseDataAndFail;
  
  
  hr = pGrabber->GetConnectedMediaType(&mt);
  
  
  // Set dimensions
  width = bestFitWidth;
  height = bestFitHeight;
  _width = bestFitWidth;
  _height = bestFitHeight;
  
  
  // Allocate pixel buffer
  pPixelBuffer = (unsigned *)malloc(width * height * 4);
  
  
  // Release objects
  pGraphBuilder->Release();
  pGraphBuilder = NULL;
  pEnumMoniker->Release();
  pEnumMoniker = NULL;
  pCreateDevEnum->Release();
  pCreateDevEnum = NULL;
  
  
  return true;
  

Answer 1

The stock colour space converter does not support YUY2 to RGB conversion. However, there are a number of apps and devices that install a converter of some sort, and if this is properly registered, dshow will use it automatically. That's why some people report that it just works. (of course some devices offer RGB, so no conversion is needed in those cases).

You can download a freely-available YUV conversion filter, "yuvxfm" from www.gdcl.co.uk/downloads.htm. Register this on your system and it should allow capture in any reasonable RGB or YUV format.

G

Answer 2

Hi Jonny Boy,

I am doing something similar (AR for WM devices), well, I already have some previous working code, but for WM2003, so I need to rewrite the frame capture part, so I need to deal with DirectShow.

I have already compiled and executed the CameraCapture sample, and now I am trying to use a sampleGrabber filter instead of a FileSink.

I am new to DirectShow, so if you can help me on this Ill be very grateful :). I hope you still read this 6 months since your last post...

Thanks in advance