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video server help
 Changing Port Settings
Each
video port that i-Catcher Video Server captures from here its own group of
settings, that determine how images are captured, and also what form they
are presented in when requests through the embedded web server.
Port Enabled
This check-box allows you to disable a port completely, i.e. no capturing
of that port will occur. This has advantages in different ways for each
capture card type. The Euresys cards cause a slight delay when an attempt is
made to re-initialise a port that has no video signal on it. This delay may
be an unwanted pause in the capture sequence of all the other ports.
Disabling the port with no video signal will stop this delay occurring. The
ViewCast cards have a design limitation that causes the video circuitry to
alter valid video images if an attempt is made to capture from a port with
no video signal. This is obviously an undesirable effect, and again,
disabling the appropriate port will fix this. Preview this port in your
web browser
You can see how the server output will look with the current port
settings by click on this handy hyperlink. Your default browser will open
with a page showing the live output of the port you are adjusting. The image
on the page will update as fast as your browser can load it. Enable
Monitoring
In processing environments where the CPU has a high load, such as
multiple copies of i-Catcher Video Server, other server processes running,
i-Catcher Console running concurrently, etc, it may be preferable to reduce
CPU usage as much as possible. A way to do this is to stop i-Catcher Video
Server from updating the monitoring views when a capture is made. This saves
on the processor time needed to redraw the views, especially if you are
using all four ports on your capture card. Monitor Speed
Another way to save on CPU usage, without compromising the ability to
monitor the capturing, is to adjust the maximum monitor update speed. This
setting does not effect the speed in which images are served by the embedded
web server. Normally this setting is set at 25 (neither the Euresys nor
ViewCast cards can capture faster than this), but you can reduce it to save
on CPU time, without disabling monitoring completely. The speed is a maximum
rating because the speed in which capture is achieved is not constant, so a
setting of 25 means that the view will not be updated more than 25 times in
one second. The updates will be spread out across one second, so that, for
example, a monitor speed of 10 frames per second means that in ideal
circumstances (nothing interrupting the capture card or i-Catcher Video
Server) the view will update once every 10th of a second. Image Format
This setting controls how the served images will appear, and is
customised to the capabilities of the capture card you are using. It
determines the image size (resolution) and, in the case of the Euresys
cards, whether or not an interlaced or non-interlaced format is used. In the
largest size (768x576) you can only have an interlaced image. Note that for
performance reasons, the image size for the ViewCast cards is fixed at
384x288. Video Standard
i-Catcher Video Server is as international as your capture card supports,
and this option will allow you to select what format to expect the video
signal for the port being adjusted to be in. The list of supported formats
varies between cards, but typically allows at least PAL and NTSC, and
usually SECAM. If a previously used profile has this option set to a format
that is no longer available, then a error will occur, and it will be reset
to the default of PAL.
Picture Adjustment
i-Catcher Video Server has four sliders that allow you to change the
image appearance for each port, by directly controlling the picture
adjustment properties of each input. The top three sliders allow you to
change the brightness, contrast, and colour (saturation) of the image, and
where available, the bottom slider allows you to adjust the hue setting
(NTSC inputs only). |
