To save video clip(avi,mpeg, etc), do I need to buy something?

[Jee]

Hi.
I think I missed some information.
I have to save image file,also, I have to record video file as avi or mpeg. Then, I think I need something. Becasue I tried to save avi files with vi example(read and write avi). But it didn't work and it said that needs IMAQ WINDRAW.VI. So I posted this to here. I got that IMAQ WINDRAW.VI. is offered by IMAQ VISION software. So my question is should I buy this software or any software? I know image file saving is possible without IMAQ VISION.But, to record or save video clip, I'm not sure I should buy or not. Let me know this. For your references,My system is consist of IMAQ PCI-1407 and Pulnix camera,IMAQ 2.1, Labview 5.1 and NT as operating system.

Thank you

[BruceAmmons]

Let's look at the bigger picture. Why do you want to save video as an AVI or MPEG video? Are you going to do any analysis of the video in LabVIEW? Are you going to be loading the video and replaying it in LabVIEW? What is the goal for creating the video?

If all you are doing is recording video, I wouldn't necessarily use LabVIEW to do it. There are a number of packages that come with firewire boards or other hardware that can record video to these formats quite easily.

If you plan on analyzing the video, you will need the Vision toolkit to do this analysis (or a similar toolkit). I would not use these formats for storing video that will be analyzed, though, because the loss of information due to compression is significant.

The main reason I can see
for using this format is if you are recording video and synchronizing it with other data. I have done a couple of projects like this, but I used the Vision toolkit because I needed some other features it provides.

Without understanding your entire application, I can't provide much more advice.

Bruce

[Jee]

Appreciate your help for this.
I actually want to see and analyse of the actuation mechanism of dieletric polymer. If the voltage is applied to dielectric polymer,its dimension is simultaneously changing. While I'm taking this experiment, I need to calculate the dimension and to see how change its shape. That's why I need to save video clip. But I'm nes in this IMAQ area. So, let me know good solution of this situation.
Thank you so much.

Jeesang

[BruceAmmons]

This still isn't enough information.

Do you need to measure the voltage (or supply it) and synchronize that with the video?

How long does the whole test last? What frame rate do you need during the test? What is the total number of images you think you will need?

It sounds like you need to set up a buffered acquisition that is triggered simultaneously with a DAQ card. You will probably have enough memory to keep all the images in memory until you are done processing them. At this point, you can save them or just dispose of them.

Bruce

[francispau]

Have you find a solution to your problem,
i am nes two in IMAQ area,and i try to resolve the same problem