Modify Channels as Separate Streams

G-Man

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Just as a fun project, I am attempting to separate each camera from a 3rd party quad camera system to view as individual cameras in Blue Iris. More specifics to follow below:

I have successfully added the quad camera stream into Blue Iris, but Blue Iris sees the quad view as one single camera stream and displays and records any activity from all cameras as a single camera stream.

I understand why Blue Iris sees it as a single stream; I just want to see if anyone knows of a work-around so they appear as separate streams (cameras) to Blue Iris.

The quad system in question is called AutoPage Night Guard NG100 (no longer for sale or supported). Each camera mounts outdoors as a PIR activated combo light with built-in camera which is transmitted to a single USB Wireless Adapter plugged into a USB port on my PC. The USB dongle can support up to 4 cameras (hence the quad ability). This system transmits on a 4 channel 2.4 GHz frequency, but it is its own protocol and not considered WI-FI.

To get the stream into Blue Iris I have to start the native AutoPage Night Guard NG100 software first and set the view to any of the single cameras available or to see all cameras at once I can set it to quad view. I then must shut down the native software because it cannot run at the same time as Blue Iris. I then start Blue Iris and it is then able to add the stream as a USB camera and it also retains the native settings I just previously set when it was open.

I really only have 2 cameras (not 4) on this quad capable system, so my question is if anyone knows of a way for me to force each camera to appear to Blue Iris as if each were its own separate stream so that Blue Iris will allow me to add them each as a separate camera.

I am asking for mods here. I have a degree in electronics and programing so I am up for a hobby mod if anyone knows of anything... say like installing alternative drivers that can separate each channel’s stream after it comes into the USB dongle. Or maybe a way to reprogram the Mars MR8980 chip at the board level to accomplish the same thing.

Since I bought 2 of these cameras I have 2 USB receivers, but they both receive the same exact camera signals. Could there be a way to force each of my 2 cameras onto its own receiver with a bit of reprogramming?
 

alkizmo

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My suggestion would be to add the stream TWICE in Blue Iris, so you have 2 "cameras" with the same stream.
Then, you use the "Area of Interest" setting in the video tab of the camera setup to isolate the frame for each camera.
 

bp2008

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Yes, do what alkizmo said. Make as many clones as needed of the original camera, then modify each clone with an area of interest that covers a different individual camera view.
 

G-Man

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I greatly appreciate the response. It would have been an excellent suggestion; however, the "Area of Interest" feature is not available for UBS cameras and remains grayed-out in Blue Iris unless IP is selected as the camera type when adding devices. The device (source) I am adding from must be added as USB.

As promising as your resolution appears, I would have implemented it as a temporary solution while continuing my quest to separate camera streams prior to bringing them into Blue Iris. The reason is because the entire quad view is already only a 640x480 resolution, cropping each camera to an “Area of Interest” would reduce that even further to 1/4 that size. But if I can manage to find a way to separate each camera prior to adding to Blue Iris, each can be added at their full native 640x480 resolution.

Again, thank you so much for the feedback. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
 

bp2008

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Sounds like it could be just a limitation of the device that it won't provide the full native resolution for each camera. Can you get any individual camera stream in its native 640x480? If you can do that for one, but not all of them, then that could also be a limitation of the device.

One thing you can try is to add the quad view as a camera with short name "quadview" or something. Then add the others as MJPEG cameras with the host name 127.0.0.1 and path
/mjpg/quadview/video.mjpg
and that will allow you to use the area of interest. Though as you say it will be very low resolution by that point and maybe not worth your trouble.
 

alkizmo

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One thing you can try is to add the quad view as a camera with short name "quadview" or something. Then add the others as MJPEG cameras with the host name 127.0.0.1 and path
I looked up the system he mentionned.

It is a USB dongle that has an antenna to capture 2.4GHZ ANALOG cameras (up to 4).
The cameras themselves cannot be used as IP cameras. The dongle allows to view each camera individually with a 640x480 resolution, or see all 4 in the same 640x480 window.

The best he can do is use ONE camera and buy new IP cameras for whatever other angles he wants to cover in blue iris.
 

bp2008

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Yes, it sounds like you get one 640x480 stream out of this USB device and it can either be all 4 cameras which can be split into multiple 320x240 cameras via the method I described above, or it can be just one of the cameras with the other 3 not represented at all.
 
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