Menu Close

How can I view an Allied Vision camera in OBS Studio or VLC?

Skip to main content

How Can We Help?

< Back
You are here:
Print

How can I view an Allied Vision camera in OBS Studio or VLC?

Why the camera does not appear in OBS Studio or VLC

Allied Vision cameras (Alvium USB3, Alvium GigE, Mako, Manta, Prosilica GT…) are machine vision cameras. They follow the USB3 Vision and GigE Vision standards, not the UVC webcam standard, so Windows does not list them as video capture devices. Vimba X, the Allied Vision SDK, provides a GenTL transport layer (.cti file) but no DirectShow driver: the camera works in Vimba X Viewer, but does not show up in OBS Studio, VLC, ffmpeg or any other application that lists webcams.

Solution: the GenICam Vision Source filter

The Datastead GenICam Vision Source is a DirectShow video capture filter. It connects to any GenICam / GenTL camera through the vendor’s GenTL producer and exposes it as a standard video capture device named Datastead GenICam Vision Source. Any DirectShow application can then use the camera like a webcam.

Installation

  1. Install Vimba X (64-bit) from the Allied Vision website. Check that Vimba X Viewer displays the camera.
  2. Download the GenICam Vision Source evaluation from https://www.datastead.com/downloads/ and unzip it.
  3. Right-click Install_Automatically\DatasteadGenICamAutoInstaller.exe and select Run as administrator. The Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64) is included in the package if needed.

The filter is 64-bit only: use the 64-bit versions of OBS Studio, VLC or ffmpeg.

OBS Studio

  1. In Sources, click + and select Video Capture Device.
  2. In Device, select Datastead GenICam Vision Source.
  3. Click Configure Video. In the Device tab, select the Allied Vision GenTL producer (e.g. VimbaUSBTL.cti for USB3, VimbaGigETL.cti for GigE) and the camera.
  4. In the Image tab, select the pixel format: Mono8 for a monochrome camera, BGR8 for a color camera. Set the ROI and binning if needed.
  5. Close the dialog: the live video appears in the scene.

Exposure, gain, frame rate and white balance can be changed while the video is running. The producer, camera, pixel format, ROI and binning must be set before the video starts.

VLC

  1. Select Media > Open Capture Device.
  2. Set Capture mode to DirectShow, then Video device name to Datastead GenICam Vision Source.
  3. Click Advanced options, check Device properties to open the configuration pages when the stream starts, then click Play.

ffmpeg

ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="Datastead GenICam Vision Source" output.mp4

Trigger and advanced features

The Trigger tab switches between free run, software trigger and hardware trigger. The Features tab gives access to every GenICam feature of the camera.

Other GenICam cameras shipping a 64-bit GenTL producer

The same steps apply to any USB3 Vision or GigE Vision camera whose vendor ships a 64-bit GenTL producer: Basler (pylon), FLIR / Teledyne (Spinnaker), Baumer, IDS, Hikrobot, Daheng… Select that vendor’s .cti file in the Device tab.

Table of Contents