About direct Show and driver NI-IMAX.

[renegia]

I'm trying to acess two Point Grey's Firefly-MV camera and receive this reply from a engineer. 

There are two ways to access the firewire camera in NI-IMAX. One is to use our
directshow (with PGR's driver) and the other is to use windows 1394 host
adapter driver with the NI-IMAX camera driver. When you are using the
directshow interface the cameras will not show up separately and the way to
switch between cameras in IMAX is to bring up the camera selection dialogue
box. When you are using NI driver not directshow the camera will show up
separately and you will be able to switch between them by clicking on them
separately. Both ways should work and please let me know if your currently
configuration (using NI's driver) is causing you any issues.
 

It's correct?

Marcus Rene

[Abel_Souza]

Hi Marcus,

Your information is not so clear, but the following link may help you check if your firewire camera is compatible with NI-IMAQ drivers.

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/afded7f599e8a73a8625689e007672e5?O... 

Best regards,

[renegia]

Hi Abel,

I would like to know if when I'm using Ni-IMAX driver I don't use directshow like a engineer from point Grey told me last week?

And if is better use directshow (wtih driver from Point Grey) or NI-IMAQ when I'm working with labview 2010?

Do you would work with Activex if you chosse between directshow or activex?

Regards

[Abel_Souza · Accepted solution]

Hi Marcus,

NI-IMAQdx work directly with 1394 (firewire) cameras and if you are working with LabVIEW it is the best way, because all driver functionallity is supported by NI. The difference between work with NI-IMAQdx or directshow is the driver, and how Piont Gray engineer told you, using NI_IMAQdx driver you can access each camera separetelly.

In summary, your final result will be the same using IMAQdx driver or directshow if you are using only one camera, but will be better with NI-IMAQdx if you will use more than one. And NI-IMAQdx is esiest to use with LabVIEW, once  NI-IMAQdx is native for it.

best regards,