Question

Is there a way to capture with OpenCV from an external capture device ( e.g. AJA IO HD) or any other digitizer (e.g. analog-to-digital converter)? Or in other words, what do I need to be able to capture (drivers, workflow) ? If there is an easy way to capture with Python (same setup), I would also be glad to hear about it. And it would need to be for Mac.

Thanks for your time!

Answer 1

Yes, there are quite a few capture devices supported by OpenCV. The VideoCapture API gives you access to supported capture cards, provided the appropriate libraries are compiled in at build time.

This answer provides a list of platforms and backend APIs:

• OpenCV 2.3 (C++,QtGui), Problem Initializing some specific USB Devices and Setups

For Mac support, the QuickTime backend should provide the best driver support. I believe both AJA and Blackmagic capture cards should support this. You can verify the QuickTime capture support using a tool such as HackTV.

The Python bindings should provide equivalent access to control these features.