SharpCap Forums

1. If I select ROI a small red bar appears I can move it around but cannot select corners to adjust ROI area
2. Cannot easily with mouse select an area on display if careful hovering over single line the UP Arrow appears allowing for adjustment
3. FPS does not generally appear to improve on selecting smaller ROI
4. 64 bit windows pro version cannot control frame rate though occasionally high frame rates can be achieved
5. I've frame rate set to max and usb to 100 no other apps seem to be taking up bandwidth
6. Generally though using USB 3 and good cable Sharpcap Pro not responding to changes made to ROI that should improve FPS
7. Using Nebulosity 4 for comparison display output seems better so are there any specific changes I need to apply to Sharpcap Pro settings or other windows software that can improve this situation. Or tests I can make if needed.

Thanks

Colm

Hi Colm,

I am guessing you are referring to the ROI area indication as shown below, but since you refer to a 'bar', it's probably either tall and thin or short and wide so you can't see the inner dark grey area...
This lets you move the ROI region around on the camera sensor by dragging the dark grey box, but you change the size by using the 'Capture area' control rather than adjusting the red box shown above. You can also change the separate pan (horizontal position) and tilt (vertical position) values on the right to adjust the position of the ROI box.

Capture speed will only increase if

1) The exposure is short enough to allow it - for instance if you are already at 20fps with 50ms exposure, ROI will not make the frames faster since 20 * 50ms = 1s

*and*

2) You reduce the *height* of the ROI area - reducing the width doesn't get you anything. This is just how the majority of cameras work.

The 'Frame rate limit' control will do nothing to help get higher frame rates - it's purpose is to *limit* the frame rate down to the specified value if the camera is naturally taking images too fast for some requirement - most useful for timelapses, but in general use, leave at maximum.

Also note that the 'Selection Area' tool that can be activated in the toolbar (https://docs.sharpcap.co.uk/4.1/#Selection%20Area) has nothing to do with frame rates - it just tells SharpCap to focus on that particular area of the image when performing certain image processing/adjustment tasks. The camera will still be working at full resolution when this is active, so you do not gain on the frame rate.

Hope this helps,

Robin

Good Afternoon Robin,

Solved thanks though still slightly puzzled

Using the Apply ROI selection box firstly I was getting slow frame rates 2-4fps to begin with then selecting a small ROI still same 2-4fps

I also looked at linked troubleshooting doc on this page https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/8320 ... -sharpcap/ I believe this time I selected

In summary low frame rate with full ROI selected then no change to fps on small say 800 x 600 also same on 2 cables tested with.

I looked at device manager updating usb drivers indicated no problem with usb 3.0 drivers.

I looked at usb connections using USB View and saw camera connected also interesting device connected using intel bluetooth. But I'n no bluetooth connected. Checking i saw my win 11 pro had bluetooth on...I switched it off maybe helped?.

That troubleshooting doc mentioned test at 1280 x 720 with Mono8. I tested at 20fps getting no frames dropped and 44.0 fps which is fine. Even better change to 10ms FPS goe to 94fps which is great.

Sharpcap settings I've hi speed frame cache to +7000mb live stacking and display memory set to 2800mb approx

Puzzled maybe some caching by SPro locked data somehow for the camera or there might be a bug due to asking Apply ROI to make too many changes too frequently that again locked my FPS I've no idea but delighted its fixed working great now.


Colm

Hi Colm,

difficult to be sure which of the 2 or 3 possibilities caused it, but good news that it is now working as expected

clear skies!

Robin

Hello again,

Yes I believe problem solved partially helped by install of Cinebench r23 benchmarking tool. I found laptop benchmarking at Performance Task Bar processor speed 2.80gHZ but after a minute or so this would clock down to 1.40gHZ. So video download of large Sharpcap FOV files after a minute or 2 would warm up the Ryzen 3 CPU and laptop would self protect mode throttle the download sometimes freezing Sharpcap.

I've turned down the FPS to 30fps and have smaller FOI to manage this on my laptop. Another solution would be selecting a laptop with more clout but apparently solution also requires more expensive laptop that implements more cooling support at the CPU level I'll leave this to reader to research.

So above relatively solved but I've also a request for new feature in Sharpcap. I find it awkward in Sharpcap that when you choose ROI Sharpcap displays the new ROI at top of its display window instead of opening it in the centre of display window. Another option if possible would be to be able to select the new ROI window and display it anywhere you wanted to on your pc screen enabling it if required to be viewed on top of other software windows.

best

colm

Hi,

interesting that the laptop is having to reduce the power limits due to heat buildup. If you've had the laptop a few years *and* you feel comfortable taking things apart, it may be worth seeing if there is dust build up in the cooling fans/heatsinks causing the laptop to not be able to cool itself as well as it should. You can often find repair/teardown videos online for various laptop models, and just watching one can give you an idea of how easy it is to get a laptop apart and whether there is any likelihood of finding hearsinks/fans to clean out inside it.

thanks,

Robin