Why don't my webcam components work in my VB WinForms apps?

Robert Gustafson 606 Reputation points
2020-12-30T22:44:46.757+00:00

WHAT I HAVE:

Visual Basic 2019, .NET 4.6.1, WinForms, Windows 10 Home laptop

MY PROBLEM:

I downloaded WebEye.Controls.WinForms.WebCameraControl from NuGet, and tried to run a VB.NET WinForms program using the control, only to get just a black screen. I then dowloaded OpenCvSharp and tried again with it instead; the same result! What am I doing wrong?! Somehow I get the feeling it's not the choice of control.library. Is there something about webcam settings? I need a WinForms-compatible tool that can reliably work with most users webcams (starting with mine)--preferably free or for less than $250.

PS. I think PVSMediaPlayer will work (I've tried its sample programs)--and it's free. How hard is it to set up a simple webcam photo-capture with it?

PPS. Please respond ASAP, and give any code in VB.NET if possible (although I can convert to that).

Windows Forms
Windows Forms
A set of .NET Framework managed libraries for developing graphical user interfaces.
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Windows 10
Windows 10
A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.
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VB
VB
An object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft that is implemented on the .NET Framework. Previously known as Visual Basic .NET.
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.NET Runtime
.NET Runtime
.NET: Microsoft Technologies based on the .NET software framework.Runtime: An environment required to run apps that aren't compiled to machine language.
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Accepted answer
  1. Robert Gustafson 606 Reputation points
    2020-12-31T06:40:02.997+00:00

    There are multiple webcam device-drivers on a system. One simply needs to try each one until one gets the one that works. (That's why programs supported webcams let you select the driver!)

    When I selected the other driver, WebCameraControl and OpenCvSharp both worked like a charm! Persistence and experimentation pays off. (BTW, WebCameraControl is a tad more flexible if you're for a quick-and-dirty solution for image capture.)

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  1. Daniel Zhang-MSFT 9,626 Reputation points
    2020-12-31T03:19:38.313+00:00

    Hi RobertGustafson-1682,
    In order to find the problem more accurately, could you provide some relevant code to reproduce the problem?
    And based on your description, I found some code examples you can refer to.
    WebEye
    Windows-iotcore-samples
    opencvsharp
    Hope these are helpful to you.
    Best Regards,
    Daniel Zhang

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