Write Text on DirectShow Preview Window

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I want to write a text or a label on Preview Window that is showing the webcam preview using directshow.
-> Text will be on window when there will be preview or frames on screen.
Is here anyone having idea about this, how to do it?

Thanks!

Posted 12-Feb-13 1:28am

Sachin k Rajput

Add a Solution

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-13 11:25am

Are you using GDI, GDI+? It's is not compatible with DirectShow. You would need to do it with DirectX, layout manager, etc. Not a very pleasant work.
—SA

4 solutions

Solution 2

What you normally do is overlay text on a video - you don't need to add a label.
There are some filters that would allow you to do this for e.g. Pure .NET DirectShow Filters in C#[^] describes a filter that adds text to a video.

Posted 12-Feb-13 5:48am

Abhinav S

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-13 12:47pm

Of course, a 5. I explained my opinion in my comment under my answer.
—SA

Abhinav S 12-Feb-13 12:57pm

Thanks for the 5.
Read your comment.

Espen Harlinn 12-Feb-13 14:48pm

Very nice, Abhinav :-D

Abhinav S 12-Feb-13 22:02pm

Thank you.

Sachin k Rajput 12-Feb-13 23:57pm

Thanks Abhinav!
for your answer, I really appreciate it.
But the thing is I'm implementing my application in VC++.
Its a webcam preview over which I want a text.

Solution 3

Another option is to render bot the video and the text to a texture, and an example on how to render the video to a texture is included with the SDK:
Source: (SDK root)\Samples\C++\DirectShow\Players\Texture3D[^]

To render the text you do something like this:

Enable transparency:

device.RenderState.AlphaTestEnable = true;
device.RenderState.AlphaFunction = Compare.Greater;
device.RenderState.ReferenceAlpha = 0;

Create font and sprite:

D3DX10CreateFont(device, 16, 0, FW_BOLD, 0, FALSE, 
           DEFAULT_CHARSET, OUT_TT_ONLY_PRECIS, ANTIALIASED_QUALITY, 
           DEFAULT_PITCH | FF_DONTCARE, L"Verdana", &font);

D3DX10CreateSprite(device, 256, &sprite);

Render:

hr = sprite->Begin(0);
std::wstring left = L"Hurray, text on a sprite!";

RECT r;
r.top = 0;
r.bottom = window->height;
r.left = 0;
r.right = window->width;

hr = font->DrawTextW(sprite, left.c_str(), -1, &r, 
              DT_LEFT | DT_TOP, D3DXCOLOR(0.0f, 1.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f));
hr = sprite->End();

Best regards
Espen Harlinn

Posted 12-Feb-13 9:05am

Espen Harlinn

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 11:49am

Sure, a 5.
But note that OP successfully implemented my idea based on my quite stupid answer :-)
Because I expected that it could be just enough, and everything else might be too difficult to OP...
—SA

Espen Harlinn 13-Feb-13 14:38pm

Thanks, Sergey - I did notice both yours and Abhinavs replies yestrday, and thought this would be an interesting alternative :-D

Solution 4

Additionally, to all answers:

1. In my articles there is an example to drawing text over the video, yes it is in C# but in old DirectX SDK you can find similar examples in C++.

2. Another way you can capture frames with Sample Grabber and draw text this way.

3. Easy way is to use VMR and makes bitmap from text and draw it as overlay Ticker Sample[^].

4. You can use RenderToTexture example but easy is to make Custom Allocator presenter for VMR[^] and draw text in there. The example of that you can see on MSDN or in C# in my articles.

Regards,
Maxim.

Posted 12-Feb-13 21:35pm

Maxim Kartavenkov

Add a Solution

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-12T05:26:00

Solution 1

Please see my comment to the question.

Could you simply place a label control over the video? Not fancy, but simple.

Otherwise, dig in DirectX; but it will need time and nerve…

—SA

Posted 12-Feb-13 5:26am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Abhinav S 12-Feb-13 11:49am

I would add an overlay filter instead of a label.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Feb-13 12:47pm

Of course you would do it; and it would make a neat powerful way of doing things. I just suggest a simplest alternative.
You see, it depends on requirements and what OP is doing. If OP is already into DirectShow, of course it can be done, but if OP is just using some ready to use DirectShow component, which is the most usual case, the label is simpler.
—SA

Sachin k Rajput 12-Feb-13 23:59pm

Its an app that is being done in VC++ win32 environment.
So put_Caption is failed,
Textout is failed and childwindow is also failed.
That's why the thing is how to write a simple text over preview.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 0:32am

This and that failed is... not informative...
—SA

Sachin k Rajput 13-Feb-13 1:03am

in directshow its a IVIDEOWINDOW and after render we can put caption there as I have seen from few examples and something like this http://www.geekpage.jp/en/programming/directshow/ivideowindow-1.php, but its not working.
And Textout is to call some text on paint event of window but that's not working too.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 1:06am

I tried to explain: this won't work, because this is GDI. You need to follow Solution 1 or Solution 2. What's not clear?
In my method, you don't touch DirectShow at all, use a separate (Windowed) control on top. Or dig into DirectX...
—SA

Sachin k Rajput 13-Feb-13 1:19am

I got your point and I'm agree with this.
But for webcam preview how can I switch to Directx only whether preview is only seen in directshow that's a part of MS-SDK.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 1:26am

What do you mean "switch"? It looks like you already use DirectX. If does not matter what happens in this window. You create some windows with valid HWND, and then you "give it out" to DirectX. You cannot control what happens in it by Windows API. When you try render some GDI image, you see it for a while, but next video frame removes it, right? This is the whole problem: these two APIs fight against each other. As video is always DirectX (because this is DirectShow), you can only use DirectX to do something else. But my method is a total work-around: you ignore the problem and don't touch the windows with video at all. Preview or not, it does not matter.
By the way, to best of my knowledge, video other than DirectX is not practically used in Windows.
—SA

Sachin k Rajput 13-Feb-13 1:47am

Thanks!
Now I got it...
I'm trying this and after this I'll return on discussion.

Sachin k Rajput 13-Feb-13 4:36am

@Sergey, Thanks for your solution it worked.
But there is a problem when i resize the window the child window disappears.

Have you any Idea?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 11:28am

Could be different problem, might be as simple as layout. First thing is to run it under the debugger and check up the coordinates/size of the hidden window. If you cannot sort it out, you will have to reproduce the problem on some minimal code sample. It might be not so easy, but chances are, you might detect the problem while simplifying code. In not, you can show this sample. It should be a separate question.
—SA

Sachin k Rajput 13-Feb-13 22:52pm

Its done finally....

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 13-Feb-13 23:00pm

Great.
Good luck, call again.
—SA

Write Text on DirectShow Preview Window

4 solutions

Solution 2

Solution 3

Solution 1

Solution 4

Add your solution here

Preview 0

Write Text on DirectShow Preview Window

4 solutions

Solution 2

Solution 3

Solution 1

Solution 4

Add your solution here

Preview 0

Existing Members

...or Join us