This is the first release of TVG, so please be patient when it blows up.
The author assumes no liability whatsoever if you use this software. Furthermore, he assumes no liability if you don't.
What is the Timed Video Grabber?
Timed Video Grabber (TVG) is a little program which you can set up to take a snapshot at a selected time interval and to save that snapshot to a jpeg file.
Why would I want to do that?
If you have a World Wide Web page set up to point to a jpeg file, you can point it to a jpeg file which is created and updated by TVG and have a web page which has a semi-current picture in it! Alternatively, you can have TVG save a file on a Mac which is running an FTP server and write a script for a unix machine to snarf the file over at whatever interval TVG is saving frames.
Again, why would I want to do that?
Ummm....because it's cool?
What are the system requirements?
You need to have at least System 7, 32 bit QuickDraw, Quicktime, and a video digitizing device (e.g. an AV mac, Video Spigot™, Connectix QuickCam™, …). TVG will likely break into the debugger (or crash if none is installed) if you don't meet these requirements.
How do I use this thing?
Launch the Timed Video Grabber.
If you have an available digitizer, then a window will appear with a current picture from that digitizer.
If you want to switch digitizers or adjust the image, select Video Settings under the File menu.
If you want to change the time interval, select Preferences under the File menu.
To start saving to a file, select "Auto-Save to jpeg file" under the Video menu. A red dot will flash in the upper left corner of the video window to let you know that it is saving frames
Advanced features:
If you want to have TVG automatically start saving to a file when it is launched, open the preferences dialog and check "Start auto-saving at launch". You will be prompted for a place to put the file. If the file is on a remote server, then that server's volume will be mounted automatically when the program starts up the next time (you may be prompted for a password though). This feature is useful if you want to run TVG in the background on a machine and don't want to manually launch it and start saving when the machine is rebooted - just put an alias to TVG in your startup items folder.
If you want to hide the video window, go ahead...it has no effect on the saving of frames.
Why is it only 0.80b1?
Because I haven't added the functionality to create quicktime movies yet. I'm working on it though, so expect 1.0 some time in the near future. If you register, I'll make sure you send you the latest release :)
Caveats
-TVG doesn't handle low memory conditions very well.
-There needs to be more error handling, but if things are working, they'll work well.
-If you are using an AV mac and don't have extended VRam, you can't use the built in digitizer when your monitor is in thousands of colors.
-If TVG crashes, try increasing the memory allocation (I know, its huge already...)
-The UI for the time lapse movie code is there, but not active, since the implementation isn't done yet.
-If you use the video settings panel, don't switch to the "Image" panel too many times or the program may crash. There appears to be a memory leak in Apple's Quicktime code which dumps over 2K of memory each time you switch to that panel. If you run out of memory doing this, your system will crash rather nastily.
License agreement
Timed Video Grabber (TVG) is not freeware. TVG is SillyWare. I worked hard on this program, and I expect to get something out of it.
You may use TVG with no obligation for a trial period of seven days.
If you want to continue to use TVG for personal use (i.e. aren't making money off of its use) then you are obligated to perform a Monty Python silly walk in a crowded mall. Send your photos, quicktime movies, or other evidence to one of the addresses listed below. If you want to send a postcard, comments, or chocolate covered espresso beans, that would be nice too.
If you want to use TVG for commercial purposes, then you must contact the author (Allon Stern) at the address listed below to negotiate terms and obtain written permission. Basically, if you want to use TVG to make money, then I want some :-)
Under no circumstances may you sell or charge for distributing TVG without explicit written permission of the author. This includes distributing TVG on floppy disk or CD-ROM collections of shareware/freeware software for which there is a charge (giving away a CD-Rom or floppy with TVG on it is perfectly okay - selling it isn't).
Permission is hereby granted to distribute TVG freely as long as there is no charge (e.g. anonymous FTP) and as long as this README file is included with it.
I welcome any comments regarding TVG. I particularly want to hear what people are doing with it. Please let me know if you want to receive news of updates to TVG and any other cool projects I may be working on in my spare time.
Contacting the author
allon@intercon.com
Allon Stern
InterCon Systems Corporation
950 Herndon Parkway
Herndon, VA 22070
Disclaimer
Timed Video Grabber was built over the course of a few weekends. InterCon Systems Corporation is my employer, but they have nothing to do with TVG.
Things to do:
Implement Quicktime movie code to do time lapse movies.
Implement time stamping of the image.
Allow multiple digitizers to be used at the same time.
