Timed Video Grabber 0.80b2
The Timed Video Grabber (TVG) is a program that will take a snapshot
from any QuickTime compatible video input device at a selectable
interval and save it to a jpeg file on your mac. It replaces the jpeg
file each time it grabs a frame so it keeps the one file current.
This is useful for putting live pictures of coffeepots, lava lamps, or
your feet on a web page. It is easiest if you have a web server running
on your mac, but it works equally well if you save the file to
an appleshare or NFS volume mounted on your Mac. It will also work well
if you have a shell script on a unix web server which FTPs the file
from your mac at the same interval that you have TVG grabbing frames.
For more detailed information on setting up a webcam, check out this page
You can download
TVG0.80b2
to your Macintosh.
Current features
- TVG allows you to configure the video input device (for those of
you lucky enough to have more than one on your Mac, it also lets you
select which one to use).
- You can select the time interval and the file to save frames to.
- You can save each frame to a QuickTime movie, creating a time
lapse movie. This feature isn't complete or supported, so expect it
to break. It works for me, though.
- TVG has been known to work with the Video Spigot, AV Macs,
Connectix QuickCam, and the PowerMac 7500 video in.
Possible future features
The following additional features may someday be added to TVG:
- Timestamping of grabbed frames
- Support for AppleEvents
- Grab a frame at user request
- Grab frames from multiple video inputs at the same time
- A bunch of other things I'm forgetting...
TVG was written by Allon Stern. If you'd like to contact the
author regarding TVG, please
send mail to tvg@avernus.com.
allon@avernus.com