The P3ProSwing has the ability to capture up to 2 normal video sources per swing (in addition to a launch angle video capture). You will need a Sports Vision USB Smart Dongle that has been programmed with the video capture code in order to unlock the video capture feature. You should also consult the minimum system requirements for launch angle and video capture, as these features require more processing power.

The video capture supports both USB cameras and DV (firewire) cameras.

In order to use video capture, ensure that video capture has been enabled in the Video tab of the Options dialog. This is illustrated below. By default, the first camera found will be used as the first video capture device, and the second video capture device is not used.

You can explicitly specify the video devices by selecting them in the options menu. Note that only the devices that are plugged in, powered on, and functioning properly when P3ProSwing is started will be available in the option menus. The example below shows that there should be 2 video capture devices enabled, and the first one should be the DV camera and the second should be the Logitech camera.

The Frame Sleep slider lets you add a pause in the application so that the video capture has time to run. On some systems if this is too low, the video will not have enough processing power to capture many frames. If this value is set to -1, it will be disabled completely.

The Restore All Defaults button will restore the settings in the video tab of the options dialog to their original values. This includes all controls except the Video On/Off and Launch Angle On/Off controls.

Once video capturing has been enabled, you can toggle it on or off for particular swings by selecting the video button in the main toolbar as shown below.

Pressing this once will enable the first video capture device. Pressing it twice will enable both video devices. If either video device is not present, you will see a message similar to the following in the video capture window.

Assuming your camera is functioning properly and you have enabled video in the video options dialog and toggled it on via the Video button in the main toolbar, you will see a live video feed in the video window on either the right or left side of the P3ProSwing application (depending on the view selection). The live video is captured when a swing is triggered on the P3ProSwing device. Several seconds before and after the swing are included in the capture. Swing processing will take a bit longer when video is enabled because the video feeds must be saved to Windows Media Files (.wmv files).

Once video has been captured, you can step through the video using the pause/play, frame-back, frame-forward, and frame-slider controls that are shown under the video windows. You must pause the video before attempting to move the slider control. These are illustrated below. Lines may be drawn on the video for instructional purposes. These lines are valid during the current session, and are stored with the swing. They are not stored once you exit the P3ProSwing application. You can change the line color and line width, or erase the lines that have been drawn, using the controls which are also illustrated below.

Note that if you have selected to save swings to a swing file, you can manually look at the swings at any time by going to the swings directory where you are currently saving your swing file, locating the swings directory, locating the proper directory within the swings directory that corresponds to your swing, and opening the .wmv video capture file for that swing. You can also look at the .jpg file which is also captured, which is simply a screenshot of the entire P3ProSwing application.

If you do not have a swing file enabled, the video captures will be discarded when advanced for the next swing or after replaying a previous swing. Note that only practice modes support swing files.

Some DV cameras are interlaced, in which case you can select to de-interlace the video image by toggling the interlace/de-interlace buttons that are illustrated below. Enabling this for non interlaced video will make it look blocky.

: disable de-interlacing (used for USB cameras and some DV cameras)

: enable de-interlacing (used for some DV cameras)

Lastly, note that many USB cameras do not function correctly together. Consult the manufacturer to see if your USB cameras will work together, or try the video viewing applications that come with your cameras to see if they work at the same time. If you see garbage in the stand-alone USB camera applications, chances are you will see similar problems within the P3ProSwing application.