Wrong Colors in the VLC Media Player

When using the DirectShow_Acquire capture source with VLC Media Player 3, wrong colors can be seen in the camera images.

This is a known bug in VLC Media Player 3, which will apparently be fixed in version 4.x, but probably not in version 3.x. The effect results from VLC interpreting the normal 24-bit video format delivered by all DirectShow Video Capture sources (=RV24, MEDIASUBTYPE_RGB24) as a different pixel layout and consequently swapping the red and the blue channels.

As a workaround, the image format of the DirectShow_Acquire capture source can be changed before starting streaming. To do this, follow the steps according to Changing Camera Properties and change the ImageDestination/PixelFormat from "RGB888Packed" to "BGR888Packed".

After clicking "OK" in the property dialog, choose your desired activity, and the camera will show correct colors.

Note: The PixelFormat used for streaming can only be changed manually for a recording/playback session, but not permanently.

Background

Changing the device's property ImageDestination/PixelFormat from "RGB888Packed" to "BGR888Packed" might seem odd if you are used to the PixelFormatNamingConvention or have already delved into details about in-memory image format storage.

The 24-bit Windows® RGB format defines pixels of blue, green and red color in this order, so logically, this is a "BGR" format. Due to historical reasons, the Impact Acquire image format "RGB888Packed" corresponds to this standard Windows® bitmap format.

The PixelFormat property of the camera, on the other hand, conforms to the GenICam™ Pixel Format Naming Convention, and would be described there as "BGR8".