I grab a null frame. Can a Java genious help, please?

Question

Hello. I am a high school student working on a science fair project. Right now I am using JMF to grab a frame from my ATI TV Wonder USB. The code below accesses the TV Wonder but it seems like I get a null frame because I have put a if statement in the code and it says I have a null image there. Can someone please help me. Thank you in advance
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.media.*;
import javax.media.format.*;
import javax.media.util.*;
import javax.media.control.*;
import javax.media.protocol.*;
import javax.media.control.FormatControl;
public class Cell extends JApplet implements ActionListener{
     JLabel welcomeLabel;
     JTextArea output;
     JButton close;
     String display = "";
     String exit = "The video capture buffer has been terminated.";
     String problem = "";
     String videoDevice = "vfw:Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win32):0";
     public static Player player = null;
     public Buffer buf = null;
     public Image img = null;
     public VideoFormat vf = null;
     public BufferToImage btoi = null;
     public MediaLocator ml = null;
     public CaptureDeviceInfo di = null;
     public void init()
          Container c = getContentPane();
          c.setLayout( new FlowLayout() );
          welcomeLabel = new JLabel("Welcome to Adam's Cell Analyzer");
          c.add(welcomeLabel);
          output = new JTextArea(6, 60);
          output.setFont( new Font("Courier", Font.PLAIN, 12) );
          c.add(output);
          close = new JButton("End Analyze Program");
          close.addActionListener(this);
          c.add(close);
          display = "Starting...\n\n";
          output.setText(display);
          di = CaptureDeviceManager.getDevice(videoDevice);
          ml = di.getLocator();
          try {
               player = Manager.createRealizedPlayer(ml);
               player.start();
               Component comp;
          catch (Exception e) {
               problem += "An Exception has occured.";
               output.setText(problem);
          FrameGrabbingControl fgc = (FrameGrabbingControl)
               player.getControl("javax.media.control.FrameGrabbingControl");
          buf = fgc.grabFrame();
          btoi = new BufferToImage((VideoFormat)buf.getFormat());
          img = btoi.createImage(buf);
          display += "The video capture card is currently working properly\n";
          display += "and is sending a video feed to the image buffer.\n\n";
          output.setText(display);
          if(img==null){
               problem += "The frame is null.";
               output.setText(problem);
          else
               imageEnhancement(img);
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
          output.setText(exit);
          player.close();
          player.deallocate();
     private void imageEnhancement(Image img)
     //Nothing now     
}

Answer 1

I decided to post my program on here because I remember how hard it was to get it to work, and I don't want people to go through the same problems... just don't use it to compete against me in the Intel Science and Engineering Fair and/or the Intel Science Talent Search ;-) then I'll be mad. Other than that, have fun!
~Adam Georgas
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.Image.*;
import java.awt.image.renderable.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.media.*;
import javax.media.format.*;
import javax.media.format.VideoFormat;
import javax.media.util.*;
import javax.media.util.BufferToImage;
import javax.media.control.*;
import javax.media.protocol.*;
import javax.media.control.FormatControl;
public class Cell extends JApplet implements ActionListener{
     JLabel welcomeLabel;
     JTextArea output;
     JButton begin;
     JButton end;
     String display = "";
     String problem = "";
     String exit = "The video capture buffer has been terminated.";
     String videoDevice = "vfw:Microsoft WDM Image Capture (Win32):0";
     public static Player player = null;
     public Buffer buf = null;
     public MediaLocator ml = null;
     public CaptureDeviceInfo di = null;
     public BufferToImage btoi = null;
     public Image frameImage = null;
     public VideoFormat vf = null;
     public PlanarImage src = null;
     private ImageEncoder encoder = null;
private JPEGEncodeParam encodeParam = null;
     int error = 0;
     public void init()
          Container c = getContentPane();
          c.setLayout( new FlowLayout() );
          welcomeLabel = new JLabel("Welcome to Adam's Cell Analyzer");
          c.add(welcomeLabel);
          output = new JTextArea(6, 60);
          output.setFont( new Font("Courier", Font.PLAIN, 12) );
          c.add(output);
          begin = new JButton("Begin Analyze Program");
          begin.addActionListener(this);
          c.add(begin);
          end = new JButton("End Analyze Program");
          end.addActionListener(this);
          c.add(end);
          di = CaptureDeviceManager.getDevice(videoDevice);
          ml = di.getLocator();
          try {
               player = Manager.createRealizedPlayer(ml);
               player.start();
          catch (Exception b) {
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, b.toString(),
                    "An Exception has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
          display = "Welcome\n\n";
          output.setText(display);
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
          JComponent j = (JComponent) e.getSource();
          if (j == end){
               player.close();
               player.deallocate();
               output.setText(exit);     
          if (j == begin){
               display += "Starting...\n\n";
               output.setText(display);
               Control[] controls = player.getControls();
               FrameGrabbingControl fgc = (FrameGrabbingControl)
                    player.getControl("javax.media.control.FrameGrabbingControl");
               if (fgc == null) {
                    error = 1;
                    problem(error);
               buf = fgc.grabFrame();
               btoi = new BufferToImage((VideoFormat)buf.getFormat());
               if (btoi == null){
                    error = 2;
                    problem(error);
               VideoFormat format = (VideoFormat)buf.getFormat();
               Dimension size = format.getSize();
               if(format == null) {
                    error = 3;
                    problem(error);
               frameImage = btoi.createImage(buf);               
               if(frameImage == null) {
                    error = 4;
                    problem(error);
               else{
                    display = "";
                    display = "The video system is working correctly and grabbing frames.\n\n";
                    output.setText(display);     
     public void imageEnhancement()
//Top Secret :-)
     public void problem(int error)
          switch(error) {
          case 1:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "The frame grabbing control is null.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               break;
          case 2:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "The buffer to image conversion did not occur properly.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               break;
          case 3:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "The image format queries did not occur properly.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               break;
          case 4:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "The buffer to image did not occur properly.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               break;
          case 5:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "Java AWT Image to JAI Image did not occur properly.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
               break;
          default:
               JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(this, "An unknown problem has occured.",
                    "A problem has occured", JOptionPane.ERROR_MESSAGE);
}