Investing in cheap Markerless Mocap for SFM. Any ideas? - Hardware & Software

I'm looking to invest in some cheap mo-cap equipment and software to use in SFM. I had an idea to buy 2 Xbox kinects vs kinect for Windows; problem is that my laptop has Windows 7, and the one's MS sell now only run on Win 8 and stopped selling the old ones. My other problem is that I have no idea on what can be the best mo-cap for my laptop at a reasonable price. I'm looking to sink at least $100-$400 for most of the equipment and software, but I have no idea on where to look.

I did this setup about 3 years ago, so there might be better software out there by now. I got my hands on 2 kinects. Go to your local pawn shop and see if you can find 2 of the older versions (we have a place called Trade It around here that has like 20 of these things for around 60 bucks each). One thing you need to watch out for is that their are 2 different kinds of Kinects, one works with windows and the other does not. I forgot how to tell the difference but I'm sure a quick google will tell you. For software I used iPi Soft for the capture. Like I said though, it's been 3 years and I'm sure there are alternatives for this. One thing to keep in not for a laptop, make sure you have at least 2 powered USB controllers. For my laptop I had 2, one controlled the left USB port and the other controlled the 3 on the right. I was only able to plug both kinects in 2 specific ports or they wouldn't work.

Problem is that I'm not sure if there is a real difference between the Kinect for Windows and the Xbox Kinect in terms of usage. The only difference I can think of is that the Windows Kinect has "Windows" etched on it and the Xbox Kinect has "Xbox 360" etched. Not sure about the USB ports, but I have at least 2-4 of them on my Alienware, both of them are 2.0, and One is used for the mouse. I think I can still use them regardless. Edit: My bad, Kinect for Windows has "Kinect" etched on the front.

[QUOTE=maddogsamurai;47112889]Problem is that I'm not sure if there is a real difference between the Kinect for Windows and the Xbox Kinect in terms of usage. The only difference I can think of is that the Windows Kinect has "Windows" etched on it and the Xbox Kinect has "Xbox 360" etched. Not sure about the USB ports, but I have at least 2-4 of them on my Alienware, both of them are 2.0, and One is used for the mouse. I think I can still use them regardless.[/QUOTE] When I get home tonight I'll look at the kinect's I have and see if they read window or xbox on them. I honestly can't remember.

[QUOTE=surfur;47113032]When I get home tonight I'll look at the kinect's I have and see if they read window or xbox on them. I honestly can't remember.[/QUOTE] Cool. I keep hearing that either one can work ipisoft and SFM, but I really don't want to screw up on setting up for projects.