One day I decided I would have live pictures on my weather site, a better way, for sure, to show visitors the situation. I searched for a suitable software and finally found, at download.com, a very easy working and free software, called SimpleCam, that does it all. The result is this:
Well, I decided not to use SimpleCAM for two reasons.
Most important… it doesn’t minimize to the system tray. This is very important for a computer which I share with a spouse and kids.
I also want static images and SimpleCam only does one thing… streaming.
I’m currently looking at WebCam32 as a good alternative. Right now it is uploading a small thumb and large image every 30 seconds and has all kinds of features. I really am liking it. It has streaming too and I’ll see how to set that up soon. If I get that working, I’ll cut back on upload times for static images.
Thanks for your suggestion. I am going to try it too, since I totally agree with your remarks about SimpleCam. Once I’ll have it working, I’ll come back here. Thanks.
Well, I tried SimpleCam - never got it to work
Webcam32 - couldn’t get Java (push mode) to work on all receiving computers (a major Java problem with this software),
but I did get Webcam 32 to work very well in Pull mode, which doesn’t take any Java.
BTW - Webcam 32 WILL do 640 x 480 res.
Many many many Webcam32 users are unhappy and rumor has it that they’re supposed to be coming out with a new version end of the year to fix this problem.
I promised I would be back to say something about trying Webcam 32. Well, I never got it to work like it should. However, I understand the problems referred setting up SimpleCam, because I had them too, but I think I can help you now. It’s very easy to setup, even if the help from SimpleCam author induces some errors. I can assure it works with any java version you can find. So, here we go:[/b] [color=Teal]Let’s suppose your webcam and SimpleCam are installed in a machine that has the 10.0.0.4 IP in your network and that you choose the 8000 Port for live video. When you go to Server/Setup in SimpleCam, you must introduce 8000 (Port). Don’t change anything else in setup. Go to the idex.html present in SimpleCam folders, open it and change it untill the html looks like this:[/color]
[b][color=Red]
My Webcam
My Webcam
[/b][/color]
[b][color=Teal]Now, go to the webpage html where you want to put the code for the webcam and write this:[/b][/color]
[b][color=Red]
][/b][/color]
[b][color=Teal]Just to be sure that everything is ok, go to another machine in your network (if you have a network, of course, but I think most WD users have it), open the browser and type the following adress: http://10.0.0.4:8000. You should see live video.
Also, you must have your router/firewall, etc. to let use the 8000 Port.
Here, you can see one of my webcams: http://meteoabrantes.no-ip.info.
I have been using Webcam32 for 4 years (not for weather and not for streaming - one heck of a waste of bandwidth, especially on a capped ISP). I have always found it great for my static images.
A friend has also recommended WebcamXP (for XP users!) www.webcamxp.com. I have not tried it as Webcam32 is fine for my needs, but I have seen it working. Appears to use shockwave flash rather than java and supports up to 5 cameras at one time.
Martyn
quote-
Quote from: wmayo on October 10, 2004, 08:38:31 PM Well, I tried SimpleCam - never got it to work
Webcam32 - couldn’t get Java (push mode) to work on all receiving computers (a major Java problem with this software),
but I did get Webcam 32 to work very well in Pull mode, which doesn’t take any Java.
BTW - Webcam 32 WILL do 640 x 480 res.
I have it going at http://www.weatherroanoke.com/imagepull2.html
in 640 x 480 at 5 frames/sec more or less depending on YOUR connection speed. - end of inner quote.
–It looks like pull is only giving once a second anyway…
–By the way, you can uninstall Java v1.4.2 (add/remove programs) and install v1.4.1 (http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.1_03/) and the stream works just fine.
-end main quote.
Hmmm, would you try it in Netscape? I’m finding that Netscape give a faster frame rate when viewing on the web end. Anyone else notice this?
On Java v1.4.2 - are you saying if I use the older version on the serving computer it will work on all viewing computers? Or does it still view only correctly on receiveing computers that happen to still have v1.4.2?
The serving computer’s Java version does not matter. Only the viewing computer needs v1.4.1 or below or the MS JVM. But obviously, if you have v1.4.2, you cannot view the streaming video that you are serving up (via Java anyway).
Thanks for the reply. That’s what I thought. That is why, as I called around to my office and friends only SOME of them could see the cam. That ain’t good enough.
I have been thinking about AnfyCam as another alternative (as Java push w/Webcam32). But first, I have had pretty good success with Windows Media Encoder. With it I have been able to force 5-6 frames/second at 640 x 480 - I think. (Transfer was set at 180K feed but WM9 compression is pretty good). I will set it back up soon and get some external feedback. It took some real tweaking inside the program. None of the defaults worked well.
I’m still assuming Pull or Push produces about the same frame rate with JPEG in java/javascript operation.
As I menionted above, I also have been playing with another solution to the live motion webcam thing - Windows media encoder. It works very well, though it takes a little more work.
The code I use is:
<OBJECT ID=“MediaPlayer1” width=640 height=480
classid=“CLSID:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95”
codebase=
“http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/mplayer/en/nsmp2inf.cab#Version=5,1,52,701”
standby="Loading Microsoft