Show-Off Your SPV - Home CCTV

[Guest ormstont]

I've searched through the forums and can't find many previous mentions of this.

I was fiddling with my computer and thought I might try and install webcam software. It worked and I realised I could dump a jpg image to an ftp adress at whatever frequency I liked.

Type the address of the jpg image into the SPV favourites and you get a nice picture of whatever your webcam's looking at. The image is pretty small but it's good enough to check out what's going on in the room your webcam's in. This'd be good for home security but it's also a great thing to show off to your friends :) !

If anyone wants me to post a more detailed how to then I can do.

[Guest mattbrown]

that sounds interesting - im interested

[Guest theodotcom]

I'm interested, can u post details :)

[Guest nedge2k]

As am i. Car crime's big in my area and i get slightly worried when i go out on the lash. This sounds like the perfect solution. I can kinda imagine how this would be achieved but any chance of more details?

[Guest midnight]

err, a standard webcam + software + website can do this no probs, it isnt unique to the smartphone, just that it is possible to view webpages using PIE

[Guest nedge2k]

i realise that but i cant write html only vb and am not sure wot settings you'd have to use to optimise it for spv, givin consideration to low data trans. rate etc. I'm sure the codin would be simple enough jus not sure bout settings etc.

[Guest midnight]

just set it to full screen 176 * 180, and auto refresh rate to around 10 secs (cant see any reason for anything any quicker). At the webcam end just set a pretty high compression rate so each full screen pic is only around 10k max. It's really just a matter of playing around with the webcam software. You dont need to write any app for it, and the html source/setup should all be included with the instructions that come with the webcam+software.

[Guest nedge2k]

sweet. nice one mate.

[Guest pupton]

I have a creative labs webcam pro and use it for motion detection.

Upon detection of movement, it immediately posts a jpg image to a website. On the SPV, I can connect to the website and see the pics. The software to do this is supplied with the webcam and its very easy to set-up.

A great way of catching a thief in the act... :x

[Guest budda]

What webcam software do you recommend? I've yet to find something decent which works 100% of the time. I was using ActiveWebcam but that crashed after about 2 hours of running :x

[Guest pupton]

I run webcam32. Its kind of ok but does do the odd funny here and there...

[Guest Maverick]

You can use Microsoft Potrait as well... Just configure the potrait to accept all incoming calls.

An query, not related to this... Is there any s/w to stream an mpeg file as if its coming from a Webcam.. i.e emulate a webcam hardware so that Potrait thinks that the image is from a webcam device.

[Guest ormstont]

Yes, I know it wasn't exactly anything special but it is quite cool, I think people seem to have got the hang of it so there's no tutorial needed I don't think.

I've got a Kodak EZ200 camera (came with my Dell PC) which is meant to be a digital stills camera but is really only any good as a webcam. It didn't come with any webcam software but if you search on the internet you can find a fair few packages. I'm currently using the 'Biromsoft Webcam' software package which has fairly limited options but is sleek looking and stable and works a treat. For free software, EasyFreeWebcam isn't bad, a bit flaky at times and ad-supported but at least it's free.

[Guest gradiation]

quite an interesting idea, can't belive i didn't think of that :lol:

I know what i'll be doing at work tomorrow :D