Shiny new web cam (well almost new)

[Anole]

I guess it doesn't work with FF. After downloading a plug-in it worked in IE.

I thought it was just me.

Wow. Nice backyard.

I'll have a version up shortly utilizing webcamXP that will work with FF. There won't be any access to the presets but you can still pan tilt and zoom.

We literally just finished the house addtions and landscaping within the past month. The "lawn" is made up of 42 cubic yards of washed shell (the white areas most of which are out of sight of the camera), 32 cubic yards of small river rock 9the brownish areas) and 11 yards of green granite gravel (the walkways). It all got moved by shovel and wheelbarrow on weekends. All the plants, with the exception of the coconut palms are newly planted. Hopefully by this time next year things will be a bit more lush.

[Anole]

How does the camera handle multiple users attempting to control it at the same time?

It's all done with http requests so it's first come first served.

[Anole]

New official site for the webcam is:

http://weather.anolecomputer.com/webcams/

Works on everything but Safari in testing. I still have to get that figured out and i'm working on getting the still images doing what I want.

[carterlake]

Now you got me wondering how much longer before they start passing laws about these webcams.

I mean... 2 to 5 more years and we'll be panning and zooming right into the neighbor's windows (yeah, even that one house 200 yards away).

I always kidded the wife that I was going to setup the cam on a pole on the roof, pointing right into the neighbor's pool. I could start charging for access to the cam. 

[ocala]

But first they have to remove them from all the intersections. You know, the ones that catch you running a red light then mail the ticket to your house.

[Anthony]

Anole, When I visited the web cam link this morning. The bottom half of the image disapears evey time the camera does a refresh. This is happenign about every second. I don't think it's my connection, 6MB. Could be my computer or something on it?? Any way. Great picture.

[Anole]

You arent' the first to mention that. I don't see it even loking at it externally. I'm still experimenting trying to find a way that it's compatible with all browsers and still allows control. I'll try a different set up a little later today.

[capeweather]

Larry,
I had the same problem. Once I changed it to run in Flash from WebcamXP the problem was resolved. Just go to options/HTTP client type and select Flash client. That may help you out.

[Anole]

I've been experimenting with all the different client types and the only one I haven't been able to get to work is the flash one. I uploaded the flash file but things just don't want to load.

EDIT: Figured out the problem. The webcamXP.swf file was actually named webcamxp.swf. It's running on the flash version right now. Seems to be quite a bit more responsive as well.

[capeweather]

Running really smooth on my end. No more chop chop. 

[capeweather]

Tom's Cam at Carterlake is doing exactly what your cam was doing if you want to see an example. I'm not sure what he runs but he may want to consider Flash as well.

[Anthony]

Excellent. Looks a little choppy. But I think it's my piece of crap cpmputer.

[ncpilot]

I'm getting updates about every 2 seconds... IE, at work, new Lenovo T60 laptop, T1 line most likely...

Oops, take that back, now it's approx. every second... it was slower earlier this morning...

[Anole]

I'm going to reduce the resolution and see if that helps.

[NoQuitters]

Not to hijack the thread but the new cam will be here Friday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it is all that the reviews say. I'm getting this: http://www.4xem.com/products/wireless/IPCAMWLPTZ/index.html

The demo is here: http://www.4xem.com/camerademos/ if you want to test drive it. 3rd one down.

I also picked up the new Logitech 9000 web cam. By far the best usb cam I've seen hands down. It will be online tomorow in place of my current web cam. 2 megapix and auto focus from a web cam for under $100 is hard to believe but it's true.

[Anole]

Those 4xem cams look pretty nice. I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

[carterlake]

Tom's Cam at Carterlake is doing exactly what your cam was doing if you want to see an example. I'm not sure what he runs but he may want to consider Flash as well.

Really? It never does that for me... home or at work.

The problem with flash is that you immediately eliminate some folks from viewing... hum... maybe I'll have to play with the compression and see what comes up.

[capeweather]

Yes, it does it mainly during the day. Almost like half the image gets chopped off on the bottom. At night the image size is much smaller so it's not very noticeable. I ran into that issue when running my cams and just said the heck with it and started running it in flash. Maybe you could confirm with a few other forum members on here. It might be happening when multiple users are logged on fighting for bandwidth and a little down tweak of the image compression might resolve your issue.

[NoQuitters]

Well I must say I'm very impressed with the picture quality from the 9000. Much better than I expected.
Here's the link to the picture that is looking through a window that needs cleaned.

http://opweather.com/VidCap.jpg

[ncpilot]

When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

Otherwise, the image link to the jpeg does look real nice...

[Anthony]

NoQuitters, The web cam image looks great. No problem viewing it.

[NoQuitters]

When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

You might have caught it in mid upload. It changes every 5 minutes. I've had it do that to me as well. It always corrects itself on the next upload though.

On a side note, I'm going to get rid of my Logitech 4000 if anyone needs a good webcam cheap.
$35 shipped in the continental US.

[carterlake]

When I go to NoQuitters home page, and click on web cam, I only get the top 1/4 of the image on my screen. Multiple refreshes don't help... curious...

You might have caught it in mid upload. It changes every 5 minutes. I've had it do that to me as well. It always corrects itself on the next upload though.

On a side note, I'm going to get rid of my Logitech 4000 if anyone needs a good webcam cheap.
$35 shipped in the continental US.

So, that's the 9000 image?

Well, it looks good but I think you're getting about the same image as the Notebooks Pro. I wonder how it's low light looks.

[carterlake]

I wonder how it's low light looks.

  looks to be the same as the Notebooks Pro.

I'm thinking of adding a spot light to hit the pine tree and provide some light for the camera.

[carterlake]

Yes, it does it mainly during the day. Almost like half the image gets chopped off on the bottom. At night the image size is much smaller so it's not very noticeable. I ran into that issue when running my cams and just said the heck with it and started running it in flash. Maybe you could confirm with a few other forum members on here. It might be happening when multiple users are logged on fighting for bandwidth and a little down tweak of the image compression might resolve your issue.

Ok, I think I fixed the problem by adding two different refresh rates for folks... I currently have it as a popup.

What do you think? Webcam page