How to put wireless image feed online?
March 28, 2011 2:05 PM

How to put the wireless video stream from a wireless birdhouse camera magically 'on the internet'?

I have a wireless birdhouse camera that streams a 2.4Ghz signal which is then picked up by a receiver that connects to the composite ports on my TV - you can see the system here.

I would like to set it up so that friends and family can access the feed online. The camera came pre-installed in the birdbox we bought, which now has a bird in it, so for the purposes of this question we can assume changing the camera is impossible.

Ideally what I would like is some sort of Magic Box that can pick up the wireless signal, connect to the internet, and place the feed online somewhere we can all access it. I have a domain I can use to host FTP images if that's relevant, which I am not sure it is.

Does such a Box of Wonder exist, and if so what is it called, and is there any specific software you recommend to help?

Sub-question: I do have an old computer knocking around that I could use to take the signal and then put it online somewhere, but I would much rather have a self-contained unit I didn't need to worry about once it was configured. But if going with the 'server' solution, as it were, what software what I be looking for to stream the feed?

Thanks!
posted by StephenF to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
You may want to check out a slingbox, which is meant to stream your cable box's output to the internet so you can pull it down later. You'd take the composite out and run it into the slingbox. This is a bit pricey, but once nesting season is done, you'd have a slingbox.

You could probably homebrew it with mythTV and a Hauppage winTV capture card, but that will be technically a bit adventurous - if you're pretty good with nerd stuff, it's definitely doable, but not packaged up.
posted by jenkinsEar at 2:10 PM on March 28, 2011


We plugged an underwater camera into an EasyCAP USB device. The USB device connects to your computer and we used Justin.tv to share it with the world. It was pretty easy. Justin.tv can run in your browser using Flash, or you can use a free program from their site to set it up unattended.
posted by advicepig at 2:23 PM on March 28, 2011


For software, you might also try Yawcam.
posted by mistikle at 7:41 PM on March 28, 2011


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