Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with webcam

Basic webcam programs wanted

Naoko Kensaku — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:33:13 -0800

I just got a new webcam and the picture quality on MSN now rocks. However, when I take normal pics with dorgem, the pictures come out looking like something a VGA camera would take, rather than a clear crisp 5mp webcam. Would like suggestions for Windows webcam programs that will allow me to just take photos. Note: I don't want a webcam program with motion detection, photo booth, etc. Just a simple one-click take-this-photo program. Many thanks in advance!

Tripod-mountable webcams?

esd — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:23:21 -0800

What are my options in consumer-grade, tripod-mountable webcams? I'm currently using two Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000s mounted on tripods (with the 1/4" screws) to record a set of experiments. I'd like to add a third video camera, of comparable price and quality, and mount it on a tripod as well. Unfortunately, due to what is either a bug in Windows Media Encoder or in Logitech's driver, this third camera cannot be another QuickCam Pro 4000.

What other webcams should I consider?

Need help watching doggie daycare webcam

HotToddy — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:31:52 -0800

I want to take advantage of the webcam at doggie daycare; unfortunately, the instructions are for Internet Explorer and I'm on a Mac. Is there a way to make this work in Safari or Firefox? Details inside. I'm sorry, I'm clueless at this kind of thing, so please be gentle. Here are the instructions:

Open Internet Explorer
From the Tools menu, select Internet Options
Select the Security Tab, then highlight the Internet icon
Click on the Custom Level . . . button, which will open the Security Setting dialogue box
Scroll down to Download unsigned ActiveX controls and choose Prompt
Scroll down one more to Initialize and script ActiveX controls not makred as safe and choose Prompt
Select OK, Select OK again Go to pawstoplaylive.com

There's more, but those are the basic instructions. Thanks for your help!

How can i use my built in laptop webcam to protect my laptop from theft?

freddymetz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:08:05 -0800

How can i use my built in laptop webcam to protect my laptop from theft? My laptop has a built in webcam at the top of the screen and i would like to know how to use it to protect my laptop.
I was thinking something along the lines of it automatically taking a picture when someone logs on (or even better, while booting).

Sending stuff back to the manufacturer.... does it work?

falameufilho — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:56 -0800

Sending stuff back to the manufacturer.... does it work? I got this top of the line Logitech webcam as a gift a couple of years ago and never used it. Now the opportunity to use it presented itself, I tried to install it and... nothing. It is very likely broken. (And I have tried all sorts of things, so this is not a tech support question, don't worry about that part.)

So now I am not in the mood for going through customer support hell, so I'll probably go out and buy a much cheaper camera, because this one was way more than I needed anyway.

But I have heard about people sending broken products to the manufacturer and getting stuff sent back for free. Is it an urban legend? Has anyone tried that? Should I just put this in a box and ship it to Logitech and hope for the best?

Studry wireless internet cam needed

zaebiz — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:13:41 -0800

I want to attach a small (and waterproof) wireless camera to my mischief-seeking dog's collar and have it send images via the internet every 30 seconds so I can keep an eye on him while at work. He is restricted to an area with a maximum distance of about 200 metres from the wireless router. Ideally I could store and review every photograph over the day. How possible is all of that?

How do I geotag webcam pictures?

frijole — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:50:33 -0800

I'm driving cross country and parking a webcam on the dash. I also have a bluetooth GPS receiver. I want these two devices together to end up with a folder full of geotagged images, but my google-fu is failing to provide an easy answer. Does anyone out there know? I'm currently running OS X, 10.4.11 and 10.5.2 on the laptops that are going on the trip, 2 PowerBooks and a MacBook Air.

I have this Logitech just festering in my desk drawer; pls help.

dorothy humbird — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:43:13 -0800

I'm in the market for a non-skeezy, community-oriented webcam hosting site. I'm pretty sure I came across such a thing several weeks ago but have no idea how to go about tracking it down again. Bear with me, this might be a little vague:

What I recall of the site I stumbled across is browsing through several pages with thumbnail views of webcams, all featuring people - no backyard monitoring systems, no street views documenting traffic patterns, no chicken coops - but none evidently adult oriented. Clicking on a thumbnail brought you to that webcam's main page, which featured a video (on or offline) and a chat box (this may have been optional, but was part of at least two or three of the webcam pages I found), and also possibly a comments/guestbook field. There was no apparent requirement to register in order to use the chat boxes, and there was certainly no need to sign up to view the webcams, as I was browsing without taking any action to identify myself.

I seem to also recall that the default color scheme for the cam pages was black (this may just have been for one webcam though), and it looked pretty slick - kind of social networking site oriented. The main feel that I got from this website was that it was there to connect people to people, much like Facebook or MySpace, but with webcams.

Please help me track this, or a similar site, down! Here are a few specs I'm looking for in a webcam hosting site, even if no one can track down the exact one I dug up the other week:

- no registration required for viewers
- some attention paid to design appeal
- the more web 2.0, the better
- nobody taking their pants off. I have no interest in being a cam girl, or being treated like a potential cam girl, so the less this is a pervasive theme on the site, the better.
- it'd also be great if I had the ability to somehow make it password-protected, but I realize I may just be dreaming now.

So... I'm not dreaming this ALL up, am I?

I need streaming webcam software that supports multiple inputs and will actually stream.

jesirose — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:25:28 -0800

I need streaming webcam software that supports multiple inputs and will actually stream. So far I have tried: Coffee Cup, TinCam, VisionGS, webcam XP, and willing webcam, as well as using ustream.tv. Oh and Yawcam and one that started with a D but I can't find it now.

Out of all of those, I could not find one that would stream the video from 2 cams.

Yawcam worked great for the first cam for me - but only half of the people who looked saw it actually refreshing - using JS or the Java Applet.

ustream.tv was great but only one cam at a time.

The rest just failed monumentally. Either no image showed, I couldn't even input the sources, or they just did not work.

I don't get why this is so hard. I am not technologically impaired. I have been trying since 2 and it is now 11:30 and I don't have my cams up.

Help :(

Help me see my friends on MSN!

antifuse — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:50:17 -0800

How can I get MSN Messenger (or Windows Live Messenger, I guess it's called now) to show other peoples' webcams when I'm surfing behind an SSH tunnel proxy? Ok, so a bit more detail:

I've set up an SSH tunnel to do all my web surfing. I've also set up MSN (Windows Live) messenger to use that SSH tunnel, and it works fine for chatting, but for some reason when I try to view my friends' webcam feeds, it just fails. Any ideas on how to get this working? No, I don't have access to make changes on the SSH server.

Tell me about Internet-connected Wireless Weather Cameras?

kaydo — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:46:39 -0800

I'd like a cheap Weather cam connected to the net, but without a computer attached. I'm looking at wireless web cams. Is this the best approach? Are there other devices which might help? My parents have a holiday property with a great view, and often dodgy power supply. They have an existing broadband connection to the house, with a wireless router attached. The modem & router are connected to a surge protector and will eventually reconnect by themselves if the building power is restored. It's not ok to leave the computer up and running all the time. They're not always there, so there's really no one to intervene if anything fails.

I'd like to setup a webcam which can periodically upload a picture to a site, or at least be be web accessible somehow. They could use this to check the weather out the window of the house (visual checks only i guess), so they can decide if a trip to the beach is worthwhile.

I've seen the home security setups which take photos based on motion, and a few like this on amazon. Before I grab something, am I going about this the right way or is there a simpler solution I've overlooked?

I've searched for how other weather cams are run, but they seem a tad more complex and robust than my solution ever need be. Also, a lot of them involve more infrastructure that I'd like to connect to this sort of unreliable power. Is there any other device that could help me out with temperature etc also?

Yep, I've seen this, but it was a different goal (security).

recording live session from Vista

diode — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:18:13 -0800

I would like to know how I can capture audio/video sessions on an HP laptop with built-in webcam for playback on the same machine. Some basic editing functions would be useful to clean up a session. I need to be able to take the file and play it on my Mac as well. I'm working on a laptop for a week running Windows Vista. It's a new HP with a built-in webcam.

I need to record my voice and image so I can play the session back at will.

I will be moving to my regular workstation, an Intel Mac, so I will need to be able to open, play and edit the file there as well.

I would like to know if there's some built-in software in Vista, or some freeware I can download to do this? I would pay a shareware fee if necessary to get this functionality but using the HP is only temporary. My typical platform is the Mac so I'll need to know how to do this there as well.

Basic functionality: ability to record audio off the built-in mic and save as an mp3 or mp4 for playback. Some basic editing
functions would also be nice.

As long as I'm doing the audio, might as well do the video too. The audio is must have, video is optional but to my mind seems like that should be easy to do at the same time.

I'm thinking perhaps Quicktime Pro could do this, or perhaps one of the chat clients like Yahoo Messenger can record the webcam as an mp4. Still, be nice to have some editing functions too.

Extra functionality: video capture.

Acer Crystal Eye goes blind

divabat — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:32:36 -0800

What is going on with my Acer Crystal Eye webcam? It suddenly died and won't revive again. I have an Acer TravelMate 6291 laptop that's only a few months old, running Windows Vista (Home, 32-bit). It has an in-built Crystal Eye webcam and accompanying software, which I used regularly.

About a week ago I was using Skype when the webcam suddenly died. Yesterday I tried using it again, and I got a Camera Not Found error. After Googling and looking up Acer's help for answers (most of which applied to other laptops and were in other languages), I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers many, many times. I even tried the trick of emptying my Pictures folder.

Once in that whole mess did the webcam work again. But only once. Now, even though I have the correct drivers installed and it shows up on Device Manager, when I try to load the webcam app I get the following error messages:

HR: 80040217

followed by

Camera is busy!

And then the program shuts down.

What am I missing? Is my webcam forever buggered? I've tried updating the drivers (Suyin) via Windows but it says it's up to date.

webcam for EEE?

shotgunbooty — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:12:25 -0800

Webcam that is compatible with the Asus EEE surf? Or any webcam that will work with linux. Preferably out of box, plug in and go, with no software to install (the asus has no cd/dvd drive).

Buddy, are you rolling in pomade when i'm not around?

muscat — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:25:24 -0800

I want to see what my cats do when I'm not around... from their perspective. I know we discussed Mr. Lee and his cat-cam before... I'm wondering if I can do this with my home wifi and a battery powered webcam? Any ideas?

Asian Webcam Job

Rykey — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 14:37:56 -0800

Got a job teaching people in Asia conversational American English over my webcam. Is it legit? Anybody have any experience working for/with The Webcam Institute or a similar company?

This job would be great for my schedule and lifestyle, but I'm looking for the catch, or potential problems. It seems legit so far; I responded to the company's ad, created an account on their tutor page, and had a webcam interview which went well. I'm just waiting for the final paperwork to arrive via email, and then I can start taking calls.

The job is straightforward enough-- I log in and wait for people in Asia to call, then converse with them as long as they like through the cam (no, it's not phone sex). I am paid for the time I'm actually on a call. The job pays via PayPal, so I didn't give up any terribly sensitive information (I gave the information requested on this page, and e-mailed them my resume, but no SSN#, bank account number, or copies of my ID). I've also paid nothing (e.g., "setup" fees, etc.) to get on board.

My two main concerns are 1)I won't get the money for my work, and 2)Crafty identity thieves are using the limited information I've given toward nefarious ends.

What should I be worried about?

i gotta get digivideowebificated!

univac — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:39:08 -0800

I'm trying to get the local webcam to stream to the stage on Flash CS3 actionscript3. When I run it, I get a blank screen and no errors. Any help at all would be appreciated. Here is my code so far: import flash.system.SecurityPanel; Security.showSettings(SecurityPanel.CAMERA); var cam:Camera = Camera.getCamera(name); var vid:Video = new Video(); vid.attachCamera(cam); stage.addChild(vid); Thanks! Posted for a friend. I don't really know what any of this means.

How to shoot an 18000 frame time lapse?

Pink Fuzzy Bunny — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 11:58:59 -0800

I want to turn a 10 hour drive into a 10 minute time lapse video. I have read through the question that was asked last year on this same subject, and I need some clarification on some points.

The video I want to shoot is a continuous shot of my trip, no cuts or breaks.

From the research I have done, it sounds like the best way to archive this is to hook up a still camera to a laptop and have it capture on a timer.
I have an old Canon G1, but it cant take and transfer the shots fast enough for what I need (1 frame every 2 seconds).
I also have a Nikon d80 DSLR, but I am wondering if taking 18,000 frames in a day (10 minutes at 30 frames a second) will adversely affect the lifespan of the camera?

Another option is to buy a webcam, I noticed that the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 ships with a 2mp sensor, would this give me enough quality for later projection of the movie?

To store the shots I am thinking of having the camera hooked up to my laptop because its going to make a lot of data. Will running my laptop off a DC inverter in a moving car harm either my alternator or the laptop?

Are there any other cheap ways to do this?

Mountaing a webcam in a window

chef_boyardee — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:01:56 -0800

I need to mount a webcam so that it looks out a window... unfortunately this is not as easy as it sounds. Creative ideas? Unfortunately as you can see most webcams are designed to be placed on a flat surface and not mounted at a window. Unfortunately you can't necessarily just set the webcam on the windowsill as most windows (like mine) have a screen at the bottom that severely obscures the view. So I have to mount the webcam halfway up the window where the clear pane is.

The only decent thing I've found is to stick the webcam into an electrical box, padded with wadded paper, and jam the stud tab into the window sash crack. Unfortunately you can't reach inside to make adjustments and it's very awkward.

Yes, I do know I can remove the window screen, but this is new construction and I don't want to start tearing out the windows; we might have to use the screened window sometimes. It also doesn't solve the issue of the webcam's factory mount having only a limited range of motion.

Any ideas here on how to do this better? Has anyone been in this predicament? Improvisation is fine.

Other than an iSight, what would you buy?

Wild_Eep — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:29:25 -0800

What USB2/FireWire video camera would you get for an iBook whose owner wants to video chat? Now that Apple's iSight is out of production, and the units are selling for up to $200 at eBay, I'm looking for the 'next best thing' for a client of mine. Ideally it would perch at the top of her iBook G4 (14-inch screen, if that matters) and be completely compatible with iChat video conferencing. Their ideal budget is $50 or less, but could go higher for an especially strong contender. Connection must be USB2 or FireWire.

which web cam to get?

pipti — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:15:32 -0800

Which web cam should I get? My beloved guitar and banjo teacher moved away and we are going to try to continue lessons via web cam. Trouble is, I've never used one. I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Windows XP; he has an Apple with the built-in camera. What can I get that will be compatible? Tangential question: is this a crazy idea? Will I be able to see his fingers and hear him clearly?

Analog Video Capture to Mac Webcam

terrapin — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 06:21:24 -0800

I have a VHS-C camcorder and an eMac with USB 1.1 ports (firewire ports are broken) and I am curious if the Dazzle Video Creator Platinum will allow me to use the VHS-C camcorder as a webcam on this Mac. I used to use the same VHS-C camcorder with a Windows machine many years ago with a video capture card. I would leave the tape out and put the VHS-C camcorder in the record mode; used Webcam32 and it worked perfectly, giving me much better images of outdoor views than any Firewire or USB "webcam" I have ever found.

I don't know if the Dazzle will:

1) work with Mac.
2) allow me to stream the image from the VHS-C as I did before using EvoCam.

Does anyone have experience with this product? With a Mac?

Thanks.

Looking for webcams to use in ecology lessons.

Tehanu — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:56:37 -0800

I'm looking for existing webcams that document ecological phenomena. There are many webcams that document interesting animal behaviors, especially birds of prey and large mammals. For example: EagleCam, OwlCam, peregrine falcon cam, Bear Cam. I've had less success finding cameras that document other ecological phenomena. I'm looking for cameras that could be used in a classroom as part of an ecology lesson. Students would record data using the videos. So far, I've found TundraCam and Wildcam Africa. These cameras record a landscape at a field station and animals visiting an African watering hole, respectively. I have yet to see data collection opportunities from the TundraCam. The African camera is really the best example I've found so far. Students could record numbers of species and individuals at the watering hole at different times, for example. I'm looking for other webcams that would also be useful for teaching students about the scientific method and research process in ecology.

webcam with good macro lens

sotalia — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:09:59 -0800

Can you recommend a webcam with a decent macro lens? Ideally it would be able to capture video (for a few hours at a time) of critters that are about 1 mm long. I can't use a wireless camera because I will be placing it underwater (in custom-built housing).

Local display of webcam video in realtime, low-latency?

Alabaster — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 13:54:20 -0800

Looking for software to project realtime video from a webcam with as little latency (delay) as possible. No web streaming, just projecting closeup video of a guitar fretboard to a lecture hall filled with students. I bought a webcam from Creative, and the software is fun, but there is a noticeable delay, enough to make teaching music difficult. I can't find any option in settings to adjust this.

I'd like to find some third-party software (free or cheap is a big plus) to simply project live video to my monitor/projector as close to realtime as possible. No frills are necessary, but the following features would be helpful:

-On-the-fly rotation and zooming of the image (I would like to swivel the camera down to use as an overhead projector for documents, which would require flipping the image 180 degrees.

-The ability to freeze the image and draw on it in realtime, sportscaster-style, would be cool.

Thanks