Can't make it to the arcade? Digitpress store webcam!

[emdkay]

Apologies if this has been posted before.. I searched and found some links to their forums, but none mentioning their webcam/store in general:

http://www.digitpress.com/store/

This is great classic (and new) gaming store in my neighboring town.. atari, genesis, lynx, neo geo, 3do, pc, systems & games - you name it.. they have tons of games still sealed!

It's usually pointed at the arcades.  Check it out tomorrow and see me on the Operation Wolf cabinet 
http://www.digitpress.com/webcam.htm

[Beretta]

thats pretty cool.. streams pertty good qualty/frame rate too.

watched for a few mins did'nt see anyone though.. check back later.

[Red]

What does one need to setup a webcam like that?  I'd like to get one to keep tabs on our 2nd home, but have no clue about how to brodcast it on the 'net.

Do I need a website or something?  Thanks.

[Beretta]

3 options.

1. setup a computer to host it from your own home connection directly.
2. setup a computer to record the webcam and stream it to a server which will then redistribute it to users/visitors.

you can also get networkable stand alone web cams.. these are pretty expensive i think around 200 bucks last i checked but no computer needed they have their own embedded http servers to view the camera.

[mvsfan]

Apologies if this has been posted before.. I searched and found some links to their forums, but none mentioning their webcam/store in general:

http://www.digitpress.com/store/

This is great classic (and new) gaming store in my neighboring town.. atari, genesis, lynx, neo geo, 3do, pc, systems & games - you name it.. they have tons of games still sealed!

It's usually pointed at the arcades.  Check it out tomorrow and see me on the Operation Wolf cabinet 
http://www.digitpress.com/webcam.htm

This reminds me of Funcoland. remember them?

Gamestop bought them up and sold off their assets like cattle.

remember when every gamestop had a seemingly endless supply of classic games?

almost all of that came from Funcoland and gamestop had no interest at all of getting in the classic games business.

that was a sad day.

[mvsfan]

also i wish i could open a store like this where i live and also survive financially.

but the market isnt big. not enough customers around to support it.

[ChadTower]

Joe is a decent guy.  I wonder if this store turned him into Gord.

[Ginsu Victim]

Gamestop came to town and all of our small classic games stores went out of business.

Now I have to drive 45min to get to a decent used store.

[Red]

3 options.

1. setup a computer to host it from your own home connection directly.
2. setup a computer to record the webcam and stream it to a server which will then redistribute it to users/visitors.

you can also get networkable stand alone web cams.. these are pretty expensive i think around 200 bucks last i checked but no computer needed they have their own embedded http servers to view the camera.

Thanks Beretta.  I think I'll go with #1.  How hard will it be to set up?  I'm kinda a novice when it comes to computers, but I did hook up a wireless internet router.

Will any web cam do, or should I buy one specific for this purpose?  And is the frame rate of the web cam determined by the web cam itself or the internet connection?

[mvsfan]

Gamestop came to town and all of our small classic games stores went out of business.

Now I have to drive 45min to get to a decent used store.

Same here. I have to drive 145 miles to find a good place in Atlanta. The only thing here i know of for game stores thats still around is EB and Gamestop.

[Malenko]

good view!

[King Nerd]

good view!

Haha, I was just about to post about her. She's a cutey.

[Beretta]

3 options.

1. setup a computer to host it from your own home connection directly.
2. setup a computer to record the webcam and stream it to a server which will then redistribute it to users/visitors.

you can also get networkable stand alone web cams.. these are pretty expensive i think around 200 bucks last i checked but no computer needed they have their own embedded http servers to view the camera.

Thanks Beretta.  I think I'll go with #1.  How hard will it be to set up?  I'm kinda a novice when it comes to computers, but I did hook up a wireless internet router.

Will any web cam do, or should I buy one specific for this purpose?  And is the frame rate of the web cam determined by the web cam itself or the internet connection?

i've never setup one for video, only snap shots due to bandwidth issues, also it's easier to deal with jpeg's then streaming video, but check google or sourceforge, I KNOW there are freeware and open source solutions for this but specific names escape me atm.. some web cam software even has this as a option.. or to upload snap shots every so often to a ftp server.. not streamed but thats a way to go as well if bandwidth is a issue.

this site looks like it might be good, it's suppose to be free and they have their own software, it's for "non adult" use.
http://www.camstreams.com/
i've never tried to my self.

frame rate is determined by..

1. the cameras specs.. very low budget web cams say under 20 bucks might not be able to get a full 30 fps out of, although it's not always a case of you get what you pay for.
typically you wont run your web cam at 30 fps anyway the bandwidth for that kinda feed would be pretty steep... if running from your home connection you probably dont have more then say mbit upstream, thats 128kbytes /sec.. your connection could very well be less then that (this is outgoing speed, most people have asymmetrical connections so download speeds are higher.. since people download (incoming data stream) most then they send out)

2. your connection option.. even if you have a high end web cam if you're using a older computer with usb1.1 for example you'll be limited as how fast you can capture you'll hae a lot of dropped frames, you'ed probably run your web cam at say 5fps in which case it's not a problem even with a older computer.

3. the computers cpu, depending on what kind of codec (compression) you're putting on the video the computers cpu has to beable to encode it in REAL time, this means if you are encoding for example in WMV (windows media video) at 30 fps, the cpu has to be able to actually encode 30 fps other wise you'll get lag.. again this probably is'nt a problem since you'll most likely be capturing at less then 10 fps, the size of the capture video also plays a role in how much cpu power and bandwidth you need for real time streaming.. (320x240 vs 640x480vs 800x600 capture size)

4. visitors, how many people are watching your web cam at a time? 1 person watching might not be a issue, maybe not even 2, but if you have 3,4,5+ people watching at the same time the bandwidth for video streaming can pile up rather quickly even at low frame rates, this is where option #2 comes in, stream to a server which can then relay to your visitors of course hosted servers cost money though.

if bandwidth is a issue for you on your home connection consider using snap shots.. a lot of web cam software comes with a option to upload snap shots every XXXX mins/secs to a ftp server, which is often in the same path of a http (web) server which can then be manipulated with php or cgi scripts for visitors to view..

uploading a jpeg every 15-60 seconds is a lot easier on bandwidth, of course it's not as nice as full motion video or audio.

[Red]

Awesome!  Thanks for all the info., Beretta.  Much appreciated. 

Red

[thecheat]

Here's what I do for my surveillance setup. I won't give any options because this is the cheapest you can go without compromising quality and reliability. You can "plus up" the components but I wouldn't advise going down any.

You will need a decent computer with at least a 500 gig hard drive, that ought to allow you to record 4 cameras at once and archive 3-4 weeks of video. Make sure it's running XP if possible.

You will need an AverMedia NV3000 capture card, which includes software. $117 from Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16881127001

You will need cameras. These are about $100 each. The major difference is indoor vs outdoor, number of LEDs for the IR nightvision, and, the focal angle of the lens. I always like wide lenses on my cams, 5mm is equivalent to normal eyesight, lower than that is wide angle, higher is telephoto. Better outdoor cameras have glass windows instead of plastic and o-ring seals. Make sure they come with the power supplies.

You will need cables. The easiest thing to do is buy pre-made cables that have the BNC connectors AND have a 2nd wire running power to the camera. They come in lengths up to about 100 ft. Test your cables before you run them

That's pretty much it. The software that comes with the NV3000 is pretty full featured. It has a lot of options for motion detection, framerates, it has a great webviewer (as long as you have Internet Explorer on a PC), and does a pretty darn good job of not crashing.

I'm running that same setup and it has been up constantly without any problems. With my P4 2.8ghz and a 280 gig HD, I can record for a month with 4 cameras, 320x240 resolution, at 10fps. If you need more cards, you can buy additional NV3000 cards and have up to 16 cameras but you need a pretty fast CPU since it doesn't do much hardware encoding.  They sell the NV5000 which is the same 4 inputsx4 cards but does hardware compressing and can do 30fps in 720x480.

[Red]

Thanks for your input, thecheat.  Much appreciated.

Red