Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: internet, video, surveillance | Themes: Digital Cameras
4. Command Center Software
Setting up the cameras was just the beginning of this process. Now, you need to install the software that brings in the video streams, records the action, and makes the video available over the Web. Run the CD that came with the camera or download it from Logitech.
The software takes you through the step-by-step installation, but you can change any of the settings later. Start by plugging the USB Receiver into an AC outlet and also into a USB slot of your main PC. This device grabs the video off of the power lines and it’s important not to plug it into a surge protector outlet strip, which can disrupt the signal. Sorry, there’s no WiLife software for Macs.
The software searches the power system for each of the cameras, which are displayed on the main software interface’s video windows. If one isn’t found, try again or move it to a different outlet.
At this point, feel free to name the cameras whatever you would like. You can also choose a color and text location for each camera within the software. After that, click to enable Auto Brightness and set it to 640x480 resolution and 15 frames per second (FPS). Later, if you find the video is choppy (due to transmitter and receiver data overload), reduce either of these settings to lower the data flow.
The cameras are set to display a little LED light that glows red when they’re recording. If all you care about is catching burglars, unclick the box for “Enable Motion LED” so that the bad guys don’t see the cameras and won’t know they’re being recorded. You also might want to hide the cams a little, like behind books on a shelf or next to a flower pot.
While the outdoor and clock cams are not adjustable, the Indoor Camera needs to be focused and aimed. It’s a little tricky because the camera and PC are in different rooms. After a little running back and forth, you’ll be able to get it working. You can later make finer adjustments using a notebook.
Finally, take a moment and adjust the power settings on your computer to keep it from going to sleep. That’s the last thing you want a computer that’s responsible for monitoring and transferring video to do. In the Control Panel’s Power Options section, you’ll find the settings to do that.
- Previous page Mounting the Cameras
- Next page Recording Setup
Zonemider FTW
While all this is certainly useful and true, there are other ways in which you can do it on more of a budget. You might also want to factor in the cost of a dedicated PC for this too since that software will probably use up a fair chunk of CPU cycles.
My security system is far more budget but nevertheless gets the job done. I've got a cheap old 17" Intel iMac with a broken screen hidden away in the garage. I then have a 10m USB extension cable (with a signal booster) going across the garage to a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro that's beet waterproofed and has been installed in my front porch. I then run Periscope (http://www.freeverse.com/apps/app/?id=7002) on the iMac and have set it set up to take a camera shot every time movement is detected and save it to disk. You can set it to email you if movement is detected if you like or to ftp the shots up to a server but an outside camera detects soooo much movement that you'd quickly fill your inbox.
As an added security measure, when I go away, I run Periscope on my desktop machine as well although this time its set up to email me if movement is detected (which is fine, since its indoors).
This set up cost me $25 for the Periscope software per machine and about $100 for the outside webcam (although they're much cheaper in the states). The usb extension cable was about $15. My desktop machine already had a webcam so I didn't need anything there and the garage machine cost me $170.
So all in all, my setup cost a little over $300. I plan on adding an extra webcam to the back of the house via another USB extension cable or via a USB over CAT5 adapter, connected to the garage machine, which would cost me roughly an added $140.
I can also stream/record the video from the webcams by splitting the signals with CamTwist and by using QuickTime Broadcaster / YouStream. The novelty of that wore off pretty fast though and I choose to save the CPU time for other more useful things.
Of course, I'm sure there are similar camera motion monitoring software packages out there for Windows and Linux so you could easily build a cheap dual core garage computer for what I paid for my one and then the other components would cost roughly the same.
This is all too much effort for the results - check out the lowest price security DVRs, I saw a four camera input for $160 - spend the money on better cameras - http://www.gadspot.com/product_inf [...] cts_id=202