Installing A Pet-Cam

[quasimodem1_200]

Hi

Our local Humane Society/Animal shelter would like to install a pet-cam which we would then link to from our homepage. However, none of us have the technical knowledge required , so we would like to ask your assistance in getting started.

Any advice, links or product recommendations would be appreciated as long as they do not conflict with the rules of this board.

Thanks for this site and the help.

[ggross]

are you looking more towards webcams or security cams?

[quasimodem1_200]

This would be more of a webcam application. We would like as many people to see our pets which need homes, so would like to feature a different animal each week and link to it from the Humane Society site.

Thanks

Q

[cHiNgY1788]

do you want to have just one and bring animals to it
or have several monitoring the animals?

[quasimodem1_200]

Just the one, I think. Thank you!


Q

[cHiNgY1788]

oh thats easy
do you want to get an extra computer or try to use one of your own?

anyways Logitech offers nice Webcams here
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/productlist/AU/EN,crid=2203,categoryid=17
you can try electronics/computer stores(US:Radio Shack, Aust:Tandy, DickSmiths), ebay, places like WalMart(US), BigW(Aust), Target, KMart
go for brand name Cameras like logitech, Belkin, Kodac, Canon etc (probably you should find one you like then post up the model here), stay away from non branded ones

[bookermorgan]

so now i want to ask where you can host a live or semi live feed cam? i already have a cam and want to put it onto my webpage. what do i need to do?

[quasimodem1_200]

Thanks once again, my friend from Australia! We will be getting a separate computer for the cam and some other applications.

I will check out the Logitech site, as you suggested.

I have contacted some other animal shelters which feature a pet-cam, but they have not replied. The only assistance of any kind I have received has been from this site, and it is most appreciated.

I will post a link here once the cam is installed.

Thanks once again for this and any future information regarding our project.

The animals thank you as well!


Q

[cHiNgY1788]

setting up the web cam feed, you will need some type of streaming or broad casting software

this
http://www.camstreams.com/
look interesting
i havent tried it though

[oracle128]

Here's an excellent tutorial (http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly.asp?p=465446&rl=1) on setting up a Windows Media live cam feed.
This page (http://www.robertwisbey.com/how_to_web_cam_wme.html) shows you how to set one up on a web page. By combining both of those tutes, you'll get step-by-step instructions for setting up a live web cam on a web site. However, the embedded feed it will be restricted to users with Internet Explorer and Windows Media player - but other users should still be able to view the feed by manually entering the address into any internet feed-capable media player (like it shows at the end of the first tutorial) - as long as the player can decode Windows Media format. VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) can do that, and is available on all platforms. VLC also has plugins to view Windows Media feeds embedded on a web page.

You can expand your audience compatibility by also using VLC as the broadcaster, instead of Windows Media Encoder. It has the same capabilities, but it will let you output into almost any video format - your web page embedded video can then use a more generic format of video feed. The downside to using VLC though is I don't know of any tutorials for setting up streaming with it. If you can manage to take the knowledge from the Windows Media-centric tutorials and apply it to setting up a stream in VLC, you should be set. Otherwise, you can just follow the Windows Media-specific setup and advise your users to use a media player capable of viewing such streams, such as VLC (no, I don't work for VLC).

This page (http://www.adaptivemicro.com/camera/nowindows.htm) has instructions for viewing a web feed in VLC.

[quasimodem1_200]

I would like to express our sincere appreciation to oracle and cHiNgY for your assistance to the Paulding Humane Society in getting our pet-cam up and running.

We are still in the early stages of this project, but it helps immensely to be prepared with the information which y'all provided.

Thanks also to the folks who made this site possible.

All things considered, your advice is helping us take care of the animals, and that is appreciated very much.

Thanks

Q