Author Topic: View video stream online without iPhone app?  (Read 2568 times)

gotzenn

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View video stream online without iPhone app?
« on: October 23, 2010, 03:20:17 PM »
I've been using iCam for a while now on my iPhone and iPad, and I LOVE it!  It's such a great program.  But I was wondering if there's any way to access the camera feed so I can use it for other purposes?  For example, I have a lot of IP security cameras setup at my house, and I can view them either from one of the many IP camera viewer apps for iPhone & iPad, or on a custom website I've created that uses the URL (with port forwarding) for each of my cameras.  It would be so great to include my iCam sources on this system as well, and not have them exclusive to just the iPhone app.  Right now I have to check 2 different iPhone apps to view all my cameras - one for the IP cams, and iCam for the 2 iSight cameras setup on my Mac computers.

Does anyone know if there's a way to do that?  Most IP cameras have a URL for the direct feed (i.e. 192.168.1.100:80/viewcam.cgi) or something like that.  If this doesn't currently exist in iCam, could this be considered for a future version?  I realize you make all your money selling the iPhone app and not the free source program, but I'd be willing to pay for a "deluxe" edition of the source program that had that feature - simply the ability to do what iCam already does, but with a URL feed for live streaming.

I know there are other programs that offer this on a Mac, such as EvoCam or EvoLV, but I'm looking for something unobtrusive like the iCam icon in the top bar that just runs 24/7 - not a program that has to be open all the time in the foreground for it to stream.

Thanks!
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 03:22:08 PM by gotzenn »

OUAnthony

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Re: View video stream online without iPhone app?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2010, 04:36:49 PM »
iCam can view up to 12 cameras I believe (assuming you've updated to the latest version). To do this, you simply add all of your video sources into icamsource (IP cameras and/or USB cameras). If you are using USB cameras from more than one computer, then simply run icamsource on each camera...but using the same iCam username/password combination. I have icamsource running on 2 computers and can view a webcam from each, as well as an IP camera that I have added as a source on one of those computers. icamsource can run in the background on Windows (and I assume on Mac). It does need to be running 24/7 if you wish to always be able to access your cameras. I would strongly advice you, if you have multiple video sources (especially if coming from more than one computer) that you set up manual port forwarding for great system stability/consistency.

gotzenn

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Re: View video stream online without iPhone app?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2010, 06:37:45 PM »
Thanks for the response!  I know I can setup all of the cameras in iCam Source, and use it from there, but that doesn't work when I'm away from home and my computer is off or in standby.  Plus, it uses quite a lot of processor power and upstream bandwidth, even if I'm not actively viewing, so I'd rather only have iCam Source processing the internal iSight camera, and not all 6 of my cameras at once, to help save resources. My IP cameras are on 24/7 regardless of computer status (since they have their own server), so that's why I was trying to do it the other way around.
« Last Edit: October 23, 2010, 06:40:25 PM by gotzenn »

Stefan

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Re: View video stream online without iPhone app?
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2010, 08:59:37 PM »
Currently the only way to access the iCamSource's video feeds is via iCam on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad or through iCamWeb from most any modern Java-enabled web browser.

OUAnthony is correct in that you could add your IP cameras to your iCamSource as well, and monitor them all through iCam.

The downside to a raw video stream (like the 192.168.1.100:80/viewcam.cgi URL) is that you will always have to forward ports in your router to access it from outside of your network, whereas iCam connecting to the iCamSource can automatically navigate through most network configurations without any additional configuration.

I'll add that feature to our list of items to potentially implement in future versions, though. ;)

Thanks for the great feedback! :)