Reallllllly slow

[chris]

I just discovered iCAM and downloaded it to my iPhone last night, and the software for my computer. The program seems to work correctly but the frame changes are painfully slow. I haven't timed it, but it's slow enough to be impractical. Audio works better, though there is a lag of a many seconds. I'm using a Verizon wireless card for my laptop Internet connection (I'm traveling) and my iPhone is getting only 2 bars of service on Edge where I'm at right now. My Verizon signal is good, showing 3 bars on "Broadband Access."

I understand that Edge doesn't offer the best speed, but can you think of any computer settings I could check to try to improve the iCam transmission? I have a MacBook Pro, running OS X 10.4.11.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Jay]

Is the video preview in the iCamSource window (on your computer) normal speed or is it slow as well?

[chris]

The video in the source screen, on my computer, is real time. It's the iPhone image that's very slow, few frames a minute I'd say.

[Jay]

That indicates that the video capture is behaving correctly.  We have seen a couple cases where a slow video rate was cause by problems with the video capture, but that's not the case here.

Since you're using cellular data for both the phone and the computer, you've got a worst case scenario as far as network lag is concerned.  Sending both video and audio data will add to the video lag as well.  If you are more interested in the video than the audio, you may be able to improve the video lag by disabling audio in the iCam Settings page on the iPhone.

Have you tried iCam when the phone is connected to a wi-fi network? 

[chris]

I am traveling right now, and don't have access to WiFi. What I'm trying to do is to monitor my dogs when they're in our camper, for instance if I leave them for a short time. Either audio or video would probably suffice for this. I will disable the audio and give that a try. I'l let you know.

It would probably work better if I were in a 3G area, or at least had a stronger cellular signal.

Thanks,
Chris

[chris]

Haven't yet tried disabling the audio because now I'm having an apparently unrelated problem. When trying to use the iCam I am getting the following error message on the iPhone:

Broken connection error. Your network may be preventing you from making a UDP connection to the iCam Broker server. Please contact support for more details.

Chris

[chris]

UPDATE: It is suddenly working again. No error message. But do you have any idea what that was about, so I'll know what to do if it happens again?

Thanks

[Jay]

The Broker Connection Error means that your phone was not able to connect to the Broker server.  That can be caused a poor wireless signal or if your wireless provider blocks UDP communication (rare).   

The fact that the error is intermittent for you means that your provider does allow UDP, so it means you had a poor wireless signal at that particular moment.

[chris]

Thanks. I had a good signal later today, and the iCam transmission worked much better than before. I appreciate your prompt replies and support. iCam is a great program, and I'm sure I'll use it a lot.