Anyone here using 4 webcams with icam source on one PC?

[SeanJ]

I've used icam for many years and love it, I have it looking after a workshop and my home when necessary. I run it on XP on two 3GHZ dual core PC's, both with 2gig ram. I came to the conclusion long ago that 2 cams on a single machine was my limit before any freezes or other probs started to creep in (for whatever reason). Currently I'm running 1 webcam per machine to ensure no blips but was thinking of upgrading to a more powerful PC to host (hopefully) 4 cams, so I wondered if anyone here runs 4 cams without many niggles? 

 If anyone is running 4 on a dedicated PC i'd be interested to know what spec PC copes with this OK.

thanks. Sean

[OUAnthony]

I haven't tried it, but if you try it, I think your best bet would be to use non-HD webcams (preferably 640x480). Any resolution larger than that will significantly increase the CPU % required because the images will be to be resized before being sent to iCam. I use 4 IP cameras with my system, and have no problems, especially since the images are 640x480 and I have the frame rate set to 5fps. Another downside to webcams is that you can't change the fps.

I know it doesn't answer your question, but hopefully it will help guide you in case nobody else responds. If you build a new computer and it can't handle 4 USB cameras, you can look into IP cameras.

[rjgvt]

I run 6 cams on a dedicated Windows 7 Pro desktop computer at my home location: 2 Logitech Webcam Pro 9000's and 4 Airlink IP Cams. Three of the IP cams are at a remote location. I use 2 host domains from Dyndns to keep the internet IP addresses up to date so everything is seamless. Once every 2 or 3 weeks, I stop Icamsource on the desktop and clean the UPnP on the router at my home location because we access WiFi with 6 devices and it stacks up. This eventually causes a UPnP issue when restarting Icamsource.

The IP cams are set to 5 fps. Routers at both locations are Netgear N300 WNR2000v2. Home internet is Comcast Cable. Remote location internet is Fairpoint DSL. I bridged the modem/router so it is only a modem and I can use a Netgear router. I would run more than 3 cams at the remote location, but my DSL is weak due to the distance from town.

Computer specs:

HP Compaq DC7800 Desktop PC
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz
4G Ram
80G Hard Drive
Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

I only have a few programs on this computer: Icamsource, Dropbox and an antivirus program. The two webcams are connected to this computer. I bought this computer refurbished from Newegg for $200. It came with a mouse and keyboard, no monitor and a limited 1 year warranty for parts/labor. Windows 7 Pro lets me remote into it in case I need to restart Icamsource or log in to the computer if power glitches. etc. I can see the computer from my work laptop. I also use my smartphone with Remote RDP app to log in the computer. I was out of the country last week and was able to log in and restart Icamsource.

I know this is more info than you requested, but my setup works well for me and everything I learned over the last few years might help someone else.

[SeanJ]

@ouantony

hi again, nice to hear from you, you've helped me so much in the past on here. That's a good point about not using HD cams, i use logitech 900's so if I do go to 4 cams soon it would make sense to go for low res and low frame rate in regard to CPU use. thanks for that.

@rgvt

wow that's a wealth of info, many thanks, you echo some of the above in regard to frame rate and ip cams. I won't reference anything in particular you've set out as there is so much there to get info from, thanks again.

that's a real help guys to me and anyone else whose interested. Cheers.  Sean J