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System Calculator
PySoft's Active Webcam Program
This Program has a Free Version
Download Free Trial
Question:
Why the WebCam screen is
black?
Answer:
Make sure that your
camera is turned on and properly connected. Also, try running other
video applications to see if it is a problem with the camera. If so,
contact the technical support of your camera vendor.
Question:
WebCam screen is black but
program, which came with camera, works. What is wrong?
Answer:
Check to ensure that your
camera is Video for Windows™ compliant.
Question:
How can I make video screen
brighter?
Answer:
Click Camera Settings
from the Options menu. In the Camera Settings dialog box,
change the brightness by clicking the Source button. For capture
devices that do not provide a Video Source dialog box, the setting is
probably in the Video Format dialog box.
Question:
How do I upload captured
images?
Answer:
If you select Publishing
Method - FTP upload, the program automatically connects to your
FTP server and uploads captured images.
See Upload to FTP server
to get more info...
Question:
What does the Motion
Sensitivity control do?
Answer:
This control determines
what level of movement is required to trigger a motion action
performing. The large value of sensitivity causes that the smaller
changes in the image can start a motion action. Lover values decrease
sensitivity, which result in more or larger changes without motion
action performing.
Question:
Does the program needs a fixed
connection?
Answer:
No. Active WebCam can use
dial-up networking to automatically connect only when needed.
Question:
I'm AOL user. May I run WebCam
on my AOL page?
Answer:
Only if you're using AOL
software for dial-up connections. Specific instructions can be found at
ftp://members.aol.com/usersFAQ.txt.
Question:
Visitors of my Web page can
only see 1-2 frames per minute. What the reason?
Answer:
Probably this is because
of the narrow bandwidth of your or the visitor's network connection. Try
to reduce the Image Quality and Publishing Frame Rate in
the Internet Settings dialog box.
Question:
Visitors of my Web page see
the Off Line notification.
Answer:
If your Active WebCam is
online and you have typed the right Internet address to the browser, it
may be that your service provider's firewall doesn't allow access to any
server programs running on the port you have specified in the Publishing
Method tab.
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Question:
The program stops broadcasting
after a long period of computer inactivity. What is wrong?
Answer:
This behavior can occur
if Advanced Power Management is enabled on the computer.
To work around this
issue, turn off Advanced Power Management before you start the program.
To do this, use the appropriate method for your operating system.
Microsoft Windows 95
To turn off Advanced
Power Management:
- Click Start, point to
Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- On the Power tab, click
to clear the Allow Windows to manage power use on this computer check
box.
- Click the Disk Drives
tab.
- Click to clear the When
Powered By AC Power check box.
- Click OK, and then close
Control Panel.
Microsoft Windows 98,
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), or Microsoft Windows 2000
To turn off Advanced
Power Management:
- Click Start, point to
Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Double-click Power
Management or Power Options.
- On the Power Schemes
tab, click Always On under Power schemes.
- In the Turn off monitor
box, click Never.
- In the Turn off hard
disks box (if available), click Never.
- Click OK, and then close
Control Panel.
Question:
Captured image looks grainy or
lacking color resolution.
Answer:
Make sure your system is
set to display 24-bit or 32-bit color. 16-bit color is acceptable,
although images won't show their true 24-bit color depth. 16-color
(4-bit) and 256-color (8-bit) modes are unacceptable for image viewing
and are not recommended.
To change color mode:
- Click Start, point to
Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- Select Settings and
change color depth.
Question:
I'm using firewall. Does the
program work with firewall?
Answer:
If you are using a
firewall then you need to add an entry in to the allowed programs
list/section to allow Active WebCam to connect to the Internet and
upload captured images. If you are having problems uploading, then turn
off the firewall and then try again, if the upload works, then you know
that your firewall is blocking the connection some how. Read the
firewalls documentation about adding a program to the allowed list.
Question:
Is there a way to
incrementally name the image files, so that they can be saved as a series?
Answer:
The program can create
archive of captured images. It can save an incrementally named copy of
captured image in the "images" sub folder.
See the Creating
archive of captured images help topic for more info.
Question:
Can the program broadcast a
video, stored on my web site?
Answer:
The program can upload
recorded video files to FTP server, or copy to the HTTP server folder
(if HTTP server is used for broadcasting).
See the Broadcasting
Recorded Video help topic for more info.
Question:
I want to be able to set a
limit on viewers, I also want to see their IP#.
Answer:
Number of WebCam viewers
can be limited from the Internet Settings dialog box.
See the Configure
WebCam HTTP Server help topic for more info.
To cause program to log
viewers's IP addresses, click to select Log HTTP viewers to the "HTTP_Log.txt"
file from the Program Options dialog box.
Question:
When I try to play recorded
video the movie is faster (2 or 3 times faster). Is there any solution to
fix this problem?
Answer:
Probably the processor's
speed is not enough to write video with selected frame rate. Try to use
another video compression or reduce frame rate.
See the Recording live
video help topic for more info.
Question:
Is possible to run more than
one camera with the program?
Answer:
You can use simultaneous
broadcastings from all cameras or single broadcasting with camera
rotating. To broadcast from multiple devices simultaneously you need to
create Camera Window for each camera. Every Camera Window has to have
unique broadcasting port. See more info at the Creating New Camera
topic.
If you want to use camera
rotating, you need to create one Camera Window and enable Camera Cycler.
See more info at the Cycle through cameras topic.
Question:
My pocket computer shows me
"Your browser isn't running the applet, for some reason". How to use the
program on PDA?
Answer:
Some pocket computers
don't support java applets. You can use still images method to show web
camera on your web page.
See the Displaying
Still Images on Web Page help topic for more info.
Question:
Sometimes my connection at
home to my provider fails and then my computer gets a new IP address… and
there’s the problem, when I’m somewhere else I cannot see what the new IP
address is and then I cannot look at my Webcam anymore. How can I deal
with this problem?
Answer:
To get rid of this
problem you can use Dynamic IP Service, which gives your surveillance
system a permanent address on the internet. A special web address is
reserved for you once you sign up for PY Software Dynamic IP service.
This web address is based on a User ID, which you receive after signing
up. For example, if your User ID is billsmith, the Internet address of
your surveillance computer is http://my.activewebcam.com/cgi-bin/ip.cgi?billsmith.
Therefore, you can access your surveillance system easily.
You can sign-up for this
service at:
http://www.pysoft.com/WebServices.htm
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Question:
When I broadcast from my PC I
open the web page and see my broadcast only through my LAN, but on any
other machine from Internet it will not connect. How to correct this
problem.
Answer:
- If your network uses
firewall, make sure the port the program is streaming through and IP
address of your computer must be open on the firewall.
- Make sure that the
address of your computer was written correctly. The URL for connecting
to your web camera is http://IPaddress:portnumber. Where
IPaddress is external address of your computer. You can get to know
this address from the "Tools" | "Get Computer IP address" menu. The
portnumber is the value, which is specified in the "Camera Settings"
| "Broadcasting" | "HTTP Server" | "Port".
- If external IP address
changes constantly, there is no warranty that your viewers can watch
your camera all the time. To get rid of this problem you can use Dynamic
IP Service, which gives your web camera a permanent address on the
internet. Activate the service from the "Tools" | "Dynamic IP Service"
menu.
- Also please use the "Testing
accessibility from Internet" command from the "Tools" menu to
find out the reason why your computer is not accessible from Internet.
Question:
How do I get rid of your
advertisement on the webcam page?
Answer:
You can remove the PY
Software advertisement if you add the BORDER parameter in the APPLET tag
on your Web Page. If value is "ON" applet draws frame around image. If
value is "OFF", applet just displays the captured image. Open your Web
page in Notepad and add the following string before </APPLET> tag:
<PARAM
NAME="BORDER" VALUE="OFF">
Question:
Every time we start webcam
there are errors: "not supported DIB format. Operation continues
successfully". Can you inform us what 'DIB format' means?
Answer:
The 'DIB format' means
the format of image captured from camera. This message means the program
could not decode captured image. If the program receives this message,
it uses another method of image capturing and continues working
successfully.
Question:
I have cable internet that can
get up to 150kb a second but the movie from my camera is moving very
slowly, why?
Answer:
Sometimes cable internet
providers reduce bandwidth for outgoing traffic. Mostly the upload
bandwidth is 10 - 15KBps, that means you can broadcast 2-3 fps only. Ask
your ISP about the outgoing bandwidth increasing.
Question:
How to broadcast through
LinkSys router?
Answer:
- Connect to the router
through web browser.
- Select "Advanced" and
select "Filters".
- Select the "Forwarding"
tab.
- Set the broadcasting
port in the "Service Port Range".
- Select the protocol:
"Both".
- Set the IP Address of
your computer in the IP Address box.
- Now your router will
forward all client requests to the specified port on your computer.
Question:
How to broadcast through
D-Link router?
Answer:
- Connect to the router
through web browser.
- Select the "Virtual
Server" tab.
- Enter the broadcasting
port in the "Service Ports".
- Set the IP Address of
your computer in the "Server IP" box.
- Check the "Enable" box
and click "Apply".
- Now your router will
forward all client requests to the specified port on your computer.
Question:
How to broadcast through SMC
router?
Answer:
- Connect to the router
through web browser.
- Select the "Virtual
Server" page.
- Set the IP Address of
your computer in the "Private IP" box.
- Enter the broadcasting
port in the "Private Port".
- If you broadcast using
the Remote Access method, select the UDP type. If you broadcast using
the HTTP Server, select the TCP type.
- Now your router will
forward all client requests to the specified port on your computer.
Question:
How to broadcast through
Microsoft router?
Answer:
- You need to configure
persistent port forwarding on the Microsoft router.
- Connect to the router
through web browser to open the Base Station Management Tool.
- On the Security menu,
click "Port Forwarding", and then click "Set up persistent port
forwarding".
- In the "Description"
box, type a description of the server field. (This step is optional.)
- In the "Inbound port"
box, type the broadcasting port.
- In the "Type" box,
select the protocol (UDP or TCP) for the port. If you broadcast using
the Remote Access method, select the UDP type. If you broadcast using
the HTTP Server, select the TCP type.
- In the "Private IP
address" box, type the IP Address of your computer.
- In the "Private port"
box, type the broadcasting port.
- Now your router will
forward all client requests to the specified port on your computer.
Question:
I can not run the webcam on my
computer, it says that "Your browser isn't running the <APPLET> tag, for
some reason". What's wrong?
Answer:
If your web page is
configured to playback captured images using Java applet, the viewer's
computers must have installed Java engine. Unfortunately not all
computers have pre installed Java engine, and not all Web Browsers
support Java Applets. If your computer doesn't have Java Engine, you can
install all necessary updates at:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
If there is no way to
install Java Engine on the viewer's PC, you can configure your web page
to show captured video as a still image. In this case the viewer's PC
doesn't need any special technologies like Java Engine and this method
works with any Web browser, but frame rate cannot be higher than 1 frame
per second. Please refer to the Creating Web Page topic in the
Help file to get more information.
Question:
My webpage keeps flashing "Off
Line" for one second, then shows my cam for 5 seconds, then shows "Of
Line" again. What's causing this?
Answer:
The program displays "Off
Line" color bars when it didn't receive 5 frames in a row. Probably the
frame rate is high for this bandwidth and viewer's computer doesn't
receive all frames. Try to reduce frame rate according bandwidth.
Question:
I'm using Active Webcam and
set the Motion Detection to "Record a Video". A little box says Duration
which I set to 60sec. However the recording does not stop at 60s, it
records forever. Is this a bug?
Answer:
If there was a motion
during the recording time, the program continues recording. The
recording stops if there was no motion during the Duration period.
Question:
I want to record automatically
all motion in a single file every day till maximum file size is reached.
Is it possible?
Answer:
To have all motion events
to be written to one file:
- In the "Recording" tab
of "Camera Settings" box set the low recording frame rate, for example 1
frame per minute.
- In the "Recording" tab
select the "Recording activates manualy, by sheduler, or by motion".
- Select "Motion detection
active all the time".
- Click to select the
"Change Settings" check box.
- In the "Motion" tab, set
the "Recording Frame Rate" to higher frame rate, for example 10 frames
per second.
- In the "Set Settings
back after:" box, specify the motion duration, for example 10 seconds.
That when this time passes the program goes back to the ordinary
settings.
- In the "Motion" tab,
make the "Record Video Clip" check box disabled.
- Start the recording by
the "Record Video Clip" command or by Scheduler.
Now, the recording is
performed with low frame rate all the time, but when motion is detected
the frame rate is speeding up to 10 frames per second and drops again to
one frame per minute after 10 seconds.
Question:
How to setup the program to
record each camera to its own file on hard drive and create new file for
each day?
Answer:
You can program this task
using scheduler.
In the "Recording" tab
select the "Recording activates manualy, by sheduler, or by motion".
Click "Scheduler" from
the "Tools" menu. Select "Enable Scheduler" and click the "Add
Scheduler" button. In the new schedule select "All Cameras", "All Days"
and set the "Work Period" from 12:00:00 AM to 11:59:00 PM. Select
"Recording". The new schedule task will create new file at midnight,
write to it during the day and close this file before midnight.
Question:
How to have the files
incremented by one like camera001.JPG then camera002.JPG, etc. uploaded to
our web server?
Answer:
To produce incremented
snapshots click to select the "Archive of Snapshots" check box in the
"Recording" tab in the "Camera Settings" window. Click the "Archive of
Snapshots Settings" button and specify the file name as: "camera{COUNTER}.JPG".
Click to select the "Upload Snapshots" check box to cause the program to
upload snapshots to the FTP server. Click the "FTP Settings" button to
set up FTP parameters. See more info about the archive of snapshots
creation in the "Archive of Snapshots" topic.
Question:
How to configure the program
to upload motion detection images with integrated time stamp in its name?
Answer:
To upload time stamped
images click to select the "Create Snapshots" check box in the "Motion
Detection" window, click the "Additional Settings" button, and in the
"File Name" box enter something like: "Snapshot{hh`nn`ss}".
Question:
How to reduce the CPU usage?
Answer:
To reduce CPU usage:
- Set lover value in the
Preview Frame Rate;
- Set lover value in the
Recording Frame Rate;
- Make the Live Recording
disabled;
- Configure camera to
produce smaller images;
- Make the Motion
Detection disabled.
- If camera is network IP
camera select the "Don't alter image received from camera" option in the
"Compression" tab.
Question:
What computer I would need to
run 6 cameras?
Answer:
According to our
statistics one 320x240 frame takes about 100 Mhz of CPU. This 100 Mhz
are spending on taking image from camera, converting the image to BMP
format, detecting motion, and drawing time stamp on it, after this
converting image to JPEG image, writing it to the file and broadcast it
to remote viewers. That if we want process video from one camera with 5
fps - we need a 500 Mhz computer. If you want to record 5 fps video from
6 cameras you need a computer with 3Ghz processor. You can calculate the
hard drive size and CPU speed of required computer at:
http://www.pysoft.com/SysCalc.htm
Question:
How to setup that email will
be sent when motion is detected between 5:00 pm to 7:00 am everyday?
Answer:
Please do the following:
- Open the "Camera
Settings" window and select "Motion" tab.
- Select "Motion detection
is not active (activates by scheduler)".
- Configure motion
detection to send email alerts.
- Click Ok in the "Camera
Settings" window to save motion settings.
- Click "Scheduler" from
the "Tools" menu. Select "Enable Scheduler" and click the "Add
Scheduler" button. In the new schedule select "All Cameras", "All Days"
and set the "Work Period" from 5:00:00 PM to 7:00:00 PM. Select the the
"Detecting Motion" action.
Question:
I have a PICO2000 card but the
program does not see the card. What do I need to do?
Answer:
We have tested the
program with a freeware driver that works with all capture cards based
on CONEXANT 878a chip. Please follow the following steps to properly
install and configure your capture card: *
First of all, please
download the following software:
- Also you can download a
zip file
which contains files required to install driver by hand if installer did
not work.
FALL BACK TO A CLEAN
SYSTEM STATE
- First, let's get your
system back to the state it was in before you started messing with
things. Whether you are currently using the PICO Star Imavision driver,
the btwincap driver, or some other Bt8x8 driver, you need to make every
last remnant of these drivers go away. Let's try the following:
- Begin by uninstalling
any/all third party surveillance software
- Uninstall the current
driver from your control panel hardware tree (you've probably got an
audio driver and a video driver. Uninstall both of them).
- Run the btwincap
installation utility, Btinstaller.exe
- When prompted, select
the UN-install option, the installation utility will search your system
for any Bt8x8 drivers and delete them.
INSTALL THE BTWINCAP
DRIVER
Now it's time to properly
install and configure the btwincap driver so that it will work with your
capture card.
- Run the btwincap
installation utility, Btinstaller.exe
- Select the install
option this time around.
- Select Custom Card when
asked for a card type.
- Reboot and verify that
the following two items show as correctly installed in your control
panel hardware tree (i.e. no exclamation points next to either):
To verify that your
drivers actually work, run
amcap.exe.
Verify that you can see all four camera inputs, one at a time, using
this utility. Note that you cannot view more than one camera at a time
with the application.
NEXT STEPS TO GET ACTIVE
WEBCAM WORKING
- Select Capture Method -
"Direct Show".
- Choose "Conexant's BT
PCI Capture" as Video Device.
To capture video from
another video source on the same card:
- Select Capture Method -
"Direct Show".
- Choose "Conexant's BT
PCI Capture" as Video Device.
- You should now see a
second drop down box "Video Source" that shows different camera inputs
to choose from.
* By courtesy of Andy
ejtagle@tutopia.com
Question:
The program is running as
service, how to open it to make changes?
Answer:
The service process is
running in other name space that it has own settings and should be
configured independently. If you have run the program as ordinary
program and change its settings (for example you configure scheduler),
the service will not access these settings, it reads owns (that it has
own scheduler configureation). To configure the started as service
program, run Active WebCam again (on the Window's Start menu, click
Programs, then PY Software, then Active WebCam) and the service, which
probably is hidden, will be activated.
Question:
What is recommended hardware
configuration and hard disk required for one month recording from 5
cameras?
Answer:
You can calculate the
hard drive size, CPU speed of required computer, and bandwidth required
to watch cameras remotely at:
http://www.pysoft.com/SysCalc.htm
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Question:
Remote Access to my camera
through Internet doesn't work. What's wrong?
Answer:
The remote access needs
that both computers are accessible by UDP protocol from Internet. That
means the routers on both sites must forward UDP traffic on those
computers. Please refer to the "router configuration" section in the
frequently asked questions.
Question:
I am using PICO2000 capture
card and sometimes frame from one camera appearing on another camera
momentarily. Is there an adjustment for this in the program?
Answer:
To get rid from the
frames crossover please increase value in the "Drop the first" edit box
in the "Device" tab in the "Camera Settings" window.
Question:
When I have the "Use
authorization" checked and when I access the website the authorization
window only comes up the first time after which it does not ask for
authorization again. Is there something that can be changed to not allow
this to happen?
Answer:
The program remembers
viewers' IP addresses that viewers need to enter password just one time
per session, however if you want the program to prompt for login when
viewers reconnect to camera, please enable a parameter called
"Disconnect viewer after NN seconds of inactivity" in the "HTTP server
additional settings" window.
Question:
Is it possible at the end of
the day produce an mpeg file?
Answer:
To produce mpeg file at
the end of the day, you need to configure scheduler that it will start a
recording in the morning and stop recording at the end of the day. To
have MPEG file, the MPEG file format must be selected in the "Recording"
tab in the "Camera Settings" window.
Question:
I cannot view my camera from
Internet; my router blocks any access to my computer.
Answer:
If your network doesn't
allow accessing your camera outside, you can configure Active WebCam to
stream video feed to the PY Software server and watch your camera from
the PY Software web site. This method doesn't require that the streaming
computer is accessibly from Internet, and, because PY Software web
server has broadband connection, this method provides high frame-rate
broadcasting to the unlimited auditory. To activate Web Streaming:
Sign up for PY Software
account. Click "PY Software Web Services" from the "Options" menu.
Click the "Sign Up for
Free Trial Account" button to try this service for free during 30 days.
Click the "Sign Up for
Permanent Account" button to sign up for this service for a long period
of time.
Click "Broadcast
Settings" from the "Settings" menu.
Click to select the
"Stream to Web server" check box to activate video streaming.
To watch your camera,
type the
http://<loginname>.web2cam.com
address in your internet
browser.
Question:
Would it be possible to change
the software name to my company name?
Answer:
We're preparing a
customized version for partners who made purchases for US $2000 (142
deluxe licenses) or more. We do the following customizations in the
program:
Changing images to your
own images in the "Welcome" and "About" windows.
Changing program's icon.
Changing program's name.
Changing company name.
Changing links from the
program to your web site.
The customization
performs during 10 working days.
Unfortunately we don't
perform localization on your language by self but we can send you a text
file with the program messages which you translate and send back to us.
Question:
What is required to record my
CTTV cameras?
Answer:
You need a capture card
which has to be installed into your computer. This card has BNC
connectors to connect cameras and it is performing digitalization of
video which comes from cameras. We provide top of the line, leading edge
capture cards. Please point your Internet browser at:
http://www.argussurveillance.com/index.php?cPath=24
where you will find
capture cards tested with our software.
Question:
Program does not remember the
camera setting using Microsoft WDM image capture.
Answer:
The problem is the
Microsoft WDM driver doesn't provide ability to read its settings by
third party software. Because Active WebCam cannot obtain the driver's
settings it cannot remember them. The solution is to select "Direct
Show" capture method in the "Device" tab.
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