any hope for internet surveillance camera software

[patapoof]

I have surveillance cameras in 2 homes and would love to be able to see the cameras through the web enabled dvrs as I do on my android tablets or windows desktop ...is there no hope for this to make my beloved pre3 perfect ??

[ArchonAdvisors]

Originally Posted by patapoof

I have surveillance cameras in 2 homes and would love to be able to see the cameras through the web enabled dvrs as I do on my android tablets or windows desktop ...is there no hope for this to make my beloved pre3 perfect ??

Depending on your camera, you may be able to at least view them without any additional software. What kind of cameras (brands/models) do you use?

If you have a camera that outputs in H.264 format, then webOS can play that natively. If the camera only outputs in MJPG format, it is still possible to get a feed to your webOS device with a more elaborate workaround. (On a side note, using any pan/tilt/zoom functions of a camera is a different matter altogether which I wont get into right now.)

The main thing you will need first is what is called the "direct stream URL" or "videostream URL" for each camera. This is often provided in the manual or online support for security cameras. If you have trouble finding it, see if your brand has its own forum and ask there too. It's a pretty common question so it should be easy to find. Once you have that info I can help you further.

I've been thinking about writing more detail about some things I've put together on this topic when I get a chance, perhaps in a separate thread or how-to.

[geekpeter]

Anyone interested in a IP Security camera viewer app?

end page set of posts on that thread mentioned various problems with many devices "doing their own thing" making it hard to support a multitude of devices, someone in those posts does mention using a PC as a medium to stream to their touchpad (and maybe pre3, it streams just as well and supports more i think, as i can stream TV programs on the pre3 that the touchpad refuses to play).

[ArchonAdvisors]

Originally Posted by geekpeter

Anyone interested in a IP Security camera viewer app?

end page set of posts on that thread mentioned various problems with many devices "doing their own thing" making it hard to support a multitude of devices, someone in those posts does mention using a PC as a medium to stream to their touchpad (and maybe pre3, it streams just as well and supports more i think, as i can stream TV programs on the pre3 that the touchpad refuses to play).

Thanks GP. If the OP is mainly interested in viewing the video, it isn't too hard. When a camera provides a direct stream URL for the camera feed, that can be used to bypass everything else and the solution is generally the same. (When it comes to Pan/Tilt/Zoom ("PTZ") functions, however, the solution would typically have to be device specific.)

Originally Posted by geekpeter

someone in those posts does mention using a PC as a medium to stream to their touchpad (and maybe pre3, it streams just as well and supports more i think, as i can stream TV programs on the pre3 that the touchpad refuses to play).

The post mentioning a PC as a medium was referring to using the Splashtop remote desktop viewing app to then use a Windows desktop web browser to view a camera. While that works, it's a bit kludgy, especially just for feed viewing. That method also restricts you to viewing the camera on one webOS device at a time.

If a camera supports h.264, it may stream directly to a webOS device with a little tweaking. If it only supports MJPG, an intermediary PC can be used, but I've come up with a cross-platform solution that runs in the background on the PC and does not require any commercial software either on the PC or the webOS device. Only a free open-source program is needed on the PC end. Looks like a how-to post on that is now in order sooner than later if people are interested.

*Update: I've started a couple how-to's relating to this. The first one is linked below:

How to: MP4/h.264 IP Camera Streaming to webOS devices

[johncc]

^I would be interested.

[dkirker]

I was working on Cisco support in HomeControl. There should be discussion about it on these boards.

It works. I just shelved my contributions for the time being. Will probably work on it again later.

[patapoof]

Originally Posted by ArchonAdvisors

Thanks GP. If the OP is mainly interested in viewing the video, it isn't too hard. When a camera provides a direct stream URL for the camera feed, that can be used to bypass everything else and the solution is generally the same. (When it comes to Pan/Tilt/Zoom ("PTZ") functions, however, the solution would typically have to be device specific.)



The post mentioning a PC as a medium was referring to using the Splashtop remote desktop viewing app to then use a Windows desktop web browser to view a camera. While that works, it's a bit kludgy, especially just for feed viewing. That method also restricts you to viewing the camera on one webOS device at a time.

If a camera supports h.264, it may stream directly to a webOS device with a little tweaking. If it only supports MJPG, an intermediary PC can be used, but I've produced a cross-platform solution that runs in the background on the PC and does not require any commercial software either on the PC or the webOS device. Only a free open-source program is needed on the PC end. Looks like a how-to post on that is now in order sooner than later if people are interested.

sadly, very little ...

the cameras ave viewable by 2 free apps on android tablets:

app #1 = gDMSS HD Lite
app #2 = DWVMax

both are on the google play for free...

both have a display and management screen to view live and to view recorded history transited via web enabled dedicated DVRs ...more, I don't exactly know...

[ArchonAdvisors]

Originally Posted by patapoof

sadly, very little ...

the cameras ave viewable by 2 free apps on android tablets:

app #1 = gDMSS HD Lite
app #2 = DWVMax

both are on the google play for free...

both have a display and management screen to view live and to view recorded history transited via web enabled dedicated DVRs ...more, I don't exactly know...

Do you know what brand and/or model your cameras are at least? Also, did you have to put any settings into either of those two android apps to get them connected to your cameras? If so, what were those settings? Those pieces of info will at least give me a clue where to point you.

[ArchonAdvisors]

I just looked into those two apps themselves briefly, and it looks like the 1st one is specifically for cameras made by "Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd. " The 2nd app is for cameras made by a company named "Digital Watchdog". Do those sound familiar? See if you can find a model name/number someplace on each of the devices.

As you might expect, the more obscure a brand is, the harder it often is to get info on. Hopefully there is enough known about your cameras to help get you going.

[ArchonAdvisors]

Dug further and found some potential info for your cameras. The links below list the format of the direct stream url's for some models of Dahua and Digital Watchdog cameras respectively. Start trying them and see if one works for each of your devices.

Connect to Dahua IP cameras

Connect to Digital Watchdog IP cameras

If you don't already have an updated copy of VLC media player on your PC, you will need it to try out these url's, so go ahead and get it from VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework! and install it. Then run VLC and click Media --> Open Network Stream, and try connecting to your cameras with the different urls from above (substituting your info in each one where appropriate) and see if one works.

If you can get your camera to play in VLC this way, we can very likely get it up on your webOS device.

[ArchonAdvisors]

Originally Posted by johncc

^I would be interested.

Check the link I added to post #4 for the h.264 camera how-to. The MJPG camera how-to will be a bit more involved.