(PTZ) camera controller with sitehound video how To.

[CV SECURE]

(PTZ) camera controller with sitehound video how To.
in windows 10 they call it split screen / snap to/ multitasking.
any ptz app should work. i use a app by sunba which all so has a floating PTZ(controller)
i moved the controller under sitehound video (Bottom Right), it works in real time.
click image.

[Semper Vaporo]

What PTZ controller software are you using?

I just log into the camera's web address using a browser and control the camera that way. I shrink the browser window or drag the majority of the window off screen to show just the control buttons so it does not take up much screen real estate, but it still clogs the network with a second video stream for every instance of a control window since the browser is also displaying the video from the camera (even if it is unseen on the screen).

Of course, changing the camera view can cause motion detected in SH, but since I know I am doing the pan/tilt/zoom I know to ignore the alerts at that moment.

[CV SECURE]

i use hard wire Ethernet to router box much faster

[Semper Vaporo]

I do too, but all that video from each camera has to run down the same wire from the router to the computer. Granted, hardwire has a much higher bandwidth and bit rate than WiFi, but it still all has to fit in that wire serially. 2 cameras is not bad. I have 4 network cameras on a hardwired, independent network, (my other 5 cameras are cheap USB webcams), and being on a completely separate network I have no interference with internet access on my other computers, so I don't have much of a problem.

But, if I open 3 browser windows to control each of the PTZ cameras that adds 3 more video streams being transmitted to the computer, equivalent to having 7 cameras running all at once. High resolution and high frame rates only make it worse, so I select a low rez, low frame rate for the browsers' streams. Still, I'd like a program that just sends PTZ commands to the cameras and let me see the result in SightHound to reduce the workload on both the network and the computer.

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can you give me some advice because i all so was wanting to use cheap USB Camera for out side,
for now i bought 1 action camera and i want to have 4 total,
there some what like go pro camera, they should work good out side in any weather,
i bought the Dragon Touch 4K Action Camera 16MP Vision 3
it was cheap like $35 and can be used as a webcam i had it hooked to sitehound video.
since it has a water proof case ill need to drill a hole in the side of the case to connect it to the USB port, the usb cords will need to be at least 30 ft long so im not sure what type of cord i would need when extending data, not sure if there is a usb to cat5 cable back to usb if that would be better, second thing is the cam is usb 2.0 and my pc usb is 3.0 but i only have 1 usb open on my pc, so i guess i would need a hub/router with some kind of build in power to power all 4 camera, all 4 camera's are going on my roof and you have to press a button to power up and once powered it ask to connect to PC/USB/SD CARD so im hoping i have to do this only 1 time and my power never gets shut down because i dont want to keep climbing on the roof. the other thing is the battery, batterys keeps it powered but i herd you could cause it to over heat from charging and the cam will work without the battery long as its powered threw usb.
i want to use the action cam because i think i can get more bang for my buck then buying a security camera, im getting 4k and it will all so record 60 fps and 120 fps is what i want because i should capture license plates a bit better, the car that go by are real close.
im going to assume if i have it set to 120 fps that it will all so export 120 fps when exporting from site hound video. should i keep and go with 4 action cameras or find and use 4 security camera.
the only thing i can think of is these type of cameras don't have night vision maybe a cheap solar light might work.

[Semper Vaporo]

DRAT! I just typed a massive tome of wonderful prose for you and the system logged me out so when I clicked "Submit" it all went bye-bye!

USB Web Cams...

They work fine with SightHound except for some "Gotchas".

First of all they don't work well (or at all) at night without some good artificial lighting in the area.

I found I could not have 2 of the same make/model of camera on a computer because the drivers were not written to accommodate more than one instance of any one type (beware that some 'off-brand' cameras might be clones of each other or a major brand and thus would use the same driver). I have had two of the same make/model connected and SightHound would initially show what I expect, but then one image changed to show the same as the other one, so they are both showing the same view, or they would swap images. After a few minutes I might get a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) or the computer might spontaneously re-boot with no warning or error messages. Seldom worked for longer than 2 or 3 minutes.

Different brands and sometimes different models play nice with each other as long as they do not use the same driver.

Logitech claims to have updated their drivers to handle multiple instances of the same make and model and for the most part Logitech cameras work with each other. I have two Logitech C-615 webcams and they don't cause problems, other than sometimes the cameras get confused and adjust the exposure of one camera based on the brightness of the scene in the other camera. Most often happens in the mornings as the sun comes up. One is still viewing a dark scene and the other is viewing a bright scene, so the bright one will adjust for the dark scene and get brighter, or the other way around, the darker one will get even darker. Then magically, they will correct themselves and all is well. Dunno why. I have reported this to Logitech, but have not checked recently to see if they have made any updates.

Sometimes after a reboot the webcams will forget one or more setups I may have made. Usually it is one of my Microsoft web cams will forget that I don't want it to auto-focus. When it gets dark it cannot settle on a focus distance and the constant adjustment of the focus will cause motion detection in SightHound. I have to reset Auto-Focus to OFF and set the focus to Infinity.

Which brings up another limitation. You cannot have two programs accessing the video stream from the same web cam. If SightHound is accessing a web cam then no other program can access the video from it. SightHound does not have a method to access the driver setups of web cams, so I use a free program named "AMCAP". It is free on-line from several different programmers. (It was initially written by Microsoft to show programmers how to access web cams and a few have taken the original limited program, enhanced it and made it available on-line. Each is slightly different. I am using a limited capability free version by Noel Danjou (version 9.22 build 260 32-bit) I don't remember what web site I downloaded it from. A web search should find several versions for free, or cheap.

With it I can connect to any of my web cams, but if SightHound is also using it, I get an error message. I have found that even if I cannot see the video on the AMCap window, I can still use the menus to access the camera's setup dialog boxes to adjust the parameters of the camera, so I do not have to turn the camera 'Off' in SightHound. Some cameras I have to turn off any IR lights on the camera because my cameras are indoors, viewing out the windows and the lights will reflect off the glass and fog out the video.

If I cannot turn the lamps off in the setup I cover them with something opaque to IR light. Even the "ON" light on the camera will reflect back and confuse the auto-exposure function, so I cover it with black electrical tape.


Cabling: USB specs say the max distance is about (I think) 15-ft., but there are 15-ft. amplified extension cables that can be daisy-chained up to 5 times to get over 60-feet, plus you can add a 6-ft. unamplified extension cable somewhere in the middle, or ends, to get a few more feet. I have a couple of cameras on daisy-chained cables, and one on 5 cables and an unamplified cable to about 85 ft. But the cables cost $15 to $20 each... sort of silly to have a $10 web cam on the end of $100 worth of cables!

There are also devices that will connect USB devices to a Network, as well as pairs of ethernet devices that can use your house power wiring for ethernet transmission (works best on the same branch line off of one fuse or at least on the same side of the 240V mains), so you can run a web cam quite a long distance... for a price! Probably better off just buying a decent Net Cam and forget all the expensive cabling and hardware, and just run CAT-5 network cables You can also run power over the cables (POE), for the camera! Even if the Net Cam is not designed for POE you can get pairs of devices that will insert the power on the ethernet cables at one end and split if off at the other end for the camera.


Now that I have typed this all again, I am going to copy it so if I was logged off again while typing I won't have to type it yet again (and I think I have forgotten something!)


HA! It logged me off again, but I copied my typing to the clipboard so I could paste it in after I logged back in!

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yup been down that road about c/c/p
i do it every time i post.
i pretty much understand every thing your saying and thank you.
i am going to mess with 1 camera and get it up and running and compare the cost on every thing.
i been wanting to try Amcrest cameras so i might just buy a cheap one and be done with it.
i bought a Ethernet amplifier from my pc to tv and come to find out didnt even need it at 15 ft away,
used HDMI cable and split-er to watch on pc monitor and tv monitor.
Logitech makes GREAT speakers bought a surround sound system i think i paid $250 sound just as good as bose speakers.

my next project is hooking up my Nikon COOLPIX P900 to sitehound video one of the biggest super zoom camera you can buy there is a p1000 a step up but for the price and not much different ill stick with the p900 it zoom pretty much like a telescope, i took a picture of the tower in front of the rv park and showed some friends and they were like WOW that is a great picture and i said where do you think i was at when taking the picture they said it looks like you where standing in your drive way, i said Nope i was 2 Miles away across the lake when i took it, there where like Holy sh@t WOW