I see you...

Now that I have the outdoor camera working, I wanted to set up an indoor security camera. I thought the LinkSys WVC54G looked pretty good because it connects directly to your home network wirelessly without having to be hooked up to a PC. On CNET, customer reviews averaged to a 4.7 (out of 10!) but I didn't know if many of those complaints were based on expectation or difficulty in set up for people who may not be so inclined for setting up things on their home network.

Anyway, so I took the plunge... and I, too, am disappointed. It has motion detection capability, so I thought that would be perfect to let it record whenever it detects something... However, if you want to record, you can only record on set schedules. The motion detection capability is only for recording up to 5 seconds and then sending by e-mail! Then, it requires you to wait at least two minutes before sending the next e-mail.

Hmmm, so if I set this up in the foyer, it would be enough time to show us going to the door, but perhaps not enough time to show who is at the door. Great!

Besides that, since it was behaving a little flaky at the beginning, I upgraded the firmware to the latest on the LinkSys website. Then, I could not get the e-mail function to work. I later found posts where they said the latest firmware seems to prevent the e-mail function from working. Great! Fortunately, I actually found a newer version of the firmware than what was posted on the LinkSys web page. (Actually, this looks like a European version of the firmware.) Anyway, it does work...

The quality of the pictures remind me of an older webcam... But this is wireless, so perhaps one can't expect too much.

Anyway, still a disappointment, but I think this will do for now. I decided to set up a Gmail account to receive these thousands of e-mails it will end up sending to us.

And by the way, you can view the live stream from the camera either with the provided software or through a browser. If you use a browser, though, it only supports IE. (Boo hiss!!)

Pros: Form factor is good. I want to mount this on the wall and other Internet cameras will not mount flat against the wall. That is, you can take the base off which leaves a flat unit which can be mounted flush on the wall. (But by the way, I did read of one person who had to drill holes in the case because it would tend to stop working when it gets too hot.)

Cons: Limited capability of motion detector, low quality video, lack of flexibility in how the videostream is supported. There's also no remote pan and tilt function with this camera.

Update: I did find software from VisionGS (http://www.visiongs.de) which does almost everything I was expecting the LinkSys software to do.

1. Most importantly, it allows you to record video based on triggering of the motion detector. However, I am not sure how fast it is able to pick up on motion, though. The biggest drawback is that the recorded video does not include sound. You can define the length of the video up to any reasonable duration (ie, longer than 5 seconds!).
   
2. It streams live video so that it can be viewed through other software, such as Windows Media Player or VLC.
3. It can also take pictures on a regular basis (such as every minute), with the capability of defining schedules.
4. It allows the data to be stored on a ftp server or anywhere locally. (Remember that the 5-second video from the LinkSys software could only be e-mailed.)
   

Streaming live video

I am trying to stream live video on my home network.

I have a Hauppauge PVR-250 video card and based on information I've found on the Internet, I should be able to use it with Windows Media Encoder to stream video.

I have found I can stream video which has been recorded from the Hauppauge PVR-250 card (such as recording a TV broadcast and then streaming that), but I receive this error when trying to stream the live video directly from the PVR-250 card.

This is the setup in Windows Media Encoder. WME does recognize the PVR card as a valid choice for source.

This is how WinTV2K looks, so everything looks ok here.

I thought the codecs problem may be related to the type of output, so I played around with various settings, but nothing seemed to work for live video.


Here are a couple of links describing how this is SUPPOSED to work:
http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/faq/support_faq_pci.html#5b
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=386789&rl=1

I have been able to perform normal file conversions using WME. For example, I was able to convert a recording from WinTV2K into an ASF video appropriate for video streaming.

So far, no solution yet...

Update: So my solution was to go without WME. I used VideoLAN (free software) for both streaming and client software. In theory, I would have thought that I could use Windows Media Player as the client as well, but that does not seem to work. Anyway, it is a moot point. I use VideoLAN anyway as the client for streaming from ReplayTV. The whole purpose of streaming live video was to be able to view who is at the front door (through the front door camera) from any PC in the house. Beats actually having to get up and go to the front door. Just kidding! But we would like the ability to screen who we greet at the door, just as we screen our phone calls, and it would not help if they see us through the decorative glass we have at the front door or adjacent satellite windows.

But this does provide additional possibilities, like watching live TV from any PC. I do have sling box, but this would in theory provide a cheaper solution and does not limit the number of clients who can view at the same time.

Anyway, this does leave a challenge regarding my PCs. Now I need to have one PC in the study to run the streaming software. This PC can do other things, like it could be my MovableType server. However, it does seem to be running high on CPU.

I moved the NetVista into my home office, but since this is an older, slower machine, I am not sure this is the right machine for my office. In addition, that'll mean I should move the old printer in my office, so I should clean up my office a little bit so noone breaks their neck trying to retrieve a printout. Obviously, another choice is to put an old ThinkPad in the learning center to be the print server for the upstairs printer. Update: Ah, I had an old USB HUB I wasn't using at the moment, so I hooked up Kyoko's ThinkPad to the printer, bluetooth adaptor, and external hard drive by using the USB HUB. See! It helps to have old stuff around and to buy things even though you don't know exactly what for yet...

The NetVista could go downstairs and work double as the downstairs print server as well as a client for the front door camera. That way, we don't have to walk ALL THE WAY to the study to see who is at the front door. Life's tough.

Windows Media Encoder, although not working out for streaming, may be the solution if I want to get video into a format to play on my Zaurus. Since I moved PCs around and the one which I used to use as my "work" (ie, sandbox) PC is now streaming the video from the front door, I put the NetVista in my home office. However, it seems to be missing some codecs and does not properly play some of the MPEG2 videos. Strange, though, is that they play on WMP but not on WinDVD. I tried to re-install WinDVD from the CD but it complains that I don't have a DVD player on that PC. Of course not, I moved the DVD to a different PC! Doesn't the software know that! Grrr, so now I have to either move it back, or perhaps I'll just get that region-free DVD-ROM drive I've been thinking about. Anyway, seems like it may be a couple of months until I can get around to trying this out.

Don't I need a new PC anyway? This is a rhetorical question by the way... But don't tell Kyoko!

Update: Placing a monitor to the downstairs print server (old iSeries ThinkPad) seems to work out well. Now, I am out of monitors and cannot set up my ThinkPad for work with dual monitors while working. Does this mean I need to buy another monitor??? Actually, it's not high on my priority list right now. However, the iSeries ThinkPad (266MHz!) seems too slow for video display. In fact, I seem to remember watching MPEG movies on this ThinkPad was not possible. If I am fast enough, I can walk in the front door and go to the monitor and still see myself at the front door. Wow, I can be at two places at the same time! OK, maybe not... So anyway, I guess this really means I need another PC, maybe two! (As if there was any doubt...)

Home LAN

Order of LAN outlets:

Mom's bedroom
Game room

Kyoko's room
Master bedroom
Jim's room
Family 2

Learning Center
Media room
Study
Family 1