Streaming Webcam

Everything Else
1

Id like to pick up a webcam that I can stream to my website that is pretty self sufficient. It needs to have the following:

  • Wifi
  • h.264
  • no app required to use it
  • remote management
  • at least 720p

Anyone have any recommendations?

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2

Hate to answer questions with questions, but

What live service are you wanting to stream to?

Remote meaning inside the network or outside?

Price range ( nominal versus upper end)

With what are you thinking on running (start/stop/pause/recording) functions with if not using an app?

A promising device is called Screens website link

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3

To my webserver and/or local server as a proxy then to the web server to display live. Iā€™d prefer cheap as possible and not have to use any proprietary software.

I have a raspberry pi and can do it with that, but would prefer a good standalone device that I could add more of easily down the road.

It needs to be simple though. Not a camera that requires an app and reports to some third party remote server.

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4

Well if you are looking for a PC USB webcam, one that has really good f-stop and exposure levels, one of the best commonly available ones I can suggest are the Logitech C920. For what you pay they really have excellent low-light quality, do H.264 and 1080p. But youā€™ll probably need to do the RPi thing to wifi enable it, and processing the video frames will kind of make H.264 moot.

If you want a standalone, powered, Wifi-enabled PTZ cameraā€¦ you can get a find a bunch for around $100, and use a web browser to administrate itā€¦ but Iā€™ve found that the low-light picture quality really sucks.

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5

thats what im lookin for

6

You might want to talk to Foster Dad John; his Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/TheCritterRoom. He runs a 24/7 HD live webcam of his foster kittens on YouTube, and he is always willing to help others with technical issues regarding streaming. Here are the specs of his system from the YouTube page:

Broadcaster Technical Specs:
Motherboard: ASRock X99M Extreme4 LGA 2011-v3
CPU: Intel i7-6800K (not currently overclocked) with Corsair Hydro Series H115i cooler
RAM: 16GB DDR 3000
Hard drive: 500GB SSD OS, no local recordings performed
Video: NVidia GTX 960
Power: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W Platinum, Fully Modular
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Blackout Silent
Software: Livestream Studio
Cameras: Logitech C922, Logitech C930, Logitech Brio

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7

Iā€™ve used/own an Amcrest ProHD 1080p, and itā€™s alrightā€¦ they donā€™t push your images to some Chinese server, but a few things I donā€™t like about it:

  • Image quality isnā€™t super stellar, itā€™s somewhat grainy, but alright.
  • The power jack uses one of those micro-tiny barrel plugs, which I find are just TOO small for power and never seat properly. In fact, mine is so bad Iā€™m tempted to crack the case open and wire the power directly.
  • The cheaper you go, they donā€™t support Power over Ethernet either.

Hikvision cameras are also supposedly good, but I canā€™t attest whether they upload photos to the cloud or not.

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8

A pi w might be the cheapest solution, but on wireless those things can have a heck of a lag. (Not important for most uses, but just be awareā€¦)

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9

You might try motioneyeos, it is a quick install on a raspberry pi. I had some trouble with usb web cam drivers and ended up getting a raspberry camera.

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10

logitechs newest are solid and even capable of some form of 4k at 30fps (and correspondingly higher framerstss on lower resolutions).

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11

I have one of the 4k webcams - itā€™s nothing special. For all cases youā€™d use it for, it looks the same as any other. I got it for the face login integration with windows.

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i donā€™t disagree, but most webcams are really terrible, so that ā€œnothing specialā€ is regrettably worth seeking haha.

thereā€™s a startup working on some really interesting webcam hardware iā€™ve been getting pr on for a while now: http://www.sub2r.com

i also have one of those mevo live streaming cameras. the hw is pretty nice, though confusing.

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13

Looking at those sample videos, I can tell that the exposure range of them sucks. The faces video gives away that really bright scenes causes it to blowout. They intentionally used a black backdrop (which barely gave the faces good contrast) and when you add more front lighting, the faces blew out completely. :slightly_frowning_face:

14

If you get the Kinect for PC cable kit, you can use an XBox One Kinect camera for Hello facial sign in and scan objects into 3D / depthmaps using Microsoft 3D scan.

Itā€™s camera is ā€˜decentā€™ for video conferencing (still prefer the Logitech C92x models), but because it was designed as a Kinect the duo microphone pickups in it are great for picking up room audio (especially ā€˜Hey Cortanaā€™).

15

Use a dslr with a pvr that has streaming capabilities, you can get them for about 150 on Amazon (pvr not camera) that are really nice. My daughter uses that for YouTube.

Edit:

To clarify she doesnā€™t use the camera to stream she isnā€™t allowed to put her face on the internet but used the elgato to stream gaming, but using hdmi output I donā€™t see why it wouldnā€™t work

1 Like
16

Im ultimately looking to have 4-5 of these somethings, and while I own a couple DSLRs already, its not the most economical solution, but ill def check it out.

Currently I have:

  • a zmodo webcam that requires an app and im pretty sure provides backdoor access to my wireless network. I keep it on the same cordoned off wifi as my chinese laser computer. They can hack each other.
  • an old gopro hero 3 that I dont ever use
  • a raspberry pi with camera
  • a bunch of laptops
  • a few DSLRs, some not video capable though

However, none of these seem to be optimal solutions for what I would like to have. Ive been working on a hack for the zmodo, but its so time intensive that Id rather not if theres a cheap off the shelf solution out there that I can purchase more of easily, deploy quickly, and will run without being hooked to a laptop.

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17

If you donā€™t mind, once you have your setup I wouldnā€™t mind seeing it.

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18

Hey, since youā€™re an ingenious / creative sort of guyā€¦ I went through some of my wish lists and pulled out some of the more challenging (but untested) items you could research. And by creative, I mean, make a case forā€¦ hehā€¦

19

those are pretty cool. I might have to look into them if nothing easy shows up. thanks!

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20

The new Win10 update will allow you to do that with other cameras including your cell phone. Release date is a couple weeks out I think.