Getting the most out of Live Cams Pro

Here are a few quick tips for new Live Cams Pro users:

Hide or Show Thumbnail Labels
A simple swipe upwards on the thumbnails will remove the labels from the screen. This is useful if you want to maximize the viewing space available on your iPhone. To bring the labels back into view, swipe down on the thumbnails and the labels will reappear. Settings are saved when you close the app so that it looks the same when you launch it again later.

Install the app on multiple devices (iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches)
If you have more than one iOS device then you probably want to have a copy of Live Cams Pro on each one. Simply download the app onto each device and make your initial license purchase using iTunes on one of them. On each additional device you can press the "Restore Purchases" button in the store tab to bring your purchases into effect. This is also how you can recover in-app purchases if you replace or re-install your existing device.

Keep your camera information up-to-date on all devices
Any private cameras or favorites that you have are stored locally on your iOS device. This is not posted to a server or shared with the world in any way. If you want to have the same information on another copy of Live Cams Pro, use the IMPORT/EXPORT functions in the settings screens. A wireless transfer of your data will take place (using Wifi or Bluetooth) from one device to another when you choose "Import" on one and "Export" on the other.

Advanced camera features can be accessed on the iPad thumbnail screen!
Double-tap on a private camera thumbnail when on an iPad to bring up the advanced options for a particular camera. For many models you can alter contrast, brightness, resolution, alarm settings, LED settings and more!

Drag the PTZ or Advanced Settings window out of the way
Tap and hold the title bar of the advanced settings menu (or the open space in the PTZ window) to drag the window out of the way. On the iPhone this can only be performed on the PTZ window.

Use "List" mode when travelling abroad to save $$$
Roaming charges are bad enough when you are simply sending emails and text messages. If you are using Live Cams Pro to monitor personal surveillance systems then you will probably want to change the app to show text-based lists of cameras instead of the usual thumbnail mode. Video will only be loaded when you select a specific camera. The app automatically reduces the refresh rate of thumbnails and video on cell networks but it can still be costly if you are pulling images from a high-resolution camera.
Individual frames of video can be as much as 2 or 3 megabytes.

Locking the screen orientation on your device

Many people have asked for a screen orientation lock feature in Live Cams. We have not bothered with this because Apple has added a built-in feature to OS 4.2. When running any app, simply double-tap the home button on your device to get the task switcher bar to appear at the bottom of the screen.
Swipe left to get to the iPod controls and you'll see that there is an icon with an arrow on it. Toggle this to lock your device in or out of the current orientation.

Here is a tutorial on how to do this, along with a description of the iPad lock switch on iOS 4.3:

http://osxdaily.com/2010/12/03/how-to-lock-ipad-orientation-in-ios-4-2/

Because of the technique, this works while you are running Live Cams. If you are watching the thumbnail screen or full screen video and want to stay in landscape mode, just hold the device on its side and follow the instructions above.

What do I enter for the "Host or IP" field when adding a camera?

The Live Cams application requires only a few items of information in order to connect to your cameras. You are probably used to typing a "URL" into a browser to log into your device. The URL is a long string that defines an address and a protocol for your webbrowser to connect with. For example:

http://backyard.viewnetcam.com:8080/login.htm

The first part (in pink, "http://") specifies the protocol for the browser to use. In this instance we are using a standard HTTP protocol.

The second part (in yellow, "backyard.viewnetcam.com") is the host name.

The third part (in green, "8080") is the port. For http connections, ports use TCP as the transfer protocol.

In Live Cams you would enter "backyard.viewnetcam.com" in the host field and "8080" as the port.

Here's another example:

http://backyard.viewnetcam.com/login.htm

In this example everything is the same except the port is missing. When the port isn't specified, webbrowsers assume a default port of "80" and use this automatically. It works the same as if you had typed "http://backyard.viewnetcam.com:80/login.htm"

Secure connections on HTTP use something known as SSL (Secure Socket Layer). If your camera is configured to use SSL (also known as HTTPS) then you can toggle this option on when entering or editing your camera information.

If your camera does not use a host name but uses an IP address instead, the same logic applies as the examples above. For example:

http://192.168.1.115/index.htm

This camera uses a "Host or IP" of 192.168.1.115 and since the port isn't specified, it uses the default of 80.

http://192.168.1.115:8080/index.htm

Same as the previous example but the port is now "8080" instead of "80".

One very important thing about IP addresses is that anything starting with 192.168 like the example above is a "local network" address. It is valid as long as you are connected to your router via Wifi or ethernet but as soon as you connect to a different network (or cell tower) the number will not be valid and therefore unreachable. See our tutorials on dynamic DNS accounts in order to conquer this problem.

Some people still don't get it!

App reviews are fun to read. The reviews are a good indication of people's perception of your product. Even after 2 years on the App Store we are finding that some customers still don't understand what they have purchased or how it works.

Today I'd like to discuss the perception that the app is faulty because some of the cameras don't load. This is not true :) The software requests video from each camera and simply can't show the images if the camera does not respond. Keep in mind that your iPhone, iPod or iPad is connecting directly to the cameras and it is not reading a cached copy of the video from some server in-between.

There are numerous reasons why a camera may fail to respond:

1. The owner pulls the plug and the device is powered off.
2. The network connection at the camera is faulty.
3. The owner has configured the camera to respond only during certain operational hours.
4. Your device has requested the video over a slow connection and the request times out (over 60 secs)
5. The owner has changed the IP address or port and our database is using the old address.
6. Too many users are trying to use the device at the same time and it is overloaded.

The most common scenario is #6. The hardware that the cameras are based on is intended for private use and is generally not capable of scaling to large numbers of viewers at once. You are sharing the cameras with hundreds of thousands of other people using Live Cams in addition to people connecting from websites on the internet and users of other competing applications (at least 10 other companies have stolen our data in the past year and now offer similar products).

If your favorite camera is not responding, chances are good that it is a favorite for many people and it is simply busy. Try again later and hopefully the camera will respond.

Every few days we "scrub" the data for all 4500 cameras in the database. We disable those which fail to respond and re-enable any previously disabled cameras that are now working again. To obtain these updates your application must be launched on a Wifi network. We also add new cameras every week and you can find these by selecting the "Recent" category from the thumbnail screen.

Live Cams - Adding Cameras

Pinch Zoom!

As many of you have noticed, the latest versions of Live Cams and Live Cams HD support pinch zoom on the video screen. This allows you to digitally zoom (stretch the pixels) any camera in the app.

To use this feature, simply use two fingers and pinch or expand while touching the camera video. The image will stretch to a maximum of 4 times magnification and will shrink back to original size. Once magnified you may also use a single finger to pan around the image and see parts of the picture that are now offscreen.

The pinch zoom effect does not currently work while you are using the "Control" feature to perform PTZ functionality. We hope to add this in future versions of the software.

If you take snapshots you will still get the full image saved to your photo album even if you are zoomed into a particular area of the video frame. This will allow you to save the full resolution image to another computer and you can again zoom and crop the original as you desire.

Camera Resolution

Many people ask about the resolution settings for various cameras in either Live Cams or Live Cams HD. There is an important setting within the application (and in your camera firmware) that must be used to obtain optimal results.

Higher Resolution versus Faster Video


You will see this option in the settings screen and may have wondered what the effect is. Essentially there are three different resolutions used within the app when possible:

1) On the thumbnail screen.

The application requests low resolution video or stills in order to display as many thumbnails as possible while keeping the responsiveness reasonable. Your iPhone/iPod/iPad requires a lot of CPU in order to crunch larger images down to fit in the thumbnails. Most of the time the app will request 160x120 images for this screen.

2) On the video screen, with the Faster Video setting.

As the video screen loads, it shows the existing thumbnail as a placeholder while the request for video is made to the camera. This image looks chunky and blurry because the thumbnail is stretched to fill the screen while maintaining aspect ratio. The video request is made for 320x240 resolution if the camera allows the resolution to be dynamically adjusted. This keeps bandwidth low and allows for a higher framerate on your portable device. Again, CPU usage is the key.

3) On the video screen, with the Higher Resolution setting.


When you select Higher Resolution in the settings screen it tells Live Cams that you want the best quality even though framerates will likely be reduced. When asking for video in this mode, Live Cams will not tell the camera to send it a specific resolution, but instead it will allow the camera to send out video in its default quality and size. This is the important thing to note! If your camera is set to output 320x240 video as a default but can transmit 640x480 images then you will not be receiving the highest quality available. Make sure that you configure your camera to output the best images possible by default.

Hopefully this clears up some confusion and perhaps allows a few Live Cams HD users to get the best results for their devices.

Dynamic DNS Lessons

The most common question (by far) that I get via support requests is the following:

"My private camera only loads on my Wifi network. I can't reach it on 3G or on the Wifi at work. Why not?"

The reason is due to the way that IP addresses and TCP networks work. In order for your home computers and cameras to be reachable from the internet you must have a way to get to your router that hosts your home network. This can be done with either a static IP address or a dynamic DNS account. More on this topic later.

Getting there from here


If you are using Live Cams on a 3G or cell network and you want to get video from a camera at home then you will need to go through your router first. Requests for video go from your iPhone/iPad through the internet to your home router. The router then passes the request through (if properly configured) to your camera. The camera responds and sends the video back through the same way that the request arrived.

This is a fairly simple description of how the data flows, but the trick is configuring your router to pass the data through and configuring Live Cams to find the router in the first place. There are two ways to do this.

Static IP Addresses

Some ISP (Internet Service Providers) offer static IP addresses to their customers, but most do not. If you are a business then you are likely capable of getting a static IP. This is an IP address like ###.###.###.### that you can assign to your network router that will never change. Once your router is configured to use this number it is always easy to find from anywhere in the world. This is only part of the solution though, as you will also need to configure port forwarding to get data to/from your camera behind the router.

Dynamic DNS Accounts


This is probably the best way to go. Simply sign up for a free account at http://www.no-ip.com and then download and install one of their free update clients. What this does is allow you to assign a simple text-based name to your router. The update client will periodically check to see if your router has a new IP address (some ISPs do this every so often) and then it will keep the name resolution working properly.
If you selected a prefix like "egerter" and a suffix like "dyndns.tv" then your host name is egerter.dyndns.tv and this is what you would enter into Live Cams. Now the app can find your router, but we need to configure port forwarding!

Port Forwarding


This sounds scary but it's actually fairly simple. Once the request for video reaches your router via one of the two methods above it still needs to go to the camera. In your router's administrative webpages you need to find the port forwarding screen and tell it a few details:

External port - This is the port number that you will use in a webbrowser to reach your camera. If you have multiple cameras then you will need unique numbers for each. I like to assign numbers starting in the 8000-9000 range. For example: http://egerter.dyndns.tv:8000
Internal port - This is the port number that your camera is assigned to within your local network at home. It can be the same number as your external port to keep things simple. Be sure that your camera is configured to use this HTTP port.
IP Address - This is the IP address of the camera within your local network, like 192.168.1.100
Protocol - TCP.

Once you enable this rule you should test the setup by entering your details into a webbrowser and see if the camera interface comes up. If everything is configured properly then a URL like this:

http://egerter.dyndns.tv:8000

will go out to the internet, look up the router from the dyndns servers, then reach your router on port 8000. The router then looks up port 8000 in the port forwarding rules and sees that it should send TCP data to a local IP of 192.168.1.100 (your camera). Voila, video!

Within your local network you can also reach the device using the local IP address and internal port:

http://192.168.1.100:8000

Conclusion


If you are reading this paragraph I commend you for sticking with it. This article is fairly wordy but there are really only two basic steps. First you get the requests to find your router, then you get the router to pass it to the camera. Live Cams does not need to be involved in this equation until you can successfully reach your camera via a standard web-browser using either the dynamic DNS account or the static IP address. I configured 7 cameras at my home (each with different ports) before travelling on vacation this winter and the result was that I could check in on my property via Live Cams while in another country!

Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work the first time. Focus on each step separately and try to get the configuration working before you involve Live Cams in the mix!

Barry

My camera only works at home, how do I access it from somewhere else?

This is a very common question and although it is a simple concept to understand it is really hard to explain unless you are technically inclined.

The short answer is this:
Live Cams connects to your camera by an IP address and a port or a host name and a port. If you enter an IP address it is most likely only valid when you are connected to your home network. This IP address is not valid on the internet and therefore your iPhone/iPod cannot find your home network or camera. You need a dynamic DNS name (host name) that will always point to your router so that Live Cams can find the network where your camera is installed. After this you will also have to open the port so that the request for video will pass through your router and be sent to your camera.

That's short? I guess not, it's still rather complicated. Here's an article with greater detail that may answer your questions:

http://www.networkwebcams.co.uk/blog/2007/01/09/dynamic-dns-or-do-i-really-need-a-static-ip-address/

I recommend signing up for a free dynamic DNS account at http://www.dyndns.com

Common App Problems - How to Resolve Them

Quite often I receive emails from people who cannot load the app or when the app loads it doesn't display any cameras. In both cases its likely that the database is corrupted and the only solution is to remove the application and reinstall it.

To remove the app:

1. Launch iTunes on your computer. Navigate to the applications section of your library.
2. Highlight the Live Cams application and press delete. Answer yes to verify that you want to delete it.
3. Sync iTunes with your device so that the application is also cleared from your device.

To re-install the app:

1. Launch the App Store and search for Live Cams.
2. Even though it appears as though the store will charge you again to download it will not. Click the purchase button and don't worry about the price that is displayed. Apple tracks your purchases and will not charge you a second time if you have already purchased something.
3. Wait for the download and install to complete and then launch the app.

You will lose any private data or favorites that were previously saved with Live Cams. This is a completely fresh install. We're not sure what would cause the database to become corrupted but it's possible that various versions of firmware have bugs with the SQLite database.

Adding your private IP cameras to Live Cams

This is a tricky topic to approach so I'll cover the basics and perhaps write some more detailed blog posts in the coming weeks. Adding your IP camera to Live Cams can be very easy and straightforward if you are using one of the more common devices, but many older models require some patience because they require special handling or setup.

Lets start with an easy one. Let's pretend you have a Canon VB-C50i camera and it's available on the internet using a static IP address at:

http://204.117.196.50:65304

Try the link above and you'll see the camera interface for the WonderWorks Pigeon Forge Web Cam - Tennessee. This camera is already included in the app database but serves as a good working example of how to add cameras.

NOTE: If your camera uses an address without the ":" after the host in a browser then it is using the default port of 80. This example assumes that your camera settings have been customized to use a different port.

To add this you would:

1. Press the 'Select" button from the main screen in Live Cams (the thumbnail view).
2. Select "My Cams" to view your private camera list, which will be empty the first time you view it.
3. Select "Manage" to enter the camera management screen.
4. Press the + button to add a new camera to the list.
5. Scroll down to the section called "IP Camera" and find Canon - Generic. This profile should work for all Canon models except the VB150 which has its own profile listed below.
6. Enter a name like "Pigeon Forge Test".
7. The host should be entered as 204.117.196.50 (don't enter any url characters like http:// or others, we just want the host name or ip address here)
8. Erase the default of 80 for the port and enter 65304 instead.
9. Leave the username and password blank and ignore the camera number field. Save the camera.

You should get an error message saying that the camera exists. If you were entering your own camera it should save successfully and then you could find it by selecting "My Cams" from the thumbnail screen. If you entered something wrong or need to change settings (or delete the camera) you would select the grey box from the thumbnail screen and then use the "gears" icon in the video screen to alter settings.

That's it. If you are using a different brand then it can be tricky to know which profile to use. I generally create a generic "catch-all" profile for each brand to be used for the majority of cameras that follow a standard. If there are some models within that brand that require special processing or protocols then I create additional profiles for them and try to give it an appropriate name.

You'll notice that some brands like DLink and Trendnet have many profiles to choose from. This is because they never standardized their interfaces and each one uses a different technique to get to the video or control PTZ functions. Your particular model might not match the name that I have assigned so it sometimes takes a few tries to enter your settings with a profile, discover that it doesn't work and then delete the camera and retry with another profile. I am working on a web page that will allow you to enter details once and then the page will test all available profiles to see which ones match your device.

It's important to note that not all cameras can provide streaming MJPEG video. Some cameras can only produce still images (JPEG) and some can't do either via a programmatic interface. Live Cams can only communicate with cameras that support external applications requesting data/video via HTTP urls. Always update your firmware to the latest and greatest before trying to use Live Cams with your device. This may save a lot of hassle due to firmware problems that the manufacturer has since resolved.

That's it for now. I'll write some more posts soon to describe how to set up and configure dynamic DNS names so that your cameras are reachable via 3G and cell networks rather than just your local Wifi network. This is not a Live Cams feature but rather a standard networking exercise. As always, I recommend trying to reach your camera via Safari before you enter details into Live Cams. If your Safari browser cannot connect to the IP and port that you use then it's not worth trying the application because it will also fail. Safari will give you much better error information to help diagnose the problems before you try adding it to Live Cams.

Adding cameras found on the Internet - Part 1

I've been asked a countless number of times about how to add cameras from the internet into Live Cams. It can be really easy at times and sometimes just plain confusing.

To begin with, lets add some simple traffic cameras from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The website is found here (Portland region):
http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/RCMap.asp?mainNav=RoadConditions&curRegion=16



Click on the camera that you want to add, then when the image pops up in a new window, right click on it and copy the image address (link) into your clipboard. I use Safari as a web browser so the option in the menu may be worded differently on other browsers.



Paste it into a text editor and you'll see something like this:
http://www.tripcheck.com/RoadCams/cams/i84lloyd_pid587.jpg?0.6435205

You can then go to my app and select "Add Camera" followed by the JPG camera profile.
Enter the full url as above but leave out everything after the .jpg (you won't need the ?0.6435205)

For JPG cameras the app will simply request the url you added every few seconds. You can customize this interval to speed it up or slow it down. If the website you copied it from is only updating once every 30 seconds then you should set the number to 30 so that it matches. Pulling frames every 2 seconds would waste your battery power and your data plan when the image doesn't actually look any different for another 30 seconds.

You can now save the camera and view it when you select "My Cams". Any cameras that you add are considered private and the data is only stored locally on your iPhone/iPod. Nothing is ever posted back to a server or made available to others.

Using Live Cams to view a webcam on a Mac

Many people are asking how to configure Live Cams for viewing their personal webcams attached to either a PC or Mac. This post will discuss the particulars for getting a webcam working with a Mac.

Before we begin, let's make it clear that the webcam will be viewable in Live Cams but there will not be any audio and it is not a two-way video chat of any sort. The app is designed to be a viewer only and is supposed to provide home-security on your iPhone.

Let's begin!

Step 1 - Download and install EvoCam
Go to http://www.evological.com and download the trial version of EvoCam. Run the installer and diagnose any problems by checking the Evological website for details. Launch EvoCam. Unfortunately this software costs $30 and comes with a 30 day trial.



Step 2 - Configure your video sources in EvoCam
Choose File, New Window from the EvoCam application menus. If the video window does not automatically connect your camera (iSight or otherwise) then you will need to use the Video Settings button to configure your device.

Step 3 - Enable the built-in webserver
EvoCam does not automatically broadcast the video that it captures. To enable this feature you will need to go to the "Server" tab in the video window and then enable the built-in webserver. You may assign a username and password to the server if you press the "Advanced" button.



Step 4 - Find out the host and port that is being used by EvoCam
When you enable the built-in webserver the application will show a URL that contains your host and port. The host is the set of numbers after the http:// and before the colon. The port is the number after the colon.

Step 5 - Test the URL in Safari on your iPhone/iPod Touch
Launch Safari on your mobile device and enter the full URL that you see in the step above. If there aren't any firewalls active and the port is opened on your router you should see the EvoCam html page load. If the connection fails then you will need to open your firewall or turn it off so that traffic can go from the internet to your PC. Repeat this process until you can get Safari to connect to EvoCam. If Safari can't connect then Live Cams will also fail. This is by far the most common area for people to struggle with because of various software and hardware firewalls and router issues.

Step 6 - Launch Live Cams and add your camera
After Live Cams launches, click "Add Camera" and scroll down until you find the EvoCam option. Select it by touching the word EvoCam. On the next screen that loads you will enter:

1. The name that you want to assign to the camera.
2. The host (your router IP or DNS name). This is the number shown in EvoCam which is in the form xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and does NOT include the http:// or the ":"
3. The port shown in EvoCam. This is the number after the colon (8080 in my example screenshots)
4. Leave the username and password blank unless you assigned a password in EvoCam.
5. If you have multiple cameras configured you will need to adjust the camera number accordingly, otherwise leave it to the default value of 1.

Save the camera and check your private cameras in Live Cams to see if the video appears in the thumbnail. Touch the thumbnail to go to the video screen. If there are any error messages you can adjust the settings and try again by touching the "gears" icon in the application to edit the settings.

This should give you video from your home webcam, but most people will have problems with step #4. I will update this blog with some additional pointers as I see what issues people are commonly running into. If you wish to view your camera while on cellular networks or remote wifi connections you will need a dynamic DNS account instead of the IP address you entered above.
Free accounts are available at www.dyndns.org and you would simply enter the name (like mywebcam.dyndns.info) instead of the IP address in Live Cams.

Barry

Using Live Cams to view a webcam on a PC

Many people are asking how to configure Live Cams for viewing their personal webcams attached to either a PC or Mac. This post will discuss the particulars for getting a webcam working with a PC.

Before we begin, let's make it clear that the webcam will be viewable in Live Cams but there will not be any audio and it is not a two-way video chat of any sort. The app is designed to be a viewer only and is supposed to provide home-security on your iPhone.

Let's begin!

Step 1 - Download and install webcamXP
Go to http://www.webcamxp.com and download the free version of webcamXP for personal use. Run the installer and diagnose any problems by checking the webcamXP website for details. Launch webcamXP.



Step 2 - Configure your video sources in webcamXP
Right click on the video source windows and follow the prompts to attach your webcam, IP camera or video file as a source in webcamXP. Note that whatever number you choose will later have to be entered into Live Cams (source #1 through 6). If your device is not supported by webcamXP it will also be unsupported in Live Cams.


Step 3 - Find out the host and port that is being used by webcamXP
When your camera is configured and images are appearing in the video window you are ready to go.
Open a command prompt and type "ipconfig" to find the IP address of your computer on the local network. This will be the number you need to enter into Live Cams to access the camera on your local wifi network. If you want to access the camera from the internet you'll need Dynamic DNS to be configured or use your router IP address instead of the PC's address.



Step 4 - Test the video in Safari on your iPhone/iPod Touch
Launch Safari on your mobile device and enter the IP address and port from the step above.

Example:
http://192.168.1.100:8080

If there aren't any firewalls active and the port is opened on your router you should see the webcamXP html page load. If the connection fails then you will need to open your firewall or turn it off so that traffic can go from the internet to your PC. Repeat this process until you can get Safari to connect to webcamXP. If Safari can't connect then Live Cams will also fail. This is by far the most common area for people to struggle with because of various software and hardware firewalls and router issues.

Step 5 - Launch Live Cams and add your camera
After Live Cams launches, click "Add Camera" and scroll down until you find the webcamXP option. Select it by touching the word webcamXP. On the next screen that loads you will enter:

1. The name that you want to assign to the camera.
2. The host (your router IP or DNS name). This is the number shown in webcamXP which is in the form xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and does NOT include the http:// or the ":"
3. The port shown in webcamXP. This is the number after the colon (8081 in my example screenshots)
4. Enter a username and password if you protected them in webcamXP.
5. If you have multiple cameras configured you will need to adjust the camera number accordingly, otherwise leave it to the default value of 1.

Save the camera and check your private cameras in Live Cams to see if the video appears in the thumbnail. Touch the thumbnail to go to the video screen. If there are any error messages you can adjust the settings and try again by touching the "gears" icon in the application to edit the settings.

This should give you video from your home webcam, but most people will have problems with step #4. I will update this blog with some additional pointers as I see what issues people are commonly running into. If you wish to view your camera while on cellular networks or remote wifi connections you will need a dynamic DNS account instead of the IP address you entered above.
Free accounts are available at www.dyndns.org and you would simply enter the name (like mywebcam.dyndns.info) instead of the IP address in Live Cams.

A similar description of EvoCam for Mac will be posted shortly!

Barry