I have an HD 1080p webcam and the pictures that are produced in WD are really good, I have it set to just 640x480 and they are just a nice reproduction of what is sees.
the problem seems to come from the turning into an all day video, something gets lost, its not noticable if you keep the video small as most seem to.
but when I use the resolution of the pictures taken eg 640x480 and produce a 640x480 all day video, the quality deteriorates quite a lot, to the point of it looking like a poor quality low res camera. this is even if I view them directly from the folder they are save in.
Also I seem to loose resolution of the still pictures served by the web server, I assume this is more likely to be a server side (IIS) thing rather than a WD thing, but I cant seem to find where it is, again 640x480 pictures look a little grainy
Ok I think I have found where it falls down, the Jpg images are good, but its the gifs that loose the quality, I thought it was serving JPGs but it serves out GIFS and looking at the gifs it makes from the jps, they are quite low resolution, so something is lost in translation
and sorry Brian, it kinda up and running now, some of the links are working and some not yet
Ok just added another link to the drop down web cam images link called test jpg and its just to one of the jpg files, now the difference between the gif and the JPG is quite significant
Which would seem strange as GIFs should be loss less on the quality, and JPGs normally look worse because of the compression etc.
is there something that can be tweeked in the program for doing the conversion from JPG to GIF.
a gif has much less colours than a jpg
the all video should be set to be created from the time stamped jpg files (which need to be set to be created from the original jpg image)
note re the original image size…the larger that is, the larger the resulting video will be
if you are refering to the animated gif all day video, then that is different to the all day video (.mp4 or .wmv or .swf or .flv) that you can get WD to create
(see my web site for examples of those (.swf))
the animated gif needs to be created from a set of time stamped original gif image
post up screen shots of each tab in the web cam setup in WD…
can I set it so the program does a current webcam image as JPG rather than GIF? it looks like its gif only in the settings.
is there something that can be tweeked in the program for doing the conversion from JPG to GIF
I’ll have a look at the .swf creation as well, thanks
I keep finding it creates a file called NEWwebcamimage as well, and not just webcamimage, but cant see why this is?
I also have to keep everything in the webfiles directory as things stop working? is this a registry setting? as I get it to create in seperate folders, eg webcam, alldayvideo, and the files get created there, I re-point the bits in WD to point to the new folders but then things stop working
I guess I am missing a step somewhere
its the picture side I am more interested in than the rest of it
I know there is the wd Live, but what could/would be nice is something like WD live, but with just basic weather info, but more picture features, like current image/last 24 hours/and selection of time lapse videos/stills back as far as hard disk space allows, maybe creating a new folder for each day
in the separate wdwebcamcapture program (if you are using that)
you can set to create a gif as well as a jpg image
do not set the web cam image to be created in the alldayvideo folder
that is reserved for the all day video creation
best thing is to set it to be created in the webfiles folder
best thing is to post some screen shots of your settings (including the file save tab in the separate wdwebcamcapture program)
or .zip and email me your settings
I tried a new file name and pointed , current webcam image/main settings - load/set the webcam image file, to that file, and it works once then goes back to the cloud/rain icon and all the gifs created after that have new appended to the file name so never get uploaded/turned into animation
if there are errors under view, program event log
then I would delete all the time stamped and numbered web cam images (jpg and gif)
and let them get recreated
another problem I see in the settings screen shots you have put up
is you have set to copy the created files to the webfiles folder but then you have ticked to save the files to the webfiles folder
so you need to do one or the other but not both
also tick to produce moviemakerlog.txt
so that you can check that for debug info
I also need to see screen shots of the first tab in the web cam setup in WD and then the animated web cam tab too
ok in the program event log I am getting
cannot create file c:\wdisplay\webfiles\animatedwebcam.gif
the process cannot access the file because its being used by another process
invalid class typecast
how are the all day video files looking in
C:\wdisplay\alldayvideo\videolastday.mp4
C:\wdisplay\alldayvideo\videolastday.flv
re the error, the invalid type cast means that a jpg is being used for the animated web cam
which is why I was wanting to see the other tabs (screen shots) in the web cam setup
ok I did an FLV all day video and it was fine for a few hours worth, looked quite good, then went all blocky from about 1pm to the end of the day…
I am currently wiping/moving out all the pictures and movie files and want to start it again, its geting very messy with all the jpgs being dropped in the webfiles dir.
if I get the webcam program to save to the webcam dir, last time i couldnt get any picturews on the web site, any suggestions as to a good config?
Just logged back on and one bit I dont understand is the current webcam image.
I deleted all the jpg and gif files, let it create the file webcamimage.gif and that then became the current webcam image, but it hasnt changed since and all new gifs are called NEWwebcamimage.gif, then newwebcamimage1…2…3 and so on?
are you refering to on the web page?
you want to display the jpg as the current web cam image
in the ftp/internet setup, web cam upload setup
set the jpgwebcam.jpg
as the URL on the web page (bottom left hand corner)
try that
(then restart WD)
also do you have wdwebcamcapture set to save the files to where IIS is serving them up?
now that we know you are running your own server, we know more how to help you out
makes a difference