|
| |
| NOTE |
Don't forget to choose your capture driver!
Click on the button Show WEBcam
to load the WEBcam window where you'll be able to choose the driver. |
| Active |
Check this box if you want to enable the WEBcam feature. |
| BMP Capture File |
Path and file name of the capture file in BMP format (the
default value is capture.bmp).
Any captured frame will be written to this file. If the file name contains
the string {counter}
then DynamIP will replace that string with the value of capture
counter (see details here). |
| JPG Capture File |
Path and file name of the capture file in JPG format (the
default value is capture.jpg).
Any captured frame will be written to this file.
Any captured frame will be written to this file. If the file name contains
the string {counter}
then DynamIP will replace that string with the value of capture
counter (see details here).
Note that the file in JPEG format is
usually a lot smaller (thanks to compression) than the file in Bitmap format. If you serve your WEBcam pictures directly from your own computer you can specify
the appropriate path and file name so that DynamIP writes the
newly capture frame directly to the proper web server directory (for example
C:\WWW\capture.jpg). |
| Load capture driver on demand only |
Leave this option unchecked unless you have other
software that needs to access the capture driver while DynamIP
is running (e.g. if you want to use NetMeeting while DynamIP is
running you might want to check this option). Note that checking
this option puts a heavy burden on your system if the capture interval is short because
the capture driver is loaded for each fram capture and then unloaded again... |
| Capture only if online |
Check this option if you want DynamIP to capture frames
while you're online only (checking this option reduces the load on your system
substantially if you're offline). |
For additional settings and to configure your video camera driver or your capture card, click on the button Show WEBcam and the following window will pop up
(your capture preview will
obviously be much nicer...):
Now you can choose your capture driver and you have access to all the features your hardware and software combination offers
(depends on video camera, capture card, and drivers). Note that DynamIP
has no control over the kind of capabilities that are available (e.g. video resolutions or
mixing/overlay capabilities). Through the three buttons Source,
Format, and Display you
have access to whatever features your WEBcam supports. If you check Preview
you should see a preview frame. The other settings are explained below:
| every ... sec |
Specify the capture interval in seconds (the
value must be between 0 (no capture refresh) and 65). This setting is very useful
if you serve your WEBcam pictures directly from your own computer (without uploading to a
remote server). Note that you can also instruct DynamIP
to grab a new frame just before the Remote File is uploaded.
Hence, if you don't need to update the capture files locally you can leave this entry
equal to 0. |
capture
counter
... max |
Leave both of these settings at 0
if you want DynamIP to write the newly grabbed frame to the
files you specified (the new frame simply overwrites the old frame).
If you want to keep a history of previously captured
frames, however, then this is the place where you can specify how many
'old' pictures you want to keep. For example, if you want DynamIP
to keep a history of 10 pictures you enter the value 10
into the field max.
The value of capture
counter reflects the index of the current
picture and DynamIP will automatically increase it each time
a new frame is grabbed (this value cannot be larger than the value of max).
For this to properly work, however, you also need to
tell DynamIP where to put the capture counter value in the
capture file name. You can do this by adding the string {counter}
to the file name(s). For example, instead of calling the JPEG capture file
capture.jpg
only you can call it capture{counter}.jpg.
DynamIP will then generate the following sequence of capture
files:
capture0.jpg
capture1.jpg
capture2. jpg
...
capture9.jpg
capture10.jpg
capture0.jpg (this will overwrite the previous file
capture0.jpg)
capture1.jpg (this will overwrite the previous file capture1.jpg)
(and so on...)
Hint: If you upload the JPEG files only there is
no need to keep a history of GIF files, i.e. you do not need
to specify the GIF file name as capture{counter}.gif. |
| Overlay Text |
DynamIP can add an overlay
text of your choice to any captured frame. While you can add any static
text of your choice, there are also a few dynamically updated place
holders you can use:
 | {date}
(will be replaced by your short date format) |
| {longdate}
(will be replaced by your long date format) |
| {time}
(will be replaced by your short time format) |
| {longtime}
(will be replaced by your long time format) |
Example: 
was produced by {longdate}
{time}
Note that the overlay text is not
added to the preview frame. You will only see the overlay text in
the saved files (BMP or JPEG). |
| JPG Quality |
Choose the JPG quality with the slider. The
value is between 0 and 100, the latter being equivalent to maximum
quality. The lower the quality the higher the compression (and hence the
smaller the file size). JPG quality settings between 30 and 40 are usually
still OK for web applications (small file size --> fast upload). You
need to find out the optimal setting for your environment by trial and
error. |
An example for setting up your WEBcam on a local or remote server is available here.
Last modified: April 05, 1999
OFFLINEvisitors since
March 1, 1999 |
Try DIPS - a free service
