Multiple cameras...

Questions? Suggestions? Need help? Talk about anything related to Yawcam...
Post Reply
marcus

Multiple cameras...

Post by marcus »

Can I use Yawcam with several webcams on the same computer?
On diffrent http ports?

/M
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

I'm afraid the short answer is: NO.

But, it might work if you ran multiple instances of Yawcam. (One for each camera.) The only problem with that is that you will probably get errors because of the shared settings file. To solve this you have to make an installation for each camera. (Each installation in different directories.)

i.e. You have two cameras and install Yawcam two times:
first in c:\program files\Yawcam_cam1
and a second time in c:\program files\Yawcam_cam2

Start with yawcam.exe in each directory and change the webservers to run at different port numbers.

Complicated? Yes, and probably not even worth trying...
I believe there is a bunch of other webcam software that is much more suitable for this than Yawcam.

/malun
Al

Software for multi-cams

Post by Al »

Hi,

Like your Yawcam. It works nicely and easy to use. However I would like to do multi-cams with one PC. As you said you know a few other, would you mind mentioning them, as I am fairly new and I would like to make use of my 2 webcams at the same time.

Al
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

My first suggestion is webcam xp, but it is not freeware. On the other hand I think it works nice with multiple cameras.
Another software is "WheresJames Webcam Publisher Beta". This one doesn't support image streaming though.

But make a search in google and you will find more.

/malun
RRRRyan
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:41 am

Post by RRRRyan »

Okay, this is probably PITS (Pie in the Sky), but kind of a brainstorm. If you at some point were to implement multiple camera support. It seems the simple way would be to add the ability to choose a "profile" or settings file and have users run multiple instances of Yawcam. I have some requests...

1. The ability to turn off the webserver but leave on the stream.

2. Support for multiple streams on one port based on a parameterized "channel"??? I know it sounds silly, but I've run into some issues with folks who only have a very few open ports. It would secondarily simplify firewall settings, which doesn't matter much to me, but would be nice.

3. I believe this is impossible, but it would be awesome if the stream could run on port 80 right next to a webserver on that port. Some folks don't have any other port open. I've done my share of sockets programming and can't think of a way to work it but you're probably smarter than me. :-)
Jii
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:46 am

Post by Jii »

3. I believe this is impossible, but it would be awesome if the stream could run on port 80 right next to a webserver on that port. Some folks don't have any other port open. I've done my share of sockets programming and can't think of a way to work it but you're probably smarter than me.
I suggested the very same thing some time ago, but after testing it myself it proved to be impossible.

If you have a web server running of port 80 (like I do), Yawcam can see that port is open and refuse to cooperate, which is actually a good thing, since there's no way Yawcam's own server and the server's web server on the same port can tell a difference to whom the HTTP request is sent to.

Even if you would manage to somehow force both servers to the same port, sending the HTTP request would produce two simultaneous HTTP responses and probably become complete jibberish on the screen and/or crash the browser. :D

The idea is extremely good, I admit.
RRRRyan
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:41 am

Post by RRRRyan »

Perhaps if the protocol were UDP? Like I said.. PITS... thanks for the response.
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

RRRRyan wrote:It seems the simple way would be to add the ability to choose a "profile" or settings file and have users run multiple instances of Yawcam.
Sounds good.
RRRRyan wrote: 1. The ability to turn off the webserver but leave on the stream.
Good Idea.
RRRRyan wrote: 2. Support for multiple streams on one port based on a parameterized "channel"??? I know it sounds silly, but I've run into some issues with folks who only have a very few open ports. It would secondarily simplify firewall settings, which doesn't matter much to me, but would be nice.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean here... You want the possibility to connect to several webcams through one single port? Hmm... perhaps it could work, but I doubt it.
RRRRyan wrote: 3. I believe this is impossible, but it would be awesome if the stream could run on port 80 right next to a webserver on that port. Some folks don't have any other port open. I've done my share of sockets programming and can't think of a way to work it but you're probably smarter than me. :-)
As you guessed and as Jii pointed out this is not possible. It's sad, because it could be really nice. But this is how the sockets works...
Oh, and it doesn't matter if the protocol is UDP. It would still not work.

/malun
Jii
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:46 am

Post by Jii »

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here... You want the possibility to connect to several webcams through one single port? Hmm... perhaps it could work, but I doubt it.
Sounds impossible this way. The only probable solution would be to have a companion web server program that would categorize and isolate the webcams so that they won't intefere each other, collect stream data sent by them, and relay the data to a single TCP port with a possibility of choosing the stream that one would like to see from the address line, like this:

http://webcam.host.com/streamer?stream=1

Making this seamlessly work with Yawcam can be difficult.
Rille
Posts: 46
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2004 6:36 pm

Post by Rille »

Dont now if this is possible?

But if you made a third program running on port 80, that program checked if it was webcam or http request and then sent the request to the right program
Jii
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 10:46 am

Post by Jii »

But if you made a third program running on port 80, that program checked if it was webcam or http request and then sent the request to the right program
Sounds plausible in theory, but in practice, things get more complicated.

The Webcam and HTTP requests are practically the same thing. Only Javascript seems to make the difference in communication. A HTTP request is always sent first to make contact with Yawcam's internal web server and after that, Javascripts start up, because the internal web server is programmed to do so.

Since every communication with Yawcam's web server is always started by sending a HTTP request, it is quite impossible to have a third party program see if the request was for the a webcam. By my best knowledge, Malun would have to write a completely new and own protocol for Yawcam, so that it would work.

The other problem is the reservation of ports. Only one program at a time can take the "ownership" of the port. If there is a program, that has already taken the port, a second program can't take it. So if you have a web server already running on the port, the companion program would run, but would do nothing.

So if you were to have multiple cameras streaming data to one single port, it would need a complete rewrite of the internal web server code and/or terrifying modifications to the Java Applet and the handling of multiple streams at once.

Of course Malun has better knowledge about how big the operation would become. My best guess is that it would increase the minimum requirements of Yawcam a lot and would make configuring Yawcam complex. :?
malun
Site Admin
Posts: 1589
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2004 1:29 pm

Post by malun »

Yes, perhaps somethings like this could be done... but the benefits gained would not be worth the work load. :cry:

/malun
RRRRyan
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Dec 08, 2004 5:41 am

Post by RRRRyan »

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean here... You want the possibility to connect to several webcams through one single port? Hmm... perhaps it could work, but I doubt it."

Jii was pretty clear on that. I just thought it would be nice to use one port for multiple streams. No biggy, thanks for the great program!
Guest

Post by Guest »

I've tried using two cams with two instances of YAWCAM running and eventually got two cams streaming on two diferent port numbers. I had to change the port numbers for the streaming and http even though I've not got http enabled. I'm using version 0.2.5. What I need to know is will this work with six web cams as I need to install six webcams downstairs in a collages lab and then have access to them by all 16 PC's upstairs in the classroom.
RRRRyan wrote:"I'm not sure I understand what you mean here... You want the possibility to connect to several webcams through one single port? Hmm... perhaps it could work, but I doubt it."

Jii was pretty clear on that. I just thought it would be nice to use one port for multiple streams. No biggy, thanks for the great program!
Post Reply