Streaming video from webcam?

[jwax]

I've seen the topic mentioned before, but any new methods/software available to put my webcam on a website as live video?
Axis sells network cameras, but I want to use just a webcam.
Is it doable?

[dr_when]

I found that it was much easier to buy a sub $100 wireless webcam from Linksys (WVC54gc) and place it where ever I wanted in my house. It has web server software built in and lets me easily monitor my home from work or where ever I am. I know people that went the cheap PC camera route with success. I think it would be easier with a dedicated pc running as a Linux server to do this. It takes some playing around also with router tcp/ip settings and addresses.

[Newz2000]

I think it would be easier with a dedicated pc running as a Linux server to do this. It takes some playing around also with router tcp/ip settings and addresses.

I tried this in the winter of '04. It wasn't easy, that's for sure. The only way I can think to do it that would come anywhere near the defintiion of easy would be to use VLC on Linux as the server. VLC can grab input from a network stream or (on Linux) V4L devices like webcams and then stream them across a network. Then, another V4L client running on whatever OS you like can listen to the network stream and play the video.

I think that V4L can transcode the stream in the process, so maybe a java applet or QuickTime player can interpret the stream in a web-browser.

I was creating a 3d camera that used red/blue glasses and I ended up writing my own network client/server to get it done. Server was in python, client was in c#. It worked. Mostly.

[jwax]

Thanks guys! Appears to be a significant project to do cheap. I'll be cruising for a network cam on Ebay.

[hp]

Look up Windows Media Encoder on microsoft's website. It makes broadcasting streams really easy. You can stream videos, capture devices, audio, etc. You can almost do a web broadcast using it.

It does use alot of CPU and RAM though. It compreses the video with wmv streaming, which is pretty efficent.

Harrison