Thread: One-Click WebCam Recording!

Just couple of (much) smaller issues:

1. Any suggestion on the best Audio codec? 4kpbs is horrible, staticy and broken everywhere of course. But I can't seem to have much luck with others, they all seem to increase CPU utilization more than one would expect. I mean, 800x600@15fps is 20%, with audio on, pretty any encoder, it gets to 40-56% (depending on encoder). 960x720 about 24% (no audio), 56%-60% (with audio).

2. The start minimized option actually sends it to the Windows 7 tray, and it's not obvious it's there. I started like 4 copies until I realized they were indeed being opened (the tray in the Win7 hides most icons under one). I actually like that behavior, but I thought you should know. Also, the overlayed minimize button does not send it to tray, however, but to the taskbar. There is no way to send the program to tray, unless restarting it.

3. My camera supports 960x720@30 fps, as 800x600 @ 30fps, many others. However, the list on the settings menu only show ONE resolution "640x480 (30)" at @30fps, all the others has a (15) indicating 15fps -- and that's what's being recorded. The FPS setting even when set at @30 or @29.xxx fps does not change the file being recorded: it's still 15fps.

4. Is there any way to tamper with the number's displayed? (say in the registry or text file). How difficult is it? Say to change the time or speed readings right before/as they are being recorded? Just because I was asked about it and didn't know for sure.

5. Number of files = 0 means no limit, right? As in MB limit=0, means unlimited, correct?

Thanks!

RH

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

Just couple of (much) smaller issues:

1. Any suggestion on the best Audio codec? 4kpbs is horrible, staticy and broken everywhere of course. But I can't seem to have much luck with others, they all seem to increase CPU utilization more than one would expect. I mean, 800x600@15fps is 20%, with audio on, pretty any encoder, it gets to 40-56% (depending on encoder). 960x720 about 24% (no audio), 56%-60% (with audio).

PCM should sound good. I always thought it was 16 bit, but could be 8 bit? There's always uncompressed.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

2. The start minimized option actually sends it to the Windows 7 tray, and it's not obvious it's there. I started like 4 copies until I realized they were indeed being opened (the tray in the Win7 hides most icons under one). I actually like that behavior, but I thought you should know. Also, the overlayed minimize button does not send it to tray, however, but to the taskbar. There is no way to send the program to tray, unless restarting it.

Start minimized isn't working for me on Win7. It doesn't seem to do anything, so I'll see what changed and try something different.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

3. My camera supports 960x720@30 fps, as 800x600 @ 30fps, many others. However, the list on the settings menu only show ONE resolution "640x480 (30)" at @30fps, all the others has a (15) indicating 15fps -- and that's what's being recorded. The FPS setting even when set at @30 or @29.xxx fps does not change the file being recorded: it's still 15fps.

The listing just shows what the camera reports as its capabilities. Those are stored in the driver. Minicam sets it to whatever you request though, so something else drops it back.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

4. Is there any way to tamper with the number's displayed? (say in the registry or text file). How difficult is it? Say to change the time or speed readings right before/as they are being recorded? Just because I was asked about it and didn't know for sure.

Tampering is illegal. I actually made it difficult on purpose.

Originally Posted by RipplingHurst

5. Number of files = 0 means no limit, right? As in MB limit=0, means unlimited, correct?

Correct. Files, MB and time all use 0 as unlimited.

Originally Posted by Curiosity

PCM should sound good. I always thought it was 16 bit, but could be 8 bit? There's always uncompressed.

I'll try that, thanks.

Start minimized isn't working for me on Win7. It doesn't seem to do anything, so I'll see what changed and try something different.

It does start, but it's hidden with all the other icons under the tray icon thing. Check your process manager before and after. At least that's how it works here. I'll double check that.

The listing just shows what the camera reports as its capabilities. Those are stored in the driver. Minicam sets it to whatever you request though, so something else drops it back.

Hummm. I'll see what else I can do. Maybe I can modify the driver .inf settings then.

Tampering is illegal. I actually made it difficult on purpose.

As it should be! Thanks, good to hear that, that's what I'd expect to hear from my possible expert witness.

Correct. Files, MB and time all use 0 as unlimited.

Got it

Any plans for an archieve button, like on the old Capture! ? It's useful on long trips, you don't have to search and move the interesting files. Right after an accident or funny incident you press a button, you know the relevant files will be safe somewhere and will never be erased later in the trip.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Curiosity

800x600? Wait, what? OK, I haven't tested it yet. I think it needs an auto-color based on luminance. That looks a little dark on top and bottom.

Now I realized that when you pause the video on WMP7 to take a screen shot, it darkens the top and bottom part of the screen. It looks fine in the car!

Sorry I didn't catch this up earlier!

Well, it still might be a good feature to add an automatic text color.

I don't think it would be admissable as evidence because it could easily be post-edited, but then it could be verified by calculating time over distance with the video and such.

I never know what the archive was for! Now I understand. Mine just dumps all the video to the home PC when I drive up so I never thought about it. So it moves everything or just the last file?

Originally Posted by Curiosity

I never know what the archive was for! Now I understand. Mine just dumps all the video to the home PC when I drive up so I never thought about it. So it moves everything or just the last file?

When you press the archive button you could save the current file, move it to a sub-folder and start recording a new one. So it would be pretty much to force using a new file and saving the previous one to a different folder.

Originally Posted by Curiosity

Well, it still might be a good feature to add an automatic text color.

I don't think it would be admissable as evidence because it could easily be post-edited, but then it could be verified by calculating time over distance with the video and such.

I never know what the archive was for! Now I understand. Mine just dumps all the video to the home PC when I drive up so I never thought about it. So it moves everything or just the last file?

No, please, don't make it move everything. I have tons of files to sort through that all start with my garage wall, only some actually move away from it, not very interesting to look at!

I do think it should be admissiable as evidence, but one that should corroborate other evidence (skid marks, impact on other cars, time over distance measurements, etc.). There is a difference between proof and evidence, and although a video is not definitive proof, it stil qualifies as (one among others) evidence. Better (I hope) than the testimony of some old hack on the street saying, "yeah, he was coming too fast - those soup'up cars always do; this was bound to happen" etc.

The archive should save at least the last two files, because you never know if you're saving only about a second or two of the last file. I think Capture actually saved just one, if the last one was larger than 30 sec, or the last two, if it was <30 sec. It's important to be able t save it to a diferent directory (as Capture! did), usually it's an old USB card or directory that is automatically synchronized with your home computer. And then it should start recording a new file.

Humm maybe it could be made to sync over the internet evertime the car is parked and it stays 15 min ing nothing, when the doors are locked or the IGN is cutoff. If the file is less than 250Mb it's doable over 15 min and 3G. But let's not digress.

I also noticed today that it does not start minimized (you were right all along). I'll test later if it's because it's set to start recording and previewing.

You make a good point. Video of any kind wins over testimony of some stranger. Strange or not.

I'll start on the archive feature soon.

does miniCam constantly write to the file? I think RRCam would only write the file when hitting stop recording. If it crashed mid-recording nothing was actually written to the file. In case of a major system malfunction like in a vehicle crash it would suck to loose those last seconds of video footage before power went out.