Webcam Surveyor F.A.Q.

1. General Questions
2. Video Recording
3. Motion Detection
4. Stealth Mode
5. Broadcasting

General Questions

Will Webcam Surveyor work with my camera?

Webcam Surveyor will work with any webcam or video capture card that has WDM (Windows Driver Model) compatible drivers.

Can I use this product with my DV Camcorder?

Yes, as long as your DV Camcorder is WDM compatible, your Camcorder can act as a webcam.

How can I change the location of video files?

Open the Main Menu>Program Options>Video and bottom of the window you will find a "Store to Folder." Click on the button with folders icon and select necessary folder. In the same way you can change the folder for Motion Capture and Image Sequence.

Video Recording

Where I can take codecs for recording a high-quality compressed video?

Try using a third-party video compression codecs. We recommend that you use the ffdshow video codec. It is free and support many encoding algorithms such as mpeg-1, mpeg-2, mpeg-4, mjpeg, h.263, h.264. Click here to download it.

To change video compression setting open: Main Menu>Options>Program Options and select Video in Program Options dialog box. Select video codec from the list or check "No Compression" box if you want save uncompressed video. Click on Properties button to adjust video codec settings.

I'm changing some settings in ffdshow video codec and now get an error message.

Please try to reset ffdshow codec settings. To do this you need to open codec property page and click on "Presets" button. In the menu select Load all/Default.

Could you tell what would be the size of the AVI file if recorded for one hour?

File size depends on the used encoding algorithm and bitrate of the video and audio streams. For example:

• 1 hour encoded by MPEG 4 codec:
  Video: 640x480 30 fps ffdshow MPEG 4 codec 615 kbps
  Audio: GSM 6.10 codec 71.7 Kbps 1 channel 44.1 KHz
  Overall bit rate: 760 Kbps
  File size: 326 mb
• 1 hour encoded by H264 AVC and the same quality, but utilize more system resource:
  Video: 640x480 30 fps ffdshow H264 AVC codec 519 kbps
  Audio: GSM 6.10 codec 71.7 Kbps 1 channel 44.1 KHz
  Overall bit rate: 677 Kbps
  File size: 290 mb

Can I record both video and image sequencing at the same time?

You can record video and image sequence at same time. First, start the video recording and then start recording image sequencing. Make sure that "Limit number of images captured" box unchecked in Image Sequence options page.

Motion Detection

How to exclude a specific area where there is motion?

Open Main Menu>Program options>Motion Detection>Set Mask for Motion Detection and click on boxes in image to select exclusion area.

I use motion capture for registration of movements. However, the software creates video files in which there is no movement. How do I configure the detector?

The quality of motion detection depends primarily on the quality of images received by the camera. Try to change the sensitivity settings for motion detection. The higher of the sensitivity, the smaller the motion will be registered. In low light, it is recommended to use higher values of the detector sensitivity, but at very high values ​​also increases chance of false motion detection. If the image has a homogeneous small noise, then use the noise reduction. In poor light conditions and over a large time impossible to exclude a false detection.

Stealth Mode

I launched the software in stealth mode and forgot hotkeys. How can I restore the application?

To restore the application use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+4. In addition, you can uninstall software and then reinstall it.

I cannot open the program after I put it in stealth mode. I saved the hotkey code to restore the program but that is not working.

Perhaps hot keys that you use has already used by another program or reserved by the system. To reset the Webcam Surveyor settings you can run uninstall and then install it again.

Is there any way to install software in silent mode without any type of notification with pre-configured settings?

To use silent mode, you must run the setup with following command line:

WebcamSurveyor-setup.exe /SILENT

When Setup is silent, the wizard and the background window are not displayed but the installation progress window is.

WebcamSurveyor-setup.exe /VERYSILENT

When a setup is very silent this installation progress window not displayed.

To configure Webcam Surveyor after installation you can overwrite configuration file before program started. To do this you must first configure the program and copy the following file:

• If you use Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8:
  c:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\WebacamSurveyor\WSSettings.wss
• If you use Windows XP:
  C:\Documents and Settings\%UserName%\Application Data\WebacamSurveyor\WSSettings.wss

%UserName% - is user name on this computer.

Broadcasting

I’m trying to broadcast video from my webcam and when I opened Windows media player to test it, I’m received this error "Windows media player cannot play the file because a network error occurred. The server might not be available etc etc."

Please check that your firewall is not blocking the connection from application and used port is open. If you use Windows Firewall then do the following:

Open Windows Control Panel>System and Security>Windows Firewall and click on "Allow programs to communicate through Windows Firewall". Then add Webcam Surveyor to this list.

How to stream video over internet?

When broadcasting is started in the upper right corner, you can find blue button with "information" icon. Click on this button to see more information about connections (Local and Public URLs). Use public URL to view stream over Internet. If you use a router for Internet connection, then check the NAT settings of the router. The router must be exposed IP address of broadcasting station to Internet.

How to record stream on a remote computer?

You can do this by using third-party applications. See tutorial: how to record streaming with VLC Media Player.