ForestCat

Hi, I'm an IT consultant/integrator researching/considering DVR boards from a number of manufacturers. What little I know at this stage is from downloading every .pdf manual I can find, endless googling, and lurking on various forums for a month or so. With that in mind... I need to be able to view a 320 x <=320 live feed from the host system on a Palm-based PDA/Phone, i.e. Treo 650/700p. The browser in ROM is kinda lame, but marginally useable. IBM java is available for this platform, as are a couple of alternative browsers, but ActiveX is out of the question. If a native Palm client exists for any of the DVR packages out there, I haven't found it. I've tried using VNC/RDP to access a system running online web demos of the popular packages out there, but the gui's are overkill for the purpose & there are huge redraw/refresh/scaling problems. All I really need is to be able to select between the cams, preferably with hotkeys on the phone itself, and ideally be able to play back the video that was recorded by the camera(s) that triggered the alert. I'd be happy with a package that would let me "roll my own" web client layout, as sparse as I like, without a huge amount of coding. And it has to be viewable on ANY browser. Does this exist without mucking too deeply in the bowels of some pricy SDK? Thanks for any & all feedback. I'm spinning my tires in the mud at this point.

I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but I took a ride to the local Verizon store, & tried to view the online demos of Geovision, Video Insight, Rory's site, etc. on every Windows Mobile or Palm device in the place. No good. I don't have anything w/ Win CE, so I couldn't tell you whether that would work or not.

Hi, I had been hoping to base a home security system solely upon a pc w/ dvr card and carefully placed cameras w/ finely tuned motion masks, and pager/dialer and email notification. The more I'm reading, though, the more it looks as though that is a path strewn with incessant false alarms. I do, however, welcome the experiences & opinions of those who may have succeeded, as well as failed. I'd like to be wrong about this. Here is the bigger question, though. Can a pc-based system, properly spec'd, built, and tweaked, using a DVR card, (s/w compression) cameras (8-12) and a nice compliment of external sensors, be robust enough to be relied upon as the sole "brains" of a security system? The configurability of such a system really appeals to me. I know a pc can be stable, assuming daily reboots. The app software is the wildcard... Thanks for your input.

Hi, I'm currently looking pretty critically at the capabilities of the various packages out there. Bear in mind, I have no hands on at this stage, only .pdf knowledge. While the Geo seems ahead of the pack in terms of its actual surveillance param configurability, I've gotta agree that the notifications almost seem like an afterthought. I perhaps just need to look closer, so I'm open to correction. For example, one of the other packages has this wonderful feature that allows you to insert system variables into your email templates, i.e $$C which would be camera#, $$S for sensor #, etc (I'm paraphrasing the hell out of that, but you get the idea). Yes, email notification is by no means immediate, even assuming push email, i.e. blackberry, etc. The ideal scenario: Some event happens. The system dials whatever numbers you need in the order you need. It "reads" from the event log (text to speech synth, or, you could prerecord voice snippets tied to all possible events, I suppose. The system simultaneously fires off detailed emails & jpg's to your cell phone, regular pop3, & a webmail account, which, because of the voice notification, you know you need to check RIGHT NOW. And, the killer feature: The email contains an https:// link to the recorded video of the event, viewable from ANY browser, without the need to download/install any vb controls, etc. My thinking is that when something legitimate triggers an event, seconds count. When its a false alarm, its still a legitimate alarm, until you KNOW its a false alarm. Seconds still count. I get the feeling that most of the surveillance software is designed with the assumption that someone will be constantly monitoring the system, or within walking distance of a terminal & just need to be "alerted" to switch to a specific view, etc. I see a need for more support for those who will not always be within short reach of either the host system, or a system w/ Internet Explorer & broadband. So yes, I think your idea is good.

Thanks for all the fedback. It's nice to know that I'm sort of on the same page with those who actually know what they're doing The seperate alarm system is not a cost issue, its an integration issue. I'm trying to find a solution that will provide a common remote interface to my surveillance, contact, sensor, and notification subsystems, yet provide the redundancy of a seperate multi-zone panel for the "trusted" h/w sensors. Rory, the GE looks promising, but before I get my heart set on it, I went googling for price. Couldn't find it. That's scary... As for expecting a war, well, who knows. I've lived on this street for twenty six years. Twenty six years ago, I had some musical instruments stolen from my basement. Found the stuff that was too heavy to carry far, i.e. Fender Twin Reverb, etc, stashed in the woods for later retreival. Probably an "inside" job, nothing was trashed. But I'll never forget the feeling of opening that door & seeing the most important stuff in my young wanna-be rockstar life GONE. The dust settled, and we had 2 very peaceful decades, windows open, doors unlocked, keys in the ignition. Stupid? I guess. But you 'd have to see the neighborhood to understand. Ozzie & Harriet suburbia. So three weeks ago, my next door neighbor is broken into, between 3-10PM. Brazen as hell, small casement window in view of the street. Trashed. Jewelry & silverware gone. Some heirlooms, not replaceable. Detective is at my door a few days later, asking questions about hearing gunshots Sunday morning. Telling tales of a troubled teen on the block, who's already been nabbed selling weed out of his single mom's house. Tales of late night traffic & taxis from one of the truly seedy urban jungles 10 miles from here. But the bigger problem is that I now live in a nearly non-securable home that I took ten years to design & build from scratch. I've got 85 freakin' windows and a half dozen glass sliders. Not a big house, maybe 2400sf, but a very cool tree fort kind of place with exposed beams, lofts, etc. Security was just never an issue. I grew up on sixty acres in the pine barrens. Card carrying redneck/country boy. So I built a place behind the last house on a cul-de-sac. 250' driveway, house surrounded on three sides by a 30' ravine & 60+ acres of wetlands/openspace. Will there be a war? Probably not. Will I ever again be able to go to a party/dinner/work whatever without wondering if my place was "next"? Probably not. This is going to be some very expensive peace of mind, probably nothing more, I hope. I've always slept with an 18" mossberg & an HK USP45 within reach. I've also considered the irony of my fiance & myself winding up dead or worse because I didn't know anyone was in the house until the bedroom door got kicked in. "Home invasions" are on the rise in my state, and with the enormous illegal immigration/gang problems reportedly spreading to the suburbs, its probably only a matter of time. This was overdue, and I want to get it right the first time, so I genuinely appreciate all your advice. P.S. No personal problems with weed, just the element it's attracting to my street. Although I gave it up myself in '91 when I got my pilot's license, I think there are worse social problems...

Thanks VST_Man, I didn't want to put too much info in the first post, but yes, planning is everything. I'm moving all of my electric/cable/phone service indoors, including the phone interface box. Screw Verizon if they don't like it. Burying the rest, making the point of entry into the basement tough to find without a metal detector. Putting a hasp & padlock on the electric meter box. Hiding interior service behind false wall. Big UPS's on everything. Plan A, B, C, etc. Beams in the yard, the works. I've got a great place to stash the server. Yes, my thinking is any audible alarm or dialout the police, etc. will be tied to good dual tech motion sensors. However, I will probably want any important video events to fire me off a page & an email jpeg to my phone, so I can judge. What I was wondering was whether you trust the relay/sensor/dialer capabilities of a good pc based dvr card & software enough to eliminate a dedicated alarm panel w/ multiple zones, keypads, a dialer, etc. I like the integration/programmability of the pc approach, but I haven't seen anything that gives me the convenience of, say, being able to use a remote control or keypad to arm pre-configured groups of sensors(zones) at bedtime, etc. Perhaps the real question is whether there are any panels out there that can meaningfully interface with any of the pc solutions, such that the panel could send data about events to the pc, which could page & e-mail, record on specific cams, etc. Yes, I know I'm asking a lot

Thanks, guys As long as it's just javascipt & jpeg's it sure ought to work. I have a Tungsten T3 that I can connect through my lan/wan & see what happens with that. Different browser altogether.

Rory, It was working fine in Firefox when I tried it from a pc, but the video would not display on the Palm Treo a few seconds later. Its definitely the phone, but I'm trying to figure out what's missing. There are essentially no codecs on the phone. Is the java/javascript of your page physically handling the buffering/display of the individual frames of the streaming video, or is there some kind of helper app (part of the OS, the browser, etc) required on the browser end? Thanks. Opera Mini, which is a Java-based browser (using IBM's Websphere Microenvironment), is also installed on the Treo, but this combination doesn't work any better than the stock browser for these streaming cameras. I wish someone on the forums had a Treo 650/700p and could tell me if they have ever found a way to recieve video from a webcam, DVR, etc.

The Treo can't display video from any of theses sites. I wish it were a configuration issue, or something stupid that I'm missing. Its just that there isn't much to configure in this browser. If I might ask a newbie question... Am I correct assuming that the cards which require activex on the webclient end are using some sort of proprietary streaming protocol? Rory, what protocol, and what codecs, if any would be required on a webclient using, say, firefox to view your sites? Thomas, same question for the Insight demo? Maybe this is some kind of codec issue. The phone is capable of playing a few video formats from its memory card, but I'm just not sure what it will take to allow it to stream video through its limited browser. Man I hope this is doable somehow... Thanks again.

Rory, Thank you for your quick reply, and thank you on behalf of everyone you've so generously helped in this forum. You're a saint among men;-) . I already pm'd Thomas about the Insight solution, having found that searching the forum before I posted. It doesn't work on my Verizon Treo650. Getting a box w/ a red x where the video should be. The page is a ".aspx", thought it may have been acative server page? Dunno. I've pm'd you for your link, I'll try it straightaway.