Non-ActiveX WebClient Solution??

[ForestCat 0]

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.

[rory 0]

GeoVision Has Java based webclient as well ..

Video Insight has the Javascript "Image Push" type ..

 

Either of these work in most all browsers ...

 

You can test Video Insights from their web page .. see banner at top ..

for Geo send me a PM and Ill let you test from my server ..

[ForestCat 0]

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.

[ForestCat 0]

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 0]

You have to let me know when you are going to log on as i dont have it enabled all the time

 

Those demos I posted are for Firefox ... basically Java and Javascript ..

[ForestCat 0]

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.

[rory 0]

Unfortunately our Telco down here is not to that stage yet. . no wireless internet yet let alone internet on phones.. .

 

Anyways ... the javascript should work, all it does is refresh the images that are being created from the java applet .. but you have to have the java applet running somewhere in another browser for the images to be updated .. (for now) either way you should see an image .. as all it is is basic javascript and image tags ..

 

Rory

[Thomas 0]

We aren't using anything really tricky. The image displayed is a jpeg, and we use a javascript comand to force refresh and ask for the next image. There shouldn't be any codec issue at all because in this case it's not video. Just a single JPEG image.

 

This is going to be out of left field but could you try it with a Palm not tied to Verizon?

[ForestCat 0]

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.

[cctv_down_under 0]

Is there anyreason why you can not just use the OS Pocket PC version instead of relying on the browser?

 

Also I agree that JPEG should work, i had this issue with Macs a while back and only JPEG would work because of the codecs...BTW does anyone know if Mac's can see the Geo Mpeg4 web browser multicam interface?

[ForestCat 0]

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.

[rory 0]

With my site ... you'll have to let me know ahead of time as Its my PC and I dont have that feature turned on all the time, since i never actually use the remote video myself (always home) .. but it should work the same as Video Insights, which all it is doing is refreshing a Jpeg image.

 

Once the device can see Jpeg Images, and supports Javascript, should be ok .. If it doesnt support javascript then it should at least see a fixed image.