Add Public .JPG Address

cstout

Hello! I have a random usage question regarding adding a public webcam to SecuritySpy. There are two webcams in town that I would like to add to my list of cameras just for the sake of watching them out of curiosity and checking weather conditions since I work inside of a building inside of a warehouse which means no windows.

Anyway, there are two cameras that I'm interested in adding and they are both simple web addresses and the cameras save an updated .jpg file every five minutes. There's no login or camera information. Just an extremely simple web address to a .jpg file that updates from the camera every five minutes. Is there a way to add a .jpg web address as a camera? Is anything like this even possible?

The benefit of adding it would be that I wouldn't have to keep another browser window open and refresh manually every time I want an updated image.

I hope this isn't too strange of a question/request. I'd be happy to know if this is already possible.

jstn

Do you know the make/model of the cameras you are viewing? You probably need to construct the proper URL for that camera first in your browser, then add it as a camera in SS.

Best,

Justin

cstout

Hi Justin, thanks for the quick reply. That's the logical thing to do but these cameras are publicly available via a link to a .jpg file that is updated every five minutes. You're not actually linked to the camera at all; just the jpg the camera produces on a five minute timer. All I have to work with is a link to a jpg file that is updated. Simple as http://example.com/cameras/cam1.jpg

Ben

Hi - this is possible by doing the following (using your example URL):

- In the Video Device Settings window, create a new network device.
- Set the device type to "Manual configuration”.
- Enter the address, e.g. example.com
- Select "HTTP” from the Format menu.
- Enter cameras/cam1.jpg as the Request

The main problem with this is that SecuritySpy has a minimum frame rate that you can specify in the Video Device Settings window of 1fps. So it will be requesting a new frame very second, which is wasteful if the actual image updates only every 5 minutes.

cstout

Thanks, Ben. That works great! Exactly what I was looking for. Maybe, if I'm not the only one with this odd request a future build could have a manually specified refresh rate instead or in addition to framerate? Just throwing it out there. I agree requesting a new frame every second is wasteful, but for now it's doing exactly what I was hoping for.

Ben

Great to hear it's working.

In a future update I'll see if we can modify this field so it can accept a fractional frame rate, so that you can specify, for example, 0.1 fps for 1 frame every 10 seconds and so on.

Turbo

I'll add my vote to this proposed frame rate modification. I was looking for a solution to this very thing today. My state offers interstate highway cameras as a simple jpg link that refreshes every 60 seconds, and I wanted to monitor a camera near an exit I use frequently.

The current lowest option of 1fps means I'm making 60 queries to that URL for every image update. At some point I'd think state IT people might make notice of the excessive requests from my IP address. Yes, this is probably an unusual use case, but it would be a welcome feature addition.

You may recall I had a question awhile ago about frame limiting a remote Foscam that was being graciously hosted on a neighbor's wifi (therefore needing bandwidth conservation), but I solved it via a supported Foscam custom URL query. Having that built in as a standard SS option for all cameras would be useful.

Thanks.