need (video) advice for setting up computer w/ multiple webcams for surveillance purpose

[stevexyz]

hi all, i'm setting up a new computer in my friend's store for suveillance purpose. he wana be able to monitor his shop at home and other places via internet. i'm planning on building his system w/ the following setup:

AMD Athlon XP 2100+
MSI KT3 Ultra ARU MOBO
512MB Crucial PC2700 DDR Ram
2x120GB WD or IBM IDE HDD (RAID 0)
1x100GB WD USB HDD (for backup purpose)

i'm thinking of using USB Webcams, maybe 4 of them. now my first question is: will multiple webcams setup on a single system work? altho theoretically it should work since USB suppose to be able to support more than 100 devices simultaneously, but has anyone of you guys ever tried this kind of setup before? did it work?

since the webcam is gona be pretty far away from the computer, far exceeds the length of the USB cable that come w/ the webcam, my second question is: will USB extension cable be able to solve the problem? i might be mistaken, but i heard that USB cables should not exceed a certain length (like 10-20ft) to ensure the quality of the data transfer, that might be why i couldnt find any USB extension cable that's longer than 15ft. but i'm pretty sure that i'll have to use cables that are longer than 15ft, then can i repeat the extension by adding another extension cable? would it cause any data transer problem since it exceeds 20ft?

ok, here's my last question: what good quality webcams and video card do you guys suggest?

thanks.


steve

 

[ScottMac]

Check out the wireless cameras over on X10.com.

If there's a 2.4 gig wireless phone or other 2.4gig devices (like access points), there may be some interference.

fwiw

scott

 

[stevexyz]

thx for your info. i've checked out those wireless cameras before. the multi-cam kit they offer only has one PC video input. they take snap shot pix from switching cameras in the preset time period, if you want stream video, you have to select only one camera to view. n' on your PC, it only lets you watch the live video, it doesnt record it. it only takes snap shot pix. but my friend wants stream videos from all cameras at the same time and record video files in the hard disk.

i already found a very good surveillance computer program that can be used to monitor multiple webcams in one single system. it can record live video from all cameras simultaneously. the program lets us watch stream video over the internet too. so what i need now is to confirm that the computer will accept multiple video inputs from the USB webcams, and repeat extansion USB cables will not cause any the data transfer problem, then i'll be set.

thx again.


steve

 

[stevexyz]

anyone knows?

 

[HandMan]

I am also dissappointed with X10. Their software is really poor. I have also setup a multiple camera system on one computer and I found that it is not possible to have multiple camera streaming at the same time. Although USB is touted to support multiple peripherals, it can only do that when the peripherals do not need constant bandwidth. When you stream video, that bandwith will be reserved by that one camera. For example, my ToUCam will use 70% of the USB bandwidth when I am streaming. As a result, the other cameras won't even be recognized by the OS. However when you are not streaming and merely capturing say everry 5 seconds then no problem. One other caveat is that each camera must use different protocol to capture images. For example, I cannot use 2 ToUCams b/c they both use WDM protocol. However if you have cameras that each have a different protocol then you can view all your cams at once and perform captures, not streaming. For example, I have WDM on one cam and X10 on another. This is the only way I know that this can be done. Another way around this is of course, each cam is on a seperate computer. You may know of a different method to do this. I am interested in the software that you say you have that can see all the cameras. Let me know what it is b/c I have scour the internet and no one knows of any such software for USB.

One other possibility is that you buy a PCI card with AV input and get away from USB. This will cost more which I am tempted to begin investing in.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

What about using something like this or this. It looks like you'd better budget for $500 to $1k just for the camera equipment and capture cards. The first looks like it's using BNC cables, the second RCA. Good luck!

 

[stevexyz]

thank you all for your helpful info, i'm now searching on the internet for more info on the multi-input video capture cards, i think i'm gona use this kind of card in the system. thank you again.

the program i found is call Watcher from http://www.digi-watcher.com/index.html it's pretty cheap too, only $35. very good for multi-webcams. but if i'm going for multi-input video capture card, then i should be getting free software from the card that does the same job.