Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Question: 

Can I use more than one camera? 

Answer:

Question: 

Do you have any recommendations on capture devices that allow to access multiple cameras?

Answer:

Please understand that I cannot give you detailed information about working hardware components. The market is changing too fast.
Usually New USB cameras should work if you select the WDM/Direct Show driver. It is not a problem to use the same type of camera several times, because SupervisionCam enumerates all and give them a unique name. The maximum of such cameras is limited by the USB (1.1) bandwidth and therefore also of the settings for these cameras. 
For instance: I can use 4 USB cameras with a resolution of 320*240, if I compare the images every 0.5 seconds. If I need more cameras, a higher resolution or refresh rate, I can add a second USB controller (not a hub). Some newer motherboards already have 2 integrated USB controllers. You can check the current USB bandwidth usage, if you open the device manager and check the properties for the USB controller.
It is also possible to work with more than one PCI based capture devices. I tested SupervisionCam successfully on a PC with 4 TV boards with a Philips chipset.

Question: 

Can I use a PCI capture board with 4 or more analog input channels?

Answer:

SupervisionCam will work at least with one input channel. Starting with version 3.03 SupervisionCam is also able to support all channels if the device driver is WDM based. After configuring the first channel, open a new configuration ("Configuration", "New") and select the same device with the next input channel. 
Hint: Some TV boards can be used as a 2 channel capture device, if they have separate inputs for Composite Video and S-VHS (the TV tuner may be the 3. channel that can be used with special hardware). It is also possible to connect two analog cameras to one S-VHS input with some boards. But this requires exact knowledge of the hardware, a special cable and at least some registry modifications.
Hint: The switching from one to the next channel takes some milliseconds to resynchronize the image. SupervisionCam uses the default wait value of 300 milliseconds. You can change this if you close SupervisionCam, open the configuration files *.svc with a text editor like notepad and change the value for "Wait time for channel synchronization".
This feature is not supported for old Video for Windows drivers.

Question:

SupervisionCam uploads only 50 images to the server. Is this a bug?

Answer:

No. The source file for the HTML protocol is also the script for the FTP upload and the default sample "Source.htm" reduces the number to 50. Search in the document the text "TableEntryStart Max = 50" and change it to the number you prefer. If you remove "Max = " SupervisionCam uploads all images.

Question:

My camera has a high noise especially in dark environment. I don't find settings that allow a day and night surveillance. Any suggestions?

Answer:

Please try a resolution of 24 bit per pixel for your capture device. This resolution contains the most detailed image information.