HCam V2.1 (©) 2006, 2009 Jur van der Burg, www.digiater.nl

Hcam is a freeware application for viewing pictures from one or more network camera's made by Intellinet (type 550710 or 550291). Notice that these camera types  have been tested, but other types  may work as well.

More info about these camera's can be found here: www.networkipcamera.com

With this program it's possible to show an unlimited number of camera pictures in various windows, where every window can be adapted for everyone's taste. All pictures can be shown in individual windows or full screen.

After starting the program all camera’s need to be defined. To do that go to Camera->Setup.

The following settings are possible:

'Parameters':

Name:

Enter any name to reference the camera.

Description:

Enter any string describing the camera. The string is for display purposes only and will show up in the title bar for that camera.

Ip address:

Enter the IP address or DNS name of the desired camera.

Port:

Enter the port of the camera, the default is 8080.

Username / Password:

Enter the account name and password to access the camera.

Protocol:

Select Jpeg for a Jpeg type camera (like the 550710) or Mpeg4 for others (like the 550291).

Flip Image:

This allows the camera picture to be flipped horizontal, vertical or both for example if the camera is mounted upside down.

State:

Checking this field activates the camera. If unchecked the camera is configured, but will not be actively used.

Window priority:

This will determine the order of appearance of the camera windows when they are tiled or automatically arranged.

Frames/Sec:

This selects the number of frames per second that the camera will display. It will range from 0 (manual update) to unlimited. Moving the slider to the left of 0 will change the framerate to seconds per frame for slow updates.

On high resolutions the frame rate may not be reached, this is a restriction of the camera.

Refresh Key:

This selects the key to be used to manually update a camera window. It is only active when the framerate is selected as 0.

'Statistics':

Visibile:

Select to make the text visible.

Transparent:

Select to display the text on a transparent background. If selected then the background color cannot be changed.

Format:

The statistics allow display of various camera items in the camera window. The case is not important.

%n	Camera name
%d	description
%a	IP address
%p	Port number
%f	Frames per second
%x	Data received (Bytes per second)
%r	Total data received
%g	Total frames received
%i	Camera index
%t	Timestamp (Current time)
%l	Timestamp (Last update)
%s	Stop formatting
%u	Updating
%h	Stopped
%%	Percent sign
%\	Newline

Anything else will just show up as text.

Text color:

Select the color of the text to display.

Background color:

Select the color of the background of the text.

Select Ok to save the settings.
 
General preferences can be set with File->Preferences:

'Camera Window':

Frame Color:

Select the color of a frame drawn around the camera window.

Frame Width:

Select the width in pixels of the frame.

Frameless:

If selected then the individual camera windows will not have a frame. Double clicking on a camera window will enable or disable frameless mode.

Overlap frames:

Selecting this will cause the cameras to share a single frame. If all cameras will be displayed on a full screen deselect this item to fill the window completely.

Statusbar Format:

The selected string will be displayed in the statusbar at the bottom of the screen. The format parameters are the same as for an individual camera.

Transparency:

This selects the transparency of the camera windows. It allows a range of 5 to 100%.

'Error Window':

Text Color:

This selects the color of the text when an error message for a camera will be displayed.

Background Color:

This selects the background color of the error window.

'Main Window':

Frameless:

The main window will not have a frame if this item is selected. Double clicking the main window will enable or disable frameless mode.

Allow multiple instances:

Normally only one copy of the Hcam application can run at a time. Starting a second copy will bring the first one to the foreground and exit the second one. Selecting this item will allow multiple instances to run at the same time. Notice that this setting is global and the same for all profiles. Selecting or deselecting this may only have effect after stopping all running instances.

Disable Screensaver:

Selecting this will disable the Windows screensaver and display power management so that the cameras will remain visible at all times. If the application is minimized then this function will be disabled until the window is displayed again.

'Minimize':

Taskbar Only / Tray only / Taskbar and Tray:

This selects where the Hcam icon will be displayed.

Other settings:

Camera -> Autostart: if enabled then all active cameras will automatically start when the program is started. They will also restart after a connection failure. Any error will be displayed in the camera window.

The main window can be repositioned on the screen by selecting and dragging the window to its place if that main window is frameless. A camera window can be repositioned in the same way if it is frameless. If the main window is frameless then pressing the control key while dragging the camera window will allow it to be repositioned.

Double clicking the main window will switch to/from frameless mode for that window. The same is true for the individual camera windows.

The picture can be resized to any desired size, although the aspect ratio is fixed at 3:4.

If a camera window is obscured by other windows then that window will only be updated once every two minutes to keep the connection with the camera alive. Other updates are not done to preserve system resources. The same is true if the window is minimized.

Various profiles can be created with different settings, they can be saved under a unique name with File -> Save profile as... Save profile will save the current active profile. In the same menu is an option for deleting profiles. If a currently active profile is deleted (marked with a *) then the first defined profile will become the new active profile.

There are several keys that can be entered during runtime. Selecting a camera window and pressing a key has the following effect:

P:	Pause picture
R:	Resume picture
Space:	Toggle Pause / Resume
S:	Save camera picture as a BMP or JPG file
Ctrl-S:	Save picture window (including eventual statistics and other text) as a BMP or JPG file
C:	Copy camera picture to the clipboard
Ctrl-C:	Copy picture window (including eventual statistics and other text) to the clipboard

All settings can be imported or exported to a file. This item is only available when Hcam is running with Administrator privileges.

Hcam understands command line parameters. Currently only a profile name may be passed to start running that profile:

hcam -profile profilename

If an Mpeg4 camera is used (like the 550291) it must be set to generate a JPEG stream type. Decoding of Mpeg4 streams is not yet supported.

I cannot be held responsible for any damage or other malfunctioning due to the use of this application.

Author:

Jur van der Burg
The Netherlands.
Email: info@digiater.nl
Web: www.digiater.nl