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Windows Media files only??????????
By: JoelHo Rank: Newbie Topics: 4 From: USA	Added: 11/13/2011 - 09:49 PM I am using AbelCam and it works great. However I am using multiple cameras (just 2 now, but will go to 6) on a remote XP Pro PC and it works fair. The PC is a moderately fast machine, but not great. So the result s not as good as I need. AbelCam works GREAT and does seem to make the best use of the resources it finds, but a workstation is NOT as powerful as a full server. It is just cheaper LOL Bandwidth is also always a problem and the site I am using it on does not have enough. AbelCam can act as a web server and it can also send windows media files out. Would it use fewer resources on the PC and less bandwidth if the AbelCam JUST sent windows media files out and did NOT use the AbelCam web server web server? Personally I much prefer the AbelCam web pages since AbelCam is well designed for customization of the web pages. I think there is minimal customization possible of the media player. However it might be much faster for multiple cameras to use only WNV. Please give me your thoughts and comments. Joel in Houston PS: YES YES, I know get a faster machine and I will when I can. Joel in Houston, Texas
By: MelvinG Rank: Magna Cum Laude Topics: 661 From: Los Angeles, USA	Added: 11/14/2011 - 01:42 AM SSE can probably break it down for you better than I can as far as the benefits of turning off the webserver, etc. Here are a few things to think about for now... There comes a time in every video installation where you've gotta step back, look at your CPU meter, frame rates, resolutions and bandwidth... and ask yourself: does it really need to be that big and that fast?? The answer is most likely "no". 1024x768 video at 29.95 fps just ain't gonna happen without an octo-core server and your own personal OC-48 trunk. Making / serving wmv does not require the AbelCam webserver to be On, but it's also not free. It takes a decent amount of CPU to encode wmv, and even though the webserver is Off you still have the overhead of frame capture into AbelCam to run previews and motion detection and whatnot. WMV is definitely easier on bandwidth than any of the other supported formats. If you were to use only WMV with AbelCam webserver Off you lose all PTZ control. Not sure if that's an issue for your application or not. Also, with webserver On, WMV and PTZ do not mix well: WMV has buffer delay of ~10 seconds and it gets annoying and confusing when you move the PTZ but you don't see it move in the WMV feed until 10 seconds later. For my applications I find that 320x240 at 5 fps is quite adequate. At that resolution and speed, I get the most efficient CPU utilization by using MJPEG streams (as are used on the Java - NOT Javascript or Ajax or Silverlight - pages in the AbelCam sample web pages). EDIT - I'm not going to reply to your other topic because I don't have any solid answer about O/S choices. I will say this though: I have a 10 cam system running right here next to me, it's on WinXP Pro (32 bit Windows on AMD 64 bit hardware) and it's at 20% CPU and 560MB memory in use. It's a pretty normal XP installation except that I've disabled a few unnecessary services that were set to run by default.
By: sse Rank: Forum Addict Topics: 73 From: n/a	Added: 11/16/2011 - 06:15 PM While the Windows Media Server is easier on the bandwidth, each camera with the WMV Server enabled adds CPU load - no matter if someone is watching or not. Switching off the web server does not ease the CPU load. The web server does nothing unless there's a request. As Melvin pointed out, the best way to save CPU cycles is to configure the lowest resolution/frame rate required. Anything that cannot be transmitted due to bandwidth limitation is only wasting CPU cycles. It might look prettier on the computer running AbelCam, but in the end it's the other end that counts.