Drop cam?

[Loki]

Does anyone use this or have you heard anything about it?

It has wifi and an iPhone app. It also has a speaker on it so you could use your iPhone to talk to whoever/you tank while you are gone.

https://www.dropcam.com/

 

[CJO]

Haven't seen that one before, but it doesn't seem too much different than many IP cameras.

CJ

 

[dccordell]

Looks nifty. Having something easy to use is a great selling point for cameras, because they can be tricky to setup to see the video on the internet from a mobile device because of router forwarding and all that stuff.

The only thing I don't like so much about is that it will constantly be uploading video content to their servers, and video is quite large (especially since it is HD), so it will require a hefty upload speed capability on your home internet service, and if it continues uploading while you are home, your internet surfing will likely be dramatically affected because the cam is hogging all of the upload bandwidth. Most cameras that do motion detecting will have a program that runs on either the camera's internal hardware or on a home computer that runs all the time and monitors the camera.

Also, it looks like using the advanced DVR options is a subscription-type service, so be ready to pay for that service.

Other than that, cool!

 

[dacorea]

Hi all,

Thanks for your interest in Dropcam. Your concern about upload bandwidth consumption for streaming 720p video is absolutely valid. To address that issue, we built Dropcam HD to compress large 720p video using H.264 so that it doesn't adversely affect your Internet performance or hit bandwidth caps. Instead of streaming gigabytes of video at a time over your Wi-Fi, Dropcam HD streams around 200Kbps instead, which is nearly 90% less than most 720p streams.

While the barebones functionality of seeing your video on your computer might be comparable to IP cameras, there are quite a few benefits unique to Dropcam over just any other IP camera.

• Dropcams are infinitely easier to use than regular IP cams.
  • That's because nearly all IP cams have to be setup to stream video over your local home network. Among other things that means customizing each IP camera to send video to a local server in your home via router ports that you'll have to open and forward manually.
  • Dropcam stores its video in the cloud with AES 256-bit encryption (same security online banks use to protect your account). This is handy for a couple of reasons: 1 You dont have to be a technical genius to setup your own camera and 2 You're not limited to watching video from just one computer in your home.
• You can watch your Dropcam video anywhere.
  • Because Dropcam video is stored in the cloud, you can be in your car, at an aquarium, or Russia and still see what's happening in front of your camera on any computer. Watching your video is kind of like checking your email, except your email has bank-level security.

There's plenty of additional features too! Video sharing, 1-click DVR, night vision. If you're interested, there's more info at https://www.dropcam.com

 

[Ashlar]

If it only had remote pan/tilt/zoom, and could be integrated into a web page..

I wish the panasonic cameras were 720p, my camera feed is getting a little low res by comparison..

Rowe Reef

 

[dccordell]

I think that's pretty cool to have a rep come on here just to provide more info on the cameras. I believe the biggest selling point for these cameras will be the ease-of-use and minimal setup required. I know personally how it can be frustrating and aggravating trying to setup a router and DSL modem to forward ports to IP cameras to view from outside the home, not to mention having to constantly keep a dynamic IP address updated on something like dyn-dns.org. For most folks, that sort of stuff is way out of their league.... which is a great selling point for these cams.

I agree, a more advanced version of the cam should be developed with a PTZ functionality... for people who are into that sort of thing. And control it from a mobile app...

 

[*rAzOr*]

Intrigued


*rAzOr*

 

[Loki]

Hi all,

Thanks for your interest in Dropcam. Your concern about upload bandwidth consumption for streaming 720p video is absolutely valid. To address that issue, we built Dropcam HD to compress large 720p video using H.264 so that it doesn't adversely affect your Internet performance or hit bandwidth caps. Instead of streaming gigabytes of video at a time over your Wi-Fi, Dropcam HD streams around 200Kbps instead, which is nearly 90% less than most 720p streams.

While the barebones functionality of seeing your video on your computer might be comparable to IP cameras, there are quite a few benefits unique to Dropcam over just any other IP camera.

• Dropcams are infinitely easier to use than regular IP cams.
  • That's because nearly all IP cams have to be setup to stream video over your local home network. Among other things that means customizing each IP camera to send video to a local server in your home via router ports that you'll have to open and forward manually.
  • Dropcam stores its video in the cloud with AES 256-bit encryption (same security online banks use to protect your account). This is handy for a couple of reasons: 1 You dont have to be a technical genius to setup your own camera and 2 You're not limited to watching video from just one computer in your home.
• You can watch your Dropcam video anywhere.
  • Because Dropcam video is stored in the cloud, you can be in your car, at an aquarium, or Russia and still see what's happening in front of your camera on any computer. Watching your video is kind of like checking your email, except your email has bank-level security.

There's plenty of additional features too! Video sharing, 1-click DVR, night vision. If you're interested, there's more info at https://www.dropcam.com

Wow! Thanks dacorea for setting the profile up to respond to my thread! I like the idea of it not taking all of the bandwidth. I also noticed that it has a speaker on it so if I go out of town and have someone watch my tank I can talk to them via the camera. I'll look into it. There will be a few weekends that I am going to be gone and I am looking into a way to keep an eye on things.

It would be a huge upgrade (for me) to have pan tilt and zoom. thanks again!

 

[dacorea]

I'm glad that my post provided some helpful info to this thread!

The ability for pan-tilt-zoom did in fact cross our minds, but we decided against it. Slightly crazy, perhaps? We decided that instead of providing a motor that would turn the camera, we would provide a really wide-angle lens that could capture and show an entire room if needed. Specifically, it has a 107 degree lens, which is about a 40% wider view than what most cameras offer. That means you can see more than you would expect to at once, without having to pan or tilt the camera. You can also digitally zoom on your video to get more detail on a particular area.

Also, you can easily embed Dropcam video onto your webpage. Similar to YouTube, we provide a little code snippet that you can copy and paste. Here are a couple of examples of what the embedded feed looks like:

TWiT Radio Station in Petaluma, CA
Dropcams | TWiT.TV

Outside the Dropcam office in downtown San Francisco
https://www.dropcam.com/p/w54ou5

Thanks again for your interest in Dropcam! If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask them here or email [email protected].