2 Webcams

stephen

Hopefully somebody can help.

Is it possible to connect 2 webcams to my PC and have them work together. I am using 1 at the moment as a motion detection system for my back garden with success using Dorgem which is a very simple programme to use. If I could connect another camera I would then have all my garden covered. The Dorgem programme will work with 2 cameras, but my PC will only detect one camera at the time. I am using 2 Creative cameras, different model numbers and running XP.

Any suggestions would be great.
Thanks in advance.

kryyst

Likely not because even though the 2 camera's are different they are both creative and likely using the same software drivers to recognize the devices. You may be able to get around it from using 2 cameras from different manufactures, but there are no guarantees, since they may still be using the same base drivers.

Hawk

You may be able to get some help on that at this site..
There's a bunch of info and links for more...even though it's an older site..
how to use your pc & webcam as motion detector/recording/security camera.
here's another site that has a bunch of programs and tutorials on the subject..
Half way down the page there's programs you can download...
Freeware Webcam Programs.
Hope this helps..

stoopid

kryyst wrote:

Likely not because even though the 2 camera's are different they are both creative and likely using the same software drivers to recognize the devices. You may be able to get around it from using 2 cameras from different manufactures, but there are no guarantees, since they may still be using the same base drivers.

If that's the case by not using any creative brand software and only loading the device drivers he should be able to get around that (?)...

kryyst

stoopid wrote:

If that's the case by not using any creative brand software and only loading the device drivers he should be able to get around that (?)...

Likely but I've got no way to confirm or test it. If he can see both devices at the same time and neither device is using the same .dll's then it'll just be two devices on his machine. But image capture devices, like scanners for example are tricky. Every scanner touches twain at some point so if you have 2 devices hooked up only one can use the twain capture library at once. Fortunately webcams have more leaway.

That being said. I've done some digging and found this program

Trackercam it says it allows you to use multiple devices at once and it views them in a grid. It's free so might as well check it out.

Kentigern

This web link shows you how to do it step by step
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/09/27/how-to-use-your-pc-and-webcam-as-a-motion-detecting-and-recording-security-camera/

Hope it helps

stephen

Thanks for all the links, there is a lot of reading and programmes etc to get through. I will try them out and let you all know how I get on.

Thanks Again. :smiles::smiles:

stephen

I have tried out most of the links supplied and I found a programme called Yawcam which will work two cameras together in motion detection mode by opening two instances of the programme at once and saving images to seperate folders. Its possible other programmes will work like this but this was the only one where I could see both cameras at the one time in the detect/select camera dialog box. With other programmes I could only see which ever camera was pluged in. I did find however that using the two webcams together affected the quality of Image. Never the less I am happy, It will do what I want it to do. Thanks for all the replys and the links. (I am not sure whose link gave me this programme, possibly a link of a link if you know what I mean.)

http://www.yawcam.com/download.php

Hawk

Glad you found something that would work.
And thanks for posting back and letting us know.