- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (Nag screen); $29.00 to buy (Buy it now)
- Operating system: Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98
- Date added: May 23, 2005
- Total Downloads: 2,903,782
- Downloads last week: 1,162
- See full specifications
A newer version of Active WebCam is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 109 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET Staff on December 07, 2008
Ease of use is the hallmark of the surveillance app Active WebCam, which lets you monitor multiple cams and record footage for later use.
A wizard guides you through the camera setup process, after which you can send video with audio to any computer on your network that has app installed, soundless video to HTTP users, or screen caps to FTP users. You can set access permissions for users and groups, as well as the number of visitors allowed. Active WebCam also can e-mail you footage when a camera detects motion, perfect for monitoring that sleeping tyke.
The Tools menu lets you create a Web page with custom fonts and colors where you can post videos and stills. There's also a versatile video conversion tool to change captured video into AVI or MPEG format. The process took up all our CPU cycles--as the bottom utilization bar kindly displayed--but otherwise the app's footprint is small.
Aside from the helpful wizards, each menu window contains a brief explanation of what each feature does and a link to the Help topic. With surprisingly little effort and half a dozen cams, most users could create a decent surveillance system with Active WebCam.
Publisher's description
From PY Software :Active WebCam captures images up to 30 frames per second from any video device including USB and analog cameras, TV boards, capture cards, frame grabbers, camcorders, and network IP cameras. The program broadcasts captured content from your computer or uploads it to an FTP server. Broadcasting can be viewed using any Internet browser; no plug-ins or downloads are required. The program performs simultaneous recording and broadcasting from an unlimited number of cameras. Your camera(s) can be used as part of a surveillance system. When the program detects motion in the monitored area, it sounds an alarm, e-mails you captured images, starts broadcasting, or records video. Live broadcasting as well as recording can be password protected, so all video and audio are scrambled and cannot be watched without a valid password.
Version 5.8 adds support of Trust Surveillance camera.
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User reviews of Active WebCam 5.8
- Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 3 of 3 user reviewsSee all 3 user reviews
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23 out of 24 people found this review helpful
Version: Active WebCam 5.8
Pros: I have an X-10 camera system and have tried a few of their software programs to no avail..kept crashing my computer all the time. This one seems to work much better. The motion detector portion of it is a bit flakey however and my email would be flooded if I let it email me every time it thought there was motion. I don't have a webspace set up for ftp uploads and I don't want to have an open port on my computer so for the time being I will see how the live recording on my computer goes. Nice interface, good features, easier to use than I thought it would be.
Cons: You can't use the same camera with this program and instant messenger. I think that you can only have one software using the camera at a time. If the cam is on this program, Yahoo Messenger will crash. I CAN use it with two cameras, the outdoor one on this program and my computer cam on Yahoo.
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11 out of 11 people found this review helpful
Version: Active WebCam 5.8
"Software did not perform as promised in write up. Company did not repond to req"
Cons: Software did not perform as promised in the write up. Significant charges had to be paid to via on internet. Company did not respond to queries.
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13 out of 14 people found this review helpful
Version: Active WebCam 5.8
"Conflicts with Yahoo webcam. Not as easy to use as stated. Left me confused."
Pros: If I can get it to work right it can be very useful.
Cons: When I downloaded it I went through the process but did not understand how to actually get it to publish to the web. When I tried to uninstall it I have not been able to use my webcam via Yahoo since. I tried to uninstall and reinstall both programs and still won't work.
- See all 3 user reviews Write review
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