How To Set Up Video?

[Lady Flying Furball]

Hi,

I would really like to see what my dog does when home alone. Has anyone recorded their dog over some hours? I have a computer and webcam but am not sure what sort of set-up would be required, especially recording over say 8 hours. If anyone has done it I would love to hear how you set it up. i am hoping to see a sleeping dog and check if he is barking.

[koalathebear]

Hi,

I would really like to see what my dog does when home alone. Has anyone recorded their dog over some hours? I have a computer and webcam but am not sure what sort of set-up would be required, especially recording over say 8 hours. If anyone has done it I would love to hear how you set it up. i am hoping to see a sleeping dog and check if he is barking.

When Elbie was very wee, we used Vitamin D. I did a post here so you can see what kind of footage we got. It just detects movement so you don't end up with oodles and oodles of empty video of nothing. We use the free version so have no sound and can just use one camera, but if you buy the software, you can have sound and also use more than one camera. I believe that there's also the option of having videos/alerts sent to you by phone.

when he was very young always makes me laugh because if we had got home just 5 minutes earlier, we could have saved that dog cushion! Edited November 26, 2010 by koalathebear

[Lady Flying Furball]

Thanks KTB. That's exactly the kind of thing i wanted. Elbie is certainly a cutie

[tlc]

I have videoed my lot but only for the duration of the camera battery which was about two hours. It was the most boring two hours worth of video ever but I'm glad it was because that was the whole point, they slept the whole time the video was running!

All I did was set the camera up in a far point of the area they are in when left home alone and it caputured the entire couch where they slept and some of the floor area.

[tlc]

Just watched Elbie, love the end bit where he comes to the door! His poor bed

[Dju]

Hi,

I would really like to see what my dog does when home alone. Has anyone recorded their dog over some hours? I have a computer and webcam but am not sure what sort of set-up would be required, especially recording over say 8 hours. If anyone has done it I would love to hear how you set it up. i am hoping to see a sleeping dog and check if he is barking.

When Elbie was very wee, we used Vitamin D. I did a post here so you can see what kind of footage we got. It just detects movement so you don't end up with oodles and oodles of empty video of nothing. We use the free version so have no sound and can just use one camera, but if you buy the software, you can have sound and also use more than one camera. I believe that there's also the option of having videos/alerts sent to you by phone.

when he was very young always makes me laugh because if we had got home just 5 minutes earlier, we could have saved that dog cushion!

So you kept your computer on all day??

[MalteseLuna]

Oh that is sooo cute! I often wondered what Luna got up to whilst I was away - I think she sleeps all day now on her bean bag

[koalathebear]

So you kept your computer on all day??

We frequently keep our computers on during the day anyway if downloading etc. The plus to using Vitamin D instead of an ordinary video camera is that:

1. you don't have to worry about battery life

2. you don't have to worry about having massive files of the dog just sitting there doing nothing or empty space

It is only triggered to record when something moves. We did a lot of recording at first just to see how long Elbie fussed when we left, what he did, did he bark, was he distressed?

[wuffles]

One of the computers in our house is on 24/7!

I use the Dell Webcam software, just keep my laptop plugged in and it has no problem recording 9 hours worth of video. The worst bit is going through it at the end.

[ravenau1]

So you kept your computer on all day??

You mean there are people who turn their computers off?

I like the idea of the motion sensitive recording, will have to use that when our pup goes outside!

[D4DOGZ]

Hi,

I would really like to see what my dog does when home alone. Has anyone recorded their dog over some hours? I have a computer and webcam but am not sure what sort of set-up would be required, especially recording over say 8 hours. If anyone has done it I would love to hear how you set it up. i am hoping to see a sleeping dog and check if he is barking.

When Elbie was very wee, we used Vitamin D. I did a post here so you can see what kind of footage we got. It just detects movement so you don't end up with oodles and oodles of empty video of nothing. We use the free version so have no sound and can just use one camera, but if you buy the software, you can have sound and also use more than one camera. I believe that there's also the option of having videos/alerts sent to you by phone.

when he was very young always makes me laugh because if we had got home just 5 minutes earlier, we could have saved that dog cushion!

loved it great footage

[D4DOGZ]

My husband has set up a camera so i can watch my fur kids whilst iam at work, i think the camera only starts to recored once it senses movement.

It is wireless and all i know is we needed a 'Static IP address' for the recording, i have a Internet Explorer address i type in and i can see my dogs.

Its cool, it also works on the iphones

We did used to have one inside their kennel in the run but Charli used to lick the red light so all we seen was pink tongue

[halfthewords]

That video of Elbie is priceless! I'm going to look into this, though I suspect all my lot do is sleep.

[wagsalot]

We set up (well my OH set up ) a program on our laptop which took a image every 20 seconds.

We recorded Riley all day, and basically found out he did absolutely nothing! We had heaps of people watching it (We had a live web link), heaps of people at OH's work, at my work, family etc and between us all we only saw him go outside twice, more no more than a few minutes each time ( we think to wee!)

These are a few of the screenshots I took through the day. You can see the time on each photo.

http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a277/wag...%20screenshots/

Edited November 26, 2010 by wagsalot

[Dju]

So you kept your computer on all day??

You mean there are people who turn their computers off? ;)

I like the idea of the motion sensitive recording, will have to use that when our pup goes outside!

I'm as big a computer nerd as the next person but dude, I have a beast, if I don't turn it off at least half the day, my powerbills would be ridiculous

I wish I could set up a live video stream to my phone. Sometimes when I'm at work and I've left him alone all day, I get so worried about what he's doing, if he's escaped somehow, ingested something he shouldn't and died while I was out, etc etc. I can think up some really terrible scenarios!