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Webcam Motion Detector Giveaway
$49.95
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Webcam Motion Detector

Motion detection and webcam monitoring.
$49.95 EXPIRED
User rating: 521 67 comments

Webcam Motion Detector was available as a giveaway on November 30, 2011!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$49.95
free today
Helps you get back all kinds of lost or deleted data on Android devices.

Motion detection and webcam monitoring. Video surveillance with multiple IP cameras and video capture devices. For each video frame, if motion is detected, the Alarm event occurs, that returns a global motion ratio, depending of the number of cells in which motion has been detected, and the level of motion in each cell.

A sensitivity grid is applied on video frames. You can adjust the sensitivity of the detection, and mask out areas of the camera view to avoid false alarms. When the camera captures video frames in a dark environment, it is possible that the electrical background noise of the CCD video cell creates fake motion detection events. It is possible to reduce the sensitivity of to the video noise by enabling the Reduce Video Noise option.

When an alarm condition is detected, the program can sound an audible alarm, or send you an email with a photo. Automatically capture photos, or record video in compressed files. Webcam Motion Detector includes an advanced player that allows to play video clips, capture video frames and perform frame overlay. Each camera has its own individual monitoring and recording settings. All settings, such as alerts, photos, and video recordings can be turned on and off using the built-in scheduler.

System Requirements:

Windows ME/ 2000/ XP/ 2003/ 2008/ Vista/ 7

Publisher:

Zebra-Media

Homepage:

http://www.zebra-media.com/webcammotiondetector.html

File Size:

15.1 MB

Price:

$49.95

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Developed by Informer Technologies, Inc.
Developed by IObit
Developed by Garmin Ltd or its subsidiaries
Developed by ArcSoft

Comments on Webcam Motion Detector

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#67

Unfortunately there is another critical flaw in the IP camera mode: the program just grabs camera image frames as fast as it can with no setting to control the interval or frame rate. That's a big (and unnecessary) bandwidth hog if the program is running remote from the camera.

Reply   |   Comment by D. Ames  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#66

Sorry, the example url I wrote above got mangled by the site software. Let me try again. That example should be:

http://my-IPcamera-IP-address/IMAGE.JPG

Reply   |   Comment by D. Ames  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#65

Here is the answer for everyone who failed to get the IP camera mode to work!:

1. It requires "http://" in front of the url

2. It requires the url that returns a plain jpeg image

(e.g., on the Trendnet IP400W the correct url is: "http:///IMAGE.JPG")

3. The replication of username to the password field is indeed a bug. You must create a username with password = username.

In hindsight I should have realized that I wasn't getting an outgoing-internet-connection popup from the firewall software earlier, meaning that the program wasn't even attempting to access the network.

Obviously the feedback to the developer (if they ever read this) is:
- This version of the program has an obvious bug in the password field
- Your help, guidance, and error messages for IP cameras need some work
- the leading http:// should be assumed on an IP camera url if not present

Reply   |   Comment by D. Ames  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#64

I missed this offer but it would be very useful if people could list here all those makes/ models of cameras which have been suuceesful with the software.

I had a motion detector system 5 years ago but it took 10 seconds to kick in, this sounds great.

Reply   |   Comment by guardone  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#63

#62 The idea is that you send images to your email.

Anyone who missed out on this, do a search for the freeware TeboCam. As much as I like this giveaway, I reckon Tebocam has advantages over it, such as the FTP ability.

Reply   |   Comment by banditrider  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#62

I have yet to try this (and I still plan to) but my first thought is if I were to use this to try to catch theives, it may prove futile if they steal my computer. On the other hand if someone is stealing from the till or your wallet or lunch etc, it may be more useful. I want to test out it it's capabilities, without having a real use in mind. It may come in very handy someday.

Reply   |   Comment by D  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#61

I finally gave up on trying to get this to work despite trying every suggestion left by others who had success with this one. Just could not seem to get it to work and when I tried some of the suggestions I started getting popup error messages. Uninstalled with youruninstaller and had to manually remove some stuff. Sure would have been nice if the developer had dropped in and provided some advice since the help files really need to be more detailed. Happy to hear some had success but I sure would be an unhappy camper had I paid fifty bucks for this software.

Reply   |   Comment by aswegohomestead  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#60

Downloaded, installed, activated with no problems. However software did not recognize my camera MS LifeCam VX-3000. No use for it so thumbs down.

Reply   |   Comment by Bern-Dog  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#59

Works well, Thanks GOTD!!
I have searched everywhere for an open source or free application that has the features that this program offers.
And for you folks who can't find this software useful in any way,... don't install it, you probably won't be able to figure out how set it up.

Yhanks GOTD, Love this site, visit daily, and have increased your following lots.

Reply   |   Comment by Matt  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#58

This one's a keeper. Installed - BAM! Within 10 minutes I had performed a successful test - with my own recorded message - "GET OUT!" Worth ever penny if only because I'm going to use it to scare the hell out of the wife tomorrow morning when she comes downstairs! Seriously though; motion detect works like a dream. Interface was pretty straight forward (for me) but I found it a little cluttered...also - went to set up an event after naming my camera but the camera wasn't there. Had to exit the program and re-open - there it was.

All in all, this has to be near the top of its class. It sure is no Jpeg converter. Your piece of mind is worth this $50.

Reply   |   Comment by Clint  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#57

Refuses to activate on my Windows 7 Pro machine. Activation windows just sits on the desktop until I have to reboot. Nothing will close it down, manually, except a hard reboot. I sent an email to their support department. I wonder if they'll respond with a free activation code. I am not convinced they will. I've never seen an activation screen get stuck, EVER, on my machine before. Strange!!

BigPotz

Reply   |   Comment by BigPotz  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#56

Password problem workaround. Seems to be a bug. Change or add a user to your camera and set the username and password the same.

Reply   |   Comment by Steve  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#55

After downloading this "Freebie", My computer got hijacked by "Win 7 Antivirus 2012", it took me 20 minutes to defeat it...

Reply   |   Comment by Matt  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#54

@shannon #43. Your suggestions are great. The catching someone using your computer who is not to was good and quite humorous.

This installed just fine and the trial version left once I closed and re-opened the program. I am a bit concerned that this will not work unless I leave the laptop on all the time and not let it close to a screen protector. That seems such a waste of electricity and a general PIA. I was wondering about security cameras to catch the person who has been stealing my medications. Will give this a try, since I have an idea who but need to catch.

Win 7 x64

Reply   |   Comment by Sue  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#53

I agree that there does not seem to be any place in the software that confirms it is registered. On its initial startup, I did receive a shareware notice. However, after activation, I closed the program and restarted. Now there is no shareware notice. This may be the only confirmation we get.

Reply   |   Comment by Aleta  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#52

@andera#10 I live out in the country and have deer, bear, turkey and other wildlife regularly pass outside my window throughout the day. I am hoping to set this up with my webcam and see what I can capture. Still trying to get it working but not giving up yet. Thanks OldScotty #40 I am going to give your directions a try now.

Reply   |   Comment by aswegohomestead  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#51

Does anyone know how to register this software on their website???

Reply   |   Comment by Nino Tores  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#50

Very nice program, thanks.

As mentioned above, the user interface is great and the program seems to work. (need to test it a lot more before I make any final judgements) The help could use a lot of work, same with the website. Information about the program seems very sparse. Maybe add a user forum to your website.

Also, I encountered 1 problem so far while I was playing around with the gui. The error that came up is as follows:

cxGroupBox4:
Access violation at address 007F4200 in module 'WebcamMotionDetector.exe'. Read of address 00000010

This error only came up when I tried to change the color scheme in the appearance tab.

I am using Windows 7 x64 with a Logitech QuickCam Communicate MP.

Reply   |   Comment by bgmaddawg  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#49

The web site support link from the program doesn't work, there's no discussion of this program in any other forum, and I don't see the developer offering any answers here, so I guess we're on our own as far as figuring out if there's any solution to the IP camera problem.

Reply   |   Comment by D. Ames  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#48

If this program doesn't do what you need it to, check out Vitamin D. It is a very slick monitoring prog, and is totally free for single camera use. I have been using it for over a year.

Reply   |   Comment by Mark  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#47

Almost any really useful opinion here gets polemic. We should not be so shy on receiving these free offers. If the donors did not want our opinion to be shown, they would not allow the comments to be published. All comments here are moderated. I am only writing this one because I believe it will be published.

If I am right, you’ll be able to read it out. Then please, stop this childish censorship!

Reply   |   Comment by 1969born  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#46

I tried two different Windows XP systems. Both installed fine, but I could not get my IP camera (APC NetBotz) to work on either.

Reply   |   Comment by Ted Tang  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#45

@#10:

"looks like an excellent program but… …can somebody here tell me how an ordinary home user (99% of readers here…right??) can find this software handy??"

Train hidden camera on a door... when door is opened, camera will videotape anyone coming thru it.

Train camera on your crops... motion detector will activate loud screech or growl sound to scare away animals from eating your crops.

Train camera on a money drawer . . . any motion near that drawer will activate camera.

Lots of other possibilities -- just takes a little imagination.

Reply   |   Comment by Harry Wacker  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#44

DennyB and OldScotty, thanks for the reply. I'd seen it, but didn't think the default storage would be in the program folder till I found my snapshots there. Changed it okay, but it should have a browse option. Liking it better now.

Anyone know how to manually start a manual video record now?

Reply   |   Comment by Terry  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#43

@andrea t. (#10) - To give an answer to your question - I live in an apartment and have a bike rack right outside my kitchen window. My youngest sons bike has been stolen twice even with it being locked up to the rack. I am going to use this software to monitor that area using a cam connected to my desktop computer. Plus, I may use it on my laptop to see if my kids are using my laptop when they not supposed to be using it.

Great giveaway - can't wait to start using it.

Reply   |   Comment by shannon g  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#42

I tried removing the login password on the IP camera just to check, and it didn't help. It does appear to replicate the username into the password field, but it's hard to tell if that's a bug or not since it can't establish a connection to the camera. In any case, it doesn't seem to be the problem.

Reply   |   Comment by D. Ames  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#41

Does it have a time stamp ?

anyway to make it portable or is there another proogram thats portable ?

can you adjust how long it records after being triggered ?

Thanks for the info Corky

Reply   |   Comment by corkyC  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#40

Terry#22 Just in case you haven't found it yet, you can set the path to save the videos using the following sequence:-
Under Web Cam you can select Edit Camera, on the page that opens up at the bottom, next to the save button, you can enter the path you wished you save your videos and photos.
To save a photograph used the start monitoring button, the last icon, to the right when pressed will take a photograph.
It appears to take a continuous video if you set all sectors to the maximum sensitivity with motion detection on.
Fred3 #23
My experience in using a video camera with motion detection, a cheap one, was the delay between the movement and the actual commencement of the video recording.
It was approximately 2 seconds which was to slow for the work I was trying to do.
The response of this program is much more rapid on my machine, so I don't miss important aspects of the video.
Drvajra #27
This problem occurred with me when the program is actually running, try again making sure you have exited the program first.
My only complaint about this program is that the help file is insufficient to cover all its many aspects, other than that I'm most impressed.

Reply   |   Comment by OldScotty  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#39

If the computer is is sleep mode, this software does not wake it up if something is in the field for detection, therefore, no recording is done, no alert is sent and and no intruder detected.
Also, the password feature is useless and and no IP cameras detected.
Good as educational tool or to play with the web camera in the room.

Reply   |   Comment by Fred3  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#38

Haven't installed yet but been looking at all the Motion programs for a long time - none have been very useful, worked as stated, or to complicated up to now....hope this is what is appears to be - I could have saved $$$$ months ago when a burglar "cleaned house" while I was out of state.

Reply   |   Comment by iwontell  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#37

#22, Storage path is at the very bottom of the window for adding a camera, but it I don't see a browse button so you'll have to type in the path.

Reply   |   Comment by DennyB  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#36

Is there any way to reinstall on a more capable system to be purchased later this year?

Reply   |   Comment by Jay  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-6)
#35

Having same problems as #22 seems to install and register just fine. Software loads up and my camera is available and works fine in the preview mode. I thought I had found how to start it monitoring and it looked like when I moved it started recording but have no idea where the recording was stored. I looked in the default folder but could not find any recording. It sure would be nice to be able to specify a specif folder for saving the recordings but I see no way to do that and the help files are really poor help. Sure hope the developer will jump in and help get this up and running. Looks really nice from what I have been able to see. Just really hard to figure out.

Reply   |   Comment by aswegohomestead  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#34

Shortly after I installed this program. Microsoft Security Essentials gave me a pop-up warning. Why would it do that if no spyware/ malware was involved? I immediately removed this program and will stick with the Logitech software that came with the webcam.

Reply   |   Comment by Donna in Halifax  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#33

Why does this software (which apart from this looks nice by the way), always have the password the same as the username in the authentication box?

This makes it a major fail for IP connected internet devices.

Nice try - but not good enough. Going to uninstall it.

Reply   |   Comment by bjrichus  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#32

i installed this because i really need something like this, but what kind of cameras connect to this and how???
Thank you!

Reply   |   Comment by yanna  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#31

Seems like a nice program, works fine with desktop webcam. The Help file included is superficial. It's a little finicky in configuration - it took me a few tries to find all the check boxes that need to be ticked to make it work. Sadly it doesn't seem to work with my Trendnet IP400W camera (one of the most popular on the market). I tried giving it both the base url 192.168.0.20 and the current jpeg image url 192,168.0.20/IMAGE.JPG, but all I get in the log when I try to preview it is:

(done.)
[ERROR] file name not specified
[ERROR] failed to start preview

and it doesn't seem to save the login password.

Reply   |   Comment by DVMarsh  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#30

Installed on Win7 64bit.

Added a remote IP camera and the preview worked great.
But when I save it, it takes my username and copies it to the password field(????)
That of course compleatly stops the camera from working.
I edit the camera and change the password back to what it is supposed to be and save it, and the same thing happens again.
HELP please...

Reply   |   Comment by James Ray Kenney  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#29

This software only works for webcams attached to the computer this software is installed on, right? I assume there's no way to get it to work with networked IP cameras connected with an Ethernet cable and not near a computer nor to use with webcams connected to other computers networked in the house? I would like a free video capture/recording program for my IP cameras (the camera's web interface just offers streaming video with no way to capture), but I guess this is not it.

Reply   |   Comment by Jim  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#28

Not home when a visitor calls? With something like this, you'll know who called and can get back to them. Something like an answering machine or voice mail on your phone.

That is one suggested use for those who say "What good is a program like this?"

Reply   |   Comment by Sunshine Kid  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+12)
#27

I keep getting this error message, even after uninstalling and reinstalling (using Admin privileges. I also tried installing on another directory. Same problem):
Form1.db:
Unsuccessful execution caused by a system error that precludes successful execution of subsequent statements
I/O error for file "webcams.fdb".
The process cannot access file because it is being used by another process..

Reply   |   Comment by drvajra  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+5)
#26

Anybody have problems with wireless running on this program?

Reply   |   Comment by Charles  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#25

Installed without problem. But when trying to run it, got the following error: "The program can't start because MagUIInter.dll is missing. So I did a search for it and found it in 2 places:

c:\Program Files (x86)\ArcSoft\magic-1 visual effects 2

and

c:\Program Files (x86)\ArcSoft\Webcam Companion 4

No idea why it said this dll was missing.

Reply   |   Comment by Gerry Leacock  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#24

I agree with Andrea #10 -- if you live in a reasonably high-floor flat with security downstairs, as I do (and it isn't a particularly "high class" establishment -- just normal in most of Hong Kong's apartment houses) -- you'd be hard put to find a use for this programme.

I'm scratching my head to think of one, as it sounds good, for a reasonably price too.

Of course the point is, you have to have your in-house computer on all the time (using up electricity) -- and you need to have your computer THERE. Me, if I am travelling, I take my notebook WITH me.... So not much chance of me seeing anyone breaking into my flat, trying to steal everything else, BUT my notebook! Of course, if I left it behind, from another computer perhaps I could see who is just just about to steal it....

THEN a (free) tracking programme like PREY would come in useful.

As long as you still have a computer somewhere to help you track it down....

Reply   |   Comment by Tranmontane  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-2)
#23

It is much better solution to have a motion detector attached to a camera then to have the camera 24 hours on and wait for something to come in the field to alerts you.
Software solution is not the right thing for this problem or feature if you want to use as security cam.
On the other hand, it is fun to play around with it and worth trying.

Reply   |   Comment by Fred3  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#22

Great time for this giveaway, I've just been reviewing different apps for this purpose. However, I seem to be having some issues in the use of the software.

I have it set up and my cameras configured and working, but after looking through the help and checking the website, I can't see where I can set the default location to save video and image files - or where it would save them to begin with. And, I can't see where I can manually start a recording or take a snapshot.

There doesn't seem to be any options under camera setup or anywhere else for these things, there's nothing in Help about it, and there's no info on the website. There are also no tool tips (for me, anyway) on any of the video window buttons. Tried clicking them all, but other than 'preview' I have no idea what's going on.

The software works great, but I want manual control over all recordings and/or snapshots. And I want the files to go to a particular folder...

Reply   |   Comment by Terry  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)
#21

Installed on xp desktop with attached webcam. Does the job, but freezes as I want to exit the program. The help facility is insufficient.

Reply   |   Comment by jlst  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)
#20

Does anybody know what the defference is between Webcam Motion Detector and Zebra-Media Surveillance System?

http://www.zebra-media.com/webcammotiondetector.html
http://www.zebra-media.com/zebra_media_surveillance_system.html

Reply   |   Comment by watcher1924  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#19

I had many situations in my life which I would have liked to have a motion detector camera. This software does it. Only problem is that I would need to record sound too to make it useful for me.

Reply   |   Comment by kensiko  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+13)
#18

I currently use ISpy for eight cams set up around the premises, and it is free. Yet this software has a better GUI and the price is fair for the market. So diffidently a worthy product.

Reply   |   Comment by Heidi-Ann  –  12 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+20)
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