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Hands On: D-Link IP Camera/WHS Solution

By on December 12, 2009 in Add-ins & Apps, Hardware, Network Cameras, Networking Reviews, News, Reviews, Software

CPU usage was approximately 10% for that instance of IE running.  When I had four cameras running like this, CPU usage was 4 times that:

Image37 210x300 Hands On: D Link IP Camera/WHS Solution

Usability using this particular access method was good, however, this is not an integrated method of using these cameras with your Windows Home Server.

Moving back to the D-ViewCam program,

Image39 300x221 Hands On: D Link IP Camera/WHS Solution

there appears to be some setup options for recording events, such as motion detection.

Image49 300x232 Hands On: D Link IP Camera/WHS Solution Image50 208x300 Hands On: D Link IP Camera/WHS Solution

I set a few of them, but I was not able to get very far as working with the D-ViewCam program became far too frustrating.

I was able to manually record some video.  I then remote logged into my WHS, and went to the D-Link IP Camera tab to give you an idea of what is available.  If you have recordings, you can access them and view them.  Or delete them.

Image48 299x300 Hands On: D Link IP Camera/WHS Solution

I would have really preferred to provide much more information on the whole setup and demonstrate better how it all worked together, but it quickly became quite frustrating to continue.  Please note that this was being done mostly using a Remote Desktop Connection.  You might say I could have switched to my self-built WHS to demonstrate certain features, but I feel that this would be a disservice.  Why?

One should be able to install the software and cameras and use it.  Out of 5 computers that I tried to access the DVC software, on only 1 machine was the software reasonably useable.  D-Link calls this Beta software.  I call it Alpha software.

Moving over to the cameras, I played with them individually using the local IP address method to access them.  Depending upon the available light and camera setting, they were quite useable for what they are intended: security cameras.  There are several settings available to adjust the image quality motion detection, etc.  These cameras do have microphones, so one can record audio if so desired.  Or you can turn this feature off.  The one feature that was not available that I would have liked is a remote-focus feature.  One can manually adjust the lens, but not remotely.  It would be a nice feature to have, but that would only come with increased cost.

And remember, we are talking a security camera, not a professional recording recording device.

Conclusions and Cost

I have to applaud D-Link for their efforts to provide a security camera solution for a Windows Home Server.

In the same breadth, I have to chastise D-Link for providing a security camera solution for a Windows Home Server that is not ready for prime time.  Not yet, at least.  The need to have a separate GPU on a desktop computer to use the WHS software is not realistic, as computers with that that kind of capability are slowly becoming a minority, or are perhaps there already?

Moving over to the DCS-1100 and DCS-1130 cameras, they appear adequate for the task.  At this time, there is simply not a complete WHS software/hardware solution to do justice to the hardware side of this overall WHS solution.

Costs:

D-ViewCam Software for WHS: free

DCS-1100 camera: $179.99 MSRP

DCS-1130 camera: $219.99 MSRP

More Info: D-Link

DCS-1100

DCS-1130

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
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  • ernest

    Yeah, I didnt have much luck with the WHS software either. the online (mydlink.com) interface does seem to work okay though, as does going direct IP. but w/o the WHS integration, not worth it in my opinion, there are better cameras/software out there

  • billscarnage

    @ernest, what are some of your other suggestions for cameras/software. For the camera I'd really like one with decent night vision.
    TIA

  • http://www.dcdvreviews.com/ dking

    Ha~ The Camera is very nice

  • Ascario

    Nice read! Did you by chance test the audio quality/audibility? Where considering using a few of these cameras to record simulated patient consultations at uni. Since these recordings are for both research and evaluation purposes, sound needs to be of good enough quality.
    Cheers

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      I did not do very much with audio (adjustment-wise). Using the default settings, I was able to easily hear real-time conversations, with a normal 1-2 lag time. On the one positioned behind my computer monitor, it was picking up a signficant amount of what seemed like background noise. It was sitting atop a speaker, which meant I was might have been hearing a bit of a feedback loop?

  • Ascario

    Thanks for the helpful reply Jim! At least this clears things up a bit. None of the ip cam reviews I've read discussed sound, let alone sound quality. Since we have a Home Server at our disposal in our office (mainly as a local backup and workspace server), it would be nice if we could use it with these cams.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      It will work OK with using a direct IP address. You will have to configure it to save to your WHS.

      Or the WHS software may work just fine using one camera. But no more…

  • scoob101

    I think your being a little harsh Jim to call this alpha software simply because some of your machines dont meet the the hardware requirements for video playback. From your article, the software appears feature complete, and you didn`t mention any serious bugs, so how can you call it an Alpha? Did D-link not mention minimum requirements in the documentation?

    Viewing video over RDP (i.e via the WHS console) is never going to be a good solution, so going down the IE path to view the cams directly on the client seems the only sensible way forward.

    As far as I can see, the only benefit to using a WHS with this type of setup is to have an always-on machine to save your captured video onto, and host remote connections from the internet. Anything else and your best off with a direct connection to the client.

    Were there any other camera features which the WHS helped with??

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      D-ViewCam is part of the WHS software. The single window version is inherent to the camera itself and is not part of the WHS software.

      Per the manual: Min. display mem. requirement is 32MB. A 10 year GPU should suffice. There is no mention of "seperate" GPU required.

      Every machine (except 1) I tried this on had a MB/CPU/GPU less than 3 years old. I stand by my statement. I am not being harsh, simply being realistic. The SW does not work. If I said it worked and you purchased the HW for use with this SW; it did not work; would you not be somewhat upset with me?

      • scoob101

        Did you try accessing the D-ViewCam software from a wired ethernet client? Im wondering if the poor latency/bandwidth of a wireless connection to the WHS console had a part to play in the poor performance.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

          It could be possible, however, one the better working machines (the old Dell) was wireless. My normal workstation, and my self-built WHS are both wired.

          I really wish that was the problem! :(

  • Aaron

    I have a similar D-Link ethernet webcam that I use with third party monitoring software called ZoneMinder. Although the camera itself does a great job, I have to say that the packaged webcam software from D-Link is some of the worst quality software I've ever used. I find it laughable that D-Link can include "world class quality" as one of their core values!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      Yep, the camera seamed to work fine, although I will be the first to admit I do not have much to base a comparison on.

      If the SW had performed better, I would have been rather inclined to work harder to find the limits of the camera capabilites.

  • Feets

    If you have 4xCamera's recording to your WHS surely the CPU is going to get slammed? Off the shelf WHS are (currently) low power CPUs, ideal for always on but not for video encoding. Interested to hear how D-Link have solved this.

  • rpiboy

    Is the software absolutely limited to the Cameras listed in D-Link's documentation? Or would it be possible for the software to connect to some of D-Link's Small Biz cameras? Also, is it possible to for the WHS software to connect to a remote camera, ie through the internet, or will it only recognize LAN cameras? If you don't know, is it possible for you to follow-up with your D-Link contact?

    Thanks!