Webcam settings - prevent movie upload

[monymony]

Hi All,

I have noticed that by design that if the webcam is enabled it automatically will upload the latest still capture to the custom website.  That works fine.  I have also noticed that every hour the .mov is getting uploaded.  In my case the file is too big to really be much use as it is over 10mb.  I would like to keep the image uploading at a high resolution.  Is there any way to stop the movie file or to get it to be reduced in size?

Thanks!

Test site with image - http://fallowfield.cecilweather.com/wxwebcam.php

[monymony]

OK, going to answer my own question just in case it helps someone else.

My issue with the frequent movie file updates was tracked down to a default setting with the Saratoga Weather Template files for WeatherCat.  Specifically in the file WCTtags.php there is a call for, guess what, MOVIES$.  Since this file was set to update every five minutes by WC for my website the large movie file was also getting uploaded.  Disabling/removing this tag eliminated my issue. 

Hopefully this post will help someone else.

[Blicj11]

Thanks for closing the loop on this.

I am interested in your two banners (and associated websites). I assume you are using two separate weather stations at separate locations. Would you mind sharing with us how you are doing this?

[xairbusdriver]

Specifically in the file WCTtags.php there is a call for, guess what, MOVIES$.  Since this file was set to update every five minutes by WC for my website the large movie file was also getting uploaded.  Disabling/removing this tag eliminated my issue.

I'm not sure is you meant that your Custom web site was already had a reference to MOVIES$ and you were simply getting multiple uploads of the same movie. Or did you want to totally stop the uploading of the movie. Multiple uploads shouldn't affect the file size of the movie (it should simply be over-writing the file with each upload) but it would certainly increase you bandwidth use.

I think the way to change the file size of the movie would be to adjust the rate at which a new frame is added. WC Prefs->Webcam->Capture Options allows us to change that rate. Mine is set at "Capture Image Every: 2 minutes". That results in a movie file size of ~13mb for a 1280 x 960 video. I assume your setting is faster than mine, and/or larger dimensions?

[monymony]

Thanks for closing the loop on this.

I am interested in your two banners (and associated websites). I assume you are using two separate weather stations at separate locations. Would you mind sharing with us how you are doing this?

Yes, actually using two separate stations from two locations.  Last year I helped my Dad setup a weather station and also setup WeatherCat to manage the station data.  Then I have by basically copied a bunch of the WeatherCat settings from my site/station to his setup.  I was even able to copy a lot of the WC .plist files which is how I got the banner to match the same format.  I have both stations hosted under the same account I have with GreenGeeks.com.  I might eventually get a separate domain name for the second site but for now I think the fallowfield.cecilweather.com address is enough.   

If you want more details I would be happy to share.

[Blicj11]

Thanks for the explanation. Food for thought for my son-in-law, who is also considering a weather station of his own at some point.

[monymony]

I'm not sure is you meant that your Custom web site was already had a reference to MOVIES$ and you were simply getting multiple uploads of the same movie. Or did you want to totally stop the uploading of the movie.

In my case I was getting very frequent uploads and just wanted them to stop.  Eventually I want to control the movie uploads on a much less frequent basic and at a smaller resolution.  My issue was it was a bandwidth issue which was delaying at times some of the other realtime data uploads and even causing WC to report FTP errors.  I had in my head that WC somehow had a setting that was uploading the file and I just could not find it.  That of course was wrong and I had not realized that the Saratoga Templates had that MOVIES$ by default in the tag file it uses.  At least the mystery is solved now.

[xairbusdriver]

Sounds like a suggestion to Stu might be in order. He's always open to suggestions/ideas. Try posting more details in the WeatherCat Feature Requests forum.

If I understand that tag correctly, it basically just triggers WC to upload the movie file, any and every time is sees the tag, so any file it processes that has the tag will cause an upload.

Sounds like you might want an option to change the hourly schedule. That might then require an adjustment on the length of the movie; a two hour long movie may be just as big as two one hour movies. The total bandwidth (if that's the correct term) would probably be very nearly the same.

Decreasing the number of frames (say every five minutes)(set in the prefs) will reduce the size of the movie, of course. Changing the size (800x 600, 640x480, etc.)(also in the prefs) will also reduce the file size. Doing both might be the easiest way to reduce the upload bandwidth until the real experts come along.

Your camera software may have some controls for changing the resolution?