Webcam Cctv Software

13-05-2021

Webcam Cctv Software

Updated: June 5, 2019 Home » Computer and Internet Security » Basic Security And How To Tutorials

6 Free DIY Home Surveillance Via Webcam – Motion And Sound Detection. More precise Yawcam is a webcam software for Windows written in Java. CCTV Security. ISpy is the world's most popular open source video surveillance and security software. With more than 2 million users worldwide, iSpy works with more cameras and devices than anything else on the market. Find out more.

What do you do with your old webcam? Instead of throwing it away, why not re-purpose it as a temporary security camera? Web Cam are not designed to be used 24/7, therefore it break down if it is turn on 24/7, it also doesn’t come with an internal storage, making it useless when not connected to a computer, however, if you need a temporary security cam because you are traveling outstation for a few days, web cam is an ideal choice.

Alternative Article ➤ 4 Smartphone Security IP Camera Apps – Simple Babycam And Pet Cam

↓ 01 – iSpy | Windows | Free / USD8 [ SMS Alerts ]

iSpy is the world’s most popular open source video surveillance application. It’s compatible with the the vast majority of consumer webcams and IP cameras. With more than 2 million users worldwide, iSpy works with more cameras and devices than anything else on the market.

iSpy uses your webcams and microphones to detect and record movement or sound and provides security, surveillance, monitoring and alerting services. Any media that is captured is made available, securely over the web (but only in iSpy Pro paid version). iSpy can be setup to run on multiple computers simultaneously. iSpy is free, open-source software, so if you want it to do anything else, please download the source code and customize it to your requirements.

iSpy the most feature-rich surveillance software in the world!. Some key features include: Unlimited Cameras and Microphones (including IP and USB cameras), Motion Detection, Motion Processing, Recording, Scheduling, Audio, Remote Access, Network Audio Broadcasting, Password Protection, Desktop Recording, YouTube Uploading, Cloud Uploading, FTP, SFTP, SMS, Twitter and Email alerts.

Home Security
Office Surveillance
Work Monitoring
Home Automation
Nanny Cams
Ghost hunting and UFO Spotting
Pet Monitoring
Neighborhood Watch
Staff Monitoring
Machinery Monitoring

↓ 02 – ZoneMinder | Linux | Free

A full-featured, open source, state-of-the-art video surveillance software system. Monitor your home, office, or wherever you want. Using off the shelf hardware with any camera, you can design a system as large or as small as you need. Why ZoneMinder is so awesome

It’s free and open source.
You are in control of your data.
Works with a huge list of cameras.
Easy to install – from package or source.
APIs allow for third-party integration.
zmNinja – New mobile app.

↓ 03 – Yawcam | Windows | Free

Yawcam is short for Yet Another WebCAM software, and that’s exactly what it is. More precise Yawcam is a webcam software for Windows written in Java. The main ideas for Yawcam are to keep it simple and easy to use but to include all the usual features. Works great on Microsoft Windows 10. Yawcam features:

Video streaming
Image snapshots
Built-in webserver
Motion detection
Ftp-upload
Text and image overlays
Password protection
Online announcements for communities
Scheduler for online time

↓ 04 – ContaCam | macOS | Windows

This Free Video Surveillance and Live Webcam software for Windows is extremely easy on system resources, and does not contain unnecessary bloat. It is fast, light, and versatile enough to meet all your security needs while still being very user friendly and able to run on even the most moderate systems.

The program is freeware and available in the following languages: English, Bulgarian, German, Italian, Russian and Vietnamese
CCTV Security Surveillance with motion detection and 24 hours digital video recording (DVR) ContaCam
Motion detection events presented as animated thumbnails in web browser, check the street demo and the home demo
Motion detection actions like FTP upload, send email (SSL/TLS or STARTTLS support) with attached movement file or run an external program
Live webcam with possibility of history tracking, see this live demo and select a past day
Manual records and snapshots (video game captures, movie recording, …)
Integrated web server with password protection (internet or intranet)
Supported are Webcams, WDM and DV devices and Network cameras (IP cameras)
Remote watching by enabling port forwarding or using Dropbox
Unlimited parallel cameras setup
Can be started as a Windows Service
Audio support for USB webcams, capture cards and rtsp ip cameras

↓ 05 – AtHome Video Streamer | macOS | Windows | Android | iOS | Free

AtHome Video Streamer instantly turns your computer or smart devices into a video surveillance camera. Paired with the Small AtHome Camera iconAtHome Camera app, you can access and control the security camera anywhere anytime. Main Features:

Remote monitoring on the go: Watch live video via 3G/4G or WiFi anytime anywhere using your iPhone/iPod/iPad.
Motion detection: Whenever motion is triggered, the 30-second video will be recorded, with email and push notification to inform you of the event.

↓ 06 – Ivideon | Windows | Free / Paid

Ivideon will help you look after everyone and everything you care about, no matter where you are. Cameras hooked up to Ivideon are accessible from any device, including everything from computers to smartphones. Our iPhone and Android apps are even best in class, earning top marks from users. Other people have to sit in front of their monitor for hours. Ivideon detects suspicious events in your camera’s field of vision by itself so you can just relax and wait for a notification. While most cameras have a hard time distinguishing small shadows and flickering lightbulbs from actual movement, Ivideon easily shrugs off those distractions to key in on letting you know what’s important to you.

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Webcams are very common nowadays and most, if not all modern laptops come with one built-in at the top center above the screen. It can be used for a lot of different purposes such as making a video call (chatting, demonstration, conference, webinar), taking pictures of yourself and even logging in to a computer using face recognition. A webcam can also be used as a surveillance camera by installing the correct software and configuring it to automatically record videos, notify you via email and perform custom actions when a motion is detected. This allows you to setup a powerful home based CCTV to monitor a section of your home which is most likely a source of break-ins without spending unnecessary money to install an expensive complete home surveillance system.

There’s a number of software applications that can turn your computer and webcam into a surveillance system, each has its own pros and cons with different features. There are some that are difficult to configure which are meant for more advanced users while there are also user friendly ones that are lightweight. Below you can find our recommended list of 12 free webcam monitoring software based on your needs.

1. Camera Viewer Pro

Camera Viewer Pro is one of the best in terms of usability and system resource usage. It comes with the right balance of features which makes the program easy to use and configure. Moreover, normally a video surveillance software will constantly hog the CPU but Camera Viewer Pro is very intelligent and uses merely 0%-1% of the CPU during monitoring.

The only thing that you may want to change in the settings after adding a camera is the Frame Rate which by default is 1. A higher FPS gives a smoother recording but you’ll need to decrease the sensitivity level by lowering the threshold level. The only drawback on Camera Viewer Pro is that the official website is no longer accessible which means that the development has stopped. It was last updated in April 2013 and fortunately works perfectly in Windows 8.

Download Camera Viewer Pro

2. ContaCam

ContaCam is another free video surveillance software that is just as good as Camera Viewer Pro. It has all the necessary features to turn your computer into a CCTV system but the scheduler is a bit limited where you get to specify only one range of time frame per day for motion detection recording.

Do take note that by default ContaCam saves the recording as a SWF animation for motion detection. It is very rare for a video surveillance software to use SWF format for recording because of the 16,000 frame limit. That would mean you only get to record nearly 9 minutes of video if you set it to use 30 frames per second. You can of course change it to AVI at the Movement Detection tab in “Device Settings”.

Download ContaCam

3. Genius Vision NVR Community Edition (CmE)

Genius Vision NVR is an enterprise-grade IP camera recording shareware originated from Taiwan. They offer a free version called the Community Edition with full functionality but it has a limit of 16-channels with 4-channel intelligent video which is mostly enough for non-commercial use.

Out of all the video surveillance software listed on this page, Genius Vision NVR CmE is the most difficult to use and configure because of the different terms that are being used on the program. For example, the motion detector is called the “Video Analytics”. The online user manual documentation is not much of a help either. The graphical user interface (GUI) looks a bit dated like it has been made for Windows 98/2000. We experienced a few crashes when testing out this software.

Download Genius Vision NVR Community Edition (CmE)

4. iSpy

iSpy is an open source camera security software that comes with a huge list of features including audio monitoring which is rarely found in video surveillance software. Because of its rich set of features, there are many scenarios and uses of iSpy such as monitoring a sleeping baby, machinery, nanny, pets, staff and etc.

iSpy is a good example that not all open source software is fully functional. Although iSpy comes with a huge list of features, there are some very basic functions such as remote access streaming and email alerts that are only available for paid subscribers. Furthermore, there is an annoyance in playback where by default it plays in iSpy which requires you to sign up for a free iSpy account when all it does in the end is play using your default media player.

Download iSpy

5. Netcam Studio

From the creators of the popular WebcamXP and Webcam 7, Moonware Studios have developed a new product that is similar to their previous webcam software except using a new architecture and graphical user interface for better performance. You can expect a huge list of supported and pre-configured network cameras to make configuration easier. If you are looking for a video surveillance software that is packed with features, Netcam Studio is the answer. Apart from the common features found in a video surveillance software, Netcam Studio has audio detection, license plate recognition, sync recordings to Cloud and NAS.

Do note that Netcam Studio is still in beta and we’ve encountered problems during installation itself, but managed to get it installed by custom installing one module at a time. Both .NET Framework 4 and Visual Studio 2012 C++ redistributable are required by Netcam Studio. The free version embeds a non-intrusive watermark of the Netcam Studio logo at the bottom of the recorded video which blends in nicely with the time overlay.

Download Netcam Studio

6. Rear View Mirror

Instead of a full featured camera surveillance software, Rear View Mirror is a pretty simple one with its own unique feature where the window of the monitored camera only shows up when motion is detected. It can also be configured to enable sound alert playing your favorite .wav file and record a video on motion alert.

Despite not having a lot of security camera features, Rear View Mirror uses up quite a lot of CPU power ranging from 17%-20% when tested with only 1 webcam.

Download Rear View Mirror

7. SecureCam2

The SecureCam2 installer size is the smallest at only 343KB but it has all the necessary basic features for a security camera software. You can find the ability to manually record or automatically record based on schedule, detect motion, embed a text overlay to frames and a web server for online streaming. It also includes a player to play the MJPG recordings.

The only limitation in SecureCam2 is it only supports up to 4 cameras. A donation to the software author will increase the limit to support 100 simultaneous cameras.

Download SecureCam2

Go to page 2 to continue viewing the remaining video surveillance software and also the features comparison table.

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Camlytcs software has the most features and supports people counting

Use Webcam As Cctv Software Free

Rlight5 months ago

The products listed above have been developed for a very long time and look outdated.
I am using “Home Security Camera” free software.

Check Camlytics Camera Analytics at camlytics.com

Stryder2 years ago

Sight hound Video does not have Motion detection in free program anymore!

23/july/2017, I just checked the security eye web site, it is not free. why are you saying it is 100% free ?

HAL9000 Admin2 years ago

The commenter either didn’t bother to check the subject of this article or is trying to spam…

I’ve just visited website and downloaded Security Eye. And, it seems, it’s really free…

Rabbit Bykonen2 years ago

Security eye for the win!

f security eye it suks and not free at all

Alan2 years ago

The information is useful, but it is already outdated. It would be nice to update and add to the review AnyCam, Ksenos and Macroscope.

Motion detector doesn’t work in Camera Viewer Pro

Jerry (Jai)2 years ago

Very Purposeful Post, Currently Working on my Productivity Monitoring Setup and this information was Helpful.
#ProperPerspective #DivineFriendship #777adventures

Hello,
Very informative post. Thank you for sharing.

Octopus3 years ago

You can also convert emailed notifications into SMS using ifttt.com for free. You may be limited to a max number of SMSes per month (10 at the time I posted this). But you can also install the ifttt app on your phone and have it send you unlimited notifications via the app. ifttt can be leveraged in so many other ways. it is an excellent service if you are moving towards automating your home and everything.

AtHome is pretty good, if really basic. Webcams are monitored by your phone app. Great if you only need to stream to one phone only.
I used to use skype on auto answer but it no longer works since the last update.

Moe A3 years ago

I am writing an alternative to ZoneMinder in Node.js. It is called Shinobi. So far it is pretty barebones. It records video to webm and streams over websocket. I have found other apps like NodeMinder but i couldn’t get them to run properly…

So i made this. I want to share since it is open source and free to use.

Would be swell if you guys could give me your thoughts/opinions.

You can view the github page here

moeiscool.github.io/Shinobi/

Enjoy!

I tried all these tools. But i could not found the FREE program which:
1) Sends sms alerts.
2) Allows remote access (via browser).
So I have spent several days before I finally found the software that meets my needs: Security Eye.
It’s really 100% free and it has all features of commercial (or “professional”) versions of video monitoring products.

None3 years ago

Thanks Alex i just download Security Eye and it works like a charm

Second this motion: Security Eye has done what I needed in a very simplistic manner. Free and great. Security Eye should have absolutely made this list.

Nhoy ski3 years ago

where can i download this? how many cams can i connect also? thanks!

This software does not do any of these things without purchase of the PROFESSIONAL product .

Deadeye3 years ago

Yeah, Security Eye is not free. Won’t do anything really until you buy the pro version.

Contacam found 3 of my cameras and starting recording easily. However, Contacam apparently doesn’t recognize 264 cameras. It found 3 of mine, but not the N.264 one. There is a workaround, but cumbersome. Also, getting motion detection to work is hard. Sighthound could not find any of the cameras.

jipi3 years ago

for iSpyConnect, it comes with a system of video analysis plug-ins, which are available here iplugs.eu
they provide a VERY efficient plug-in (activity tracker plug-in) to detect intruders without a ton of false alarms

Which software has App. for smartphone as Android, iOS…?

Kent3 years ago

At first glance, Camera Viewer Pro worked for my webcam and looks pretty good.
But it installed into a quite bizarre directory without giving any option otherwise – kind of annoying :
Installed here :
C:UsersKentAppDataLocalApps2.044YRC6JX.8P3VW1KXEA5.Q26came..tion_33c0d162bad62362_0001.0002_7e0dc4504937fc92

Nevertheless thanks for the very comprehensive and helpful review of the apps available.

You should check out kerberos.io as well :) It’s great and easy to install.

Ron Brown3 years ago

Does anyone know if any of the listed programs provide CCTV diagnostics and system failure reporting?

I’m surprised to not see BlueIris on this list. Its not perfect, but its a very popular surveillance system

michaeltheclyde4 years ago

SecureCam2 does images (up to 15,000 in 1 calender day) as well as video. I’ve been using it for 5 years or so for home sur. Donated the $5, never heard a peep, been promising SC3 for 4 years or more … 12oclocksoftware IIRC.

nice article

Yes, I had a knowledge about it but its great to get to know details about it. Thanks for sharing

MagicLantern4 years ago

It seemed that the Camera Viewer Pro seemed to want to download something from the defunct website in order to install. I manually installed it and got it running, but the web services would not start. Later when starting, it just refused to display anything on the screen. It would show up in task manager though.

I next tried Netcam Studio and found it to be fairly awesome and they even have and Android app.

Thanks for this helpful write-up Raymond.CC.Blog!

I found a interesting project recently, it’s called Kerberos.io. You can install it on a Raspberry Pi, and it takes images when motion has been detected. Everything can be configured by using a web interface. It looks fancy aswell.

Ronnie Fremin5 years ago

Which one of these programs is best to send a alert to my cell phone by email with pic from snap shot of camera .

This is good stuff
Thanks
I have Windows 7 and Windows 8

Thanks a lot for sharing.
We’re the best ip camera:)

Johann5 years ago

Genius Vision works really well. I certainly did not find setting up too difficult. I’m running a number of cameras over a wireless network for a community safety project monitoring routes criminals use.

I was searching for this in internet and fabulous to find this great information here, the feature comparison table gives me fairly good idea, I hope all these software work nice with Win 8.1 and also in future can I read similar article on Android phone camera surveillance.

Samrat Krishna Gaddam8 years ago

a very useful one….

Installed the webcam with your guide and it works great.
I have it looking at a room and at 85% sens and 30% tolerance I get some shadow alarms in the morning, but that is ok. I put a attractive box where the camera can see it. I just check the last image in the email and if the container is how it should be and the drawers on the hutch are all in, I’m confident that it is a shadow alarm. I might play with the settings a little more, but satisfied.

Note: it is not a video (obviously), so even if it shoots as fast as it can, if the person does not pause in view you might miss them. Put something attractive to make them pause in view.

Shawn B9 years ago

House was broken into today. We live in an active neighborhood and two neighbors were home but did not see anything. Dash and Grab, cash and gold only. Thanks Cash4Gold for fencing goods, I guess it makes the dvd, computer, etc too much of a hassle when they can safely fence gold no problem.

Fixing door tomorrow and installing webcam with this plan.
The FTP works well if in near real time so it can upload pic before they steal the computer.. assuming they come back for the stuff the saw while here the first time.

Ray,
Well done, as usual sir.

iJemuel10 years ago

Very nice tutorial, will come handy.

Thanks

Great for away vacations. Thanks!

Merlin_Magii10 years ago

Nice one Raymond – thank you for an excellent article.

thanks works great i get free email-to-text with telus in canada :)

victor10 years ago

I’ve been waiting for this kind of program for a while thanks so much!!!

thanks for the info Mr Raymond
Peace.

sudharsan10 years ago

Only a geek like you can only post this article..
very nice one..

Thanks Raymond for your very useful info. . . more power…

sunkumarspace10 years ago

yeah i have heard about it but such a detailed and wonderful tutorial; thanks raymond

Thank’s Ray,I have Logitech Pro for notebook webcam.I tried this motion detector software

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billy1310 years ago

Very good…

Thanks this will work well with AT&T as they offer their own email-to-text service for free.

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Free Malaysia Classified10 years ago

Webcam Surveillance Software

Very detail tutorial on setup webcam as motion detector. I believe it will reduce the burglar happens if everyone take it seriously. Thanks for great sharing.

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That’s Great Raymond :-)

Free Webcam Cctv Software

Thank you very very much

Usedgol