How did I setup the streaming video?

I decided to use the Real Networks Steaming Video products as they were: not owned by Microsoft, they are advertised to have the largest installed base of streaming users, and their scaled back versions of all their software is free.

I started out with a standard video camcorder with RCA type audio/video outputs pointing at my cage. I was worried that leaving the camcorder on 24/7 would damage it so A few months ago I purchased on Ebay for about $75 a Canon VC-C1 pan/tilt/zoom video conferencing camera. I can zoom in/out and move the camera around with a remote control.

My cage is downstairs and the computer is upstairs so at first I started out with a Wavecom RF link from Radio Shack. This device uses a small box to transit the audio/video upstairs without any wires where another small box receives the signal and outputs RCA type signals again. Unfortunately I found out that the realproducer and/or realserver software would occasionally crash due to the loss of signal from the RF link. I was forced to replace the RF link with a hard wire running from my cage, through the wall to the outside, up into the attic, and back down into the den where the computer is. It was an all day affair, but the software is much more stable now.

I could have also connected the RCA sound output to the sound card in the computer. I leave it disconnected so family conversations are not broadcast over the Internet.

The RCA video signal is run into a MMAC Osprey 100 Video Capture card I purchased on Ebay for about $30. The Oprey 100 Video Capture Card is installed in the computer. The use of the MMAC Osprey 100 video capture card is the most important part of the setup. Although any video capture card should work, the MMAC Osprey 100 is the only card I know of which is fully tested and supported by Real Media. I spent months trying to get the video capture port to work on my ASUS TNT video card. I would get all kind of weird traps and hangs. I then purchased a Pinnacle PCTV video capture card. Problem with it was it would run for exactly 1 hour 11 minutes 33 seconds and then get a server disconnected message. The Pinnacle PCTV uses the Same Brooktree BT848 video decoder as the MMAC Osprey 100. The only difference is the driver. When I first installed the MMAC Osprey 100 it would hang the same as the Pinnacle PCTC. It was only after I removed the Pinnacle PCTV driver and installed the MMAC Osprey 100 driver was I able to get everything working. Save yourself some grief and get the MMAC Osprey 100!

A while back dad upgraded the cliffordlive server upto a Duron 750 and installed Windows 2000. The machine would run fine until the Real Producer and Server started running and then reboot. Dad turned off the ACPI functions in the bios of the EPOX motherboard. This allowed him to manually play with the interrupt mapping. Also, the Osprey 100 video capture card cannot share an interupt with anyone, so dad had to do some card swapping until he found a setup where the Osprey 100 had its own interrupt. Dad also downloaded all the lastest bios, drivers, patches, etc.

Next, dad had a problem where the realproducer would run for a few hours and then freeze. Windows kept running fine but the realproducer process had to be killed and then restarted. Dad found that by turning off the directdraw feature in realproducer things starting working properly. Apparently the cheap video card dad was using does not support the directdraw feature which transfers data to the video card without the CPU being used.

All this sounds more complicated than it really is. After I figured everything out its really duck soup! If you need help you can email me and I will try to help.

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