Need a new Dropcam replacement for the lab

[EEVblog]

The feed says it all:
http://www.eevblog.com/live/

Anyone got any pointers for an always-on, always recording (to cloud/server), easy to use and zero-maintenance solution using a HD webcam (I have some Logitech C920's). I don't mind a paid service. Perhaps a new camera if I must, but I have those high end webcams already.
It has to be remote server based image/video, because I do not want multiple users sucking my lab bandwidth for each connection.
Perhaps using a Raspberry Pi? (for the low power, I really don't want to dedicate a PC to this)
Doesn't actually need to be real time video, could be a 1 image per second type thing.
Full real-time HD video is actually too bandwidth intensive anyway. Dropcam was at least heavily compressed.
Needs to have a nice easy way to integrate into the blog website live page.
And something that lets viewers go back through pre-recorded video like Dropcam did would be nice.

[max666]

The feed says it all:
http://www.eevblog.com/live/

  

[apelly]

youtube live stream?

Na. I'm talking out of my arse really. I have no idea.

[richms]

twitch stream perhaps? I know you can drop the framerate quite a bit in the encoder that you send out to knock the bitrate back.

[John Coloccia]

What's a Nest account?

[mtdoc]

Well that sucks.

I don't have a solution 

Good to know though since I had been considering a Dropcam for home monitoring. Not now.

[Sparkst3r]

I honestly hate when companies do this to customers, especially ones of the paying variety. If it's already working, DON'T CHANGE IT. 
They could've at least just make accounts sufficiently backward compatible that dropcam accounts work as intended and any 'new' features elsewhere in their service require the new account.

I wouldn't be surprised if they've revised their ToS to sign your life away and needed an excuse to get their users to agree to it!

The bullshit meter's off the charts. It's G+ all over again.

In regards to the notice: It requires more choice words and a DaveCAD diagram of where the middle finger should be inserted. 

[Zad]

I would give a Twitch streaming cam a go. After a time and enough views, they give partnership status which generates money for you. It does have adverts though. Of course it also has the option to stream audio should you wish.

[EEVblog]

Since Nest and therefore Dropcam are all owned by Google why doesn't a Google account encompass everything? Making an unnecessary intermediate step seems to just be putting off the inevitable. Why piss people off slowly?

or Door #3, just don't change anything and leave Dropcam as it is.

[EEVblog]

I would give a Twitch streaming cam a go. After a time and enough views, they give partnership status which generates money for you. It does have adverts though. Of course it also has the option to stream audio should you wish.

Seems 100% gaming oriented.
Any examples of others using it?

[John Coloccia]

Say, Dave, just what's a Nest account, and what's the big deal getting one?  There's a lot of things I don't do with my business on principle and for moral reasons, but if it doesn't hurt anyone, and it helps your business grow and prosper, why bang your head against a wall when you can just move on to more important stuff?

[EEVblog]

Dave may simply be annoyed at seemingly pointless (to him) changes. But given the tone of the whiteboard I'd doubt it.

Your doubt is ill-founded!
I bought a dropcam. I signed up a for a dropcam recording account. I don't give a toss about Nest, or Google who bought them, and do not want to change accounts. It pisses me off.

[zapta]

That is EXACTLY why they did it.

What terms were changed between Dropcam and Nest?

[EEVblog]

Say, Dave, just what's a Nest account, and what's the big deal getting one?  There's a lot of things I don't do with my business on principle and for moral reasons, but if it doesn't hurt anyone, and it helps your business grow and prosper, why bang your head against a wall when you can just move on to more important stuff?

I signed up and paid for something specific I wanted, nothing else. Them forcing a change on me pisses me off. It's the principle of the thing. You can argue to you are blue in the face that it's a trivial principle to you, but you are not me.

[Marco]

Doesn't actually need to be real time video, could be a 1 image per second type thing.

Didn't you get your intern yet? Making something to just put this on your existing web server is not exactly a huge task.

[EEVblog]

Didn't you get your intern yet?

Yes.

Making something to just put this on your existing web server is not exactly a huge task.

Ok, please explain how, that's why I'm asking here.
AFAIK the intern isn't an expert on server based streaming video systems.

[nixfu]

I would suggest Veetle maybe instead.  Veetle is what twitch was(all types of live streams) before it became totally gaming oriented and was called justin.tv.

http://veetle.com/


Other solutions would be http://ustream.com, http://livestream.com,


Those are the typical choices these days for those who want to have live streams up for stuff like Baby Bird Nests, kittens at the animal shelter, or technicians soldering in a fishbowl shaped lab.

[EEVblog]

Other solutions would be http://ustream.com, http://livestream.com,

I think these are solutions better suited to live shows (as I have done in the past) than just a fixed 24/7 webcam?

[nixfu]

BTW, there is now a dropcam competitor: http://www.simplicam.com/

[Marco]

Ok, please explain how, that's why I'm asking here.

My optimistic view :

Google for webcam software with a FTP upload option, try a couple till you find something you like. Figure out if the FTP server overwriting the image at the same time it's being read can cause problems, if yes figure out how to solve them. Code up a page for the web server which auto-refreshes the image (again, use google).

[c4757p]

That is EXACTLY why they did it.

What terms were changed between Dropcam and Nest?

I have no interest in reading either companies TOS. There may well be no TOS changes yet. I'm enough of a cynic to think there will be sooner or later.

Do you really think they need to push a new account on people to get new terms into the TOS?

Of course they're making the TOS less agreeable. That's what companies that are run by layers do. But they'd have done that anyway! This is unrelated...

[pickle9000]

motivated by greed

[supersat]

Seems 100% gaming oriented.
Any examples of others using it?

Yes, it is gaming-oriented. They are starting to branch out into music, but otherwise they will be unhappy if you stream non-gaming content.

[Jfcarrer]

Other solutions would be http://ustream.com, http://livestream.com,

I think these are solutions better suited to live shows (as I have done in the past) than just a fixed 24/7 webcam?

Nasa uses it for a fixed 24/7 webcam pointing out of the international space station (if the stream happens to be a black screen at the time you see it, the station is at the dark side of the planet):

ISS HD Earth Viewing Experiment on USTREAM: ***QUICK NOTES ABOUT HDEV VIDEO*** Black Image = International Space Station (ISS) is on the night side of the ...

[EEVblog]

Nasa uses it for a fixed 24/7 webcam pointing out of the international space station (if the stream happens to be a black screen at the time you see it, the station is at the dark side of the planet):

Ustream is very expensive if you want HD though.