How to use Watcher

Watcher is a software for broadcasting, monitoring and recording events while you are away from home. Standalone, it acts as an intelligent home watcher. It also has an interface with the free RemoteView software, so that you can use RemoteView to connect to Watcher and do remote video surveillance (real time).

Watcher software has two modes of operation, namely Capture Mode and Log Mode.

In Capture Mode, Watcher can do the following:

Record captured video/audio into compressed video clips
Monitor events and trigger alert according to your alert settings, including video logging alerts, email/FTP alerts, etc.
Listen for connection request from RemoteView to send real time streamed video/audio to remote location.
Broadcast the camera image files to either remote or local web server.
SnapShot can be taken at any time.

Note the difference between monitoring and recording. In recording mode, it is a continous recording of video stream until you press stop or Watcher is terminated; while in monitoring mode, video clips (video log files) will only be created whe a motion is detected (other alerts like email/ftp can also be activated).

Note that some of these operations can be used simultaneously, including:

Recording and Broadcasting
Monitoring and Broadcasting
Monitoring and Listening
SnapShot can be taken even when the above functions are being performed.

The parallel run of these operations means that you can use Watcher to do almost everything you want. However, it is recommended that you try those parallel running of operations after you are familiar with Watcher.

In Log Mode, Watcher can manage a list of logged video files (created during monitoring or recording), let you play back video logs, or play back any recorded video clips.

The settings menu can be found by clicking the button on the upper left corner of the Watcher windows. All settings of Watcher can be set there, including:

General settings, such as always on top, hidden mode options, auto start options, audio settings, internal web server (to be used for broadcasting) and internet connection.
Video settings, such as video source and format, time stamping and some advanced video compression/frame rate settings.
Recording settings, where you can set whether to prompt for a filename or to automatically spawn a new video file every 20 minutes (or specified time) upon clicking 'start recording' button.
Monitoring settings, where you can set motion sensitivity level and a complete list of alert functions, such as video logging, ftp alert, email alert, phone alert and more.
Listening settings, where you can set how you want to listen to connection request to RemoteView for real time video streaming.
Broadcasting settings, where you can select either to broadcast to remote FTP server or local web server and other settings such as frequency, authentication and more.

To use Watcher for multi-cam solutions, please click here.

To schedule Watcher, please click here.

To run Watcher as an NT service, click on "Run as NT Service" from Watcher's system menu. You can also directly find the link to the NT Service settings dialog from Watcher's program group. Typically, an NT service acts as a console application. An NT Service can be started without the user having to login to the computer and it won't die after the user logs off. It also doesn't matter which account the user uses to log in. The dialog for setting Watcher as an NT Service is quite straightforward. A lot of hint texts are provided, please read through them as you use them. Here are a few additional notes:

Only WinNT/2000/XP users with administrator rights can install/remove/run/stop Watcher NT service.
By default, when started as NT service, Watcher is running under the "local system" account. However, "local system" cannot access resources including, the current user's registry settings, or mapped network drive or any other resource on the LAN. You can change the account used by Watcher manually, on Windows 2000, use the "Adminstrative Tools" menu, select "Services" and then double click service named as "DW ...", from the displayed list to change the logon information (domain name, user name and password). On Windows NT 4.0, use the Control Panel, select/open the Services icon, then double click "DW ..." from the displayed list to change the logon information.
You need to go to Watcher's auto-start settings to enable Watcher to auto-start recording/monitoring/listening/broadcasting when Watcher is started as NT service. Otherwise, there is no point of run Watcher as NT service.

Digi-Watcher.com. - A total solution for digital home security

support@digi-watcher.com

Last updated 03-Feb-2007.

Introduction
   -- Watcher QuickStart
   -- Remoteview Quickstart

Help on Watcher
   -- Capture Mode
   -- Log Mode
   -- Settings Manual
       - Part 1 - General
       - Part 2 - Video
       - Part 3 - Monitoring
       - Part 4 - Listening
       - Part 5 - Broadcast
   -- Multi-cam Solution
   -- Scheduling

Help on Remoteview

DGW-AVI Converter

How to Register

Troubleshooting

FAQ