When you ever tried to setup a Webcam and stream a live picture into the net you would have found yourself struggling with a lot of different tools that capture your webcam and transform it into a Life-stream.

I worked quit successful with the media encoder from Microsoft and later with a very simple tool http://www.sytexis.com/webcam_tracker_live.php . Also here I had the problem, that always my IP Address changed whenever my router went down or the DSL Connection flipped off. Ok, there are Tools like no-ip.com where you can make a fix URL for your dynamic IP and help you out of that situation.

Now it comes even more easy. First I found http://live.yahoo.com where you can simple connect with your Webcam and they offer that you implement a embedded Video on your Homepage and your Users can see your moving picture. The good thing also here, you don’t need a big bandwidth. When I was working with webcam tracker live and just 3 People where on my Cam, and remember the software was running on my computer, so this 3 Users took nearly my full bandwidth. Now when you stream to a server and the Users get your Video from there. You just need a small bandwidth to upload your Video there and don’t mind how many users view your Video.

Live.yahoo.com was fine, but I did not liked so much that I have to embed a big object into my homepage with there Logo and my webcam and also a Chatwindow. The whole thing was nearly double as big as my original streaming video.

Just yesterday I found  http://justin.tv and they offer also a very simple way to stream your Video with your Webcam to their server and you can embed your live-streaming Video into your Homepage that is not much bigger than the Video itself. Looks like a bit of Youtube.com video just with Live Streaming Pictures.

Sounds too good, also it is fine, I found that my Video still was not very stable and a little bit slow.

For anyone who just like to try it out. Go to http://www.justin.tv stream your Live-video there and embed a Player onto your Homepage. When this is not as good working as you like. Go to Sytexis (as mentioned in the Link above) and download the Live Webcam Tracker. Also than go to NO-IP.COM and make a Host Url for your dynamic IP.  If you need Help, feel free to contact me.

A Demo with the Live Webcam Tracker you find for example at http://www.ilovedahab.com  (look for the Live Stream Webcams)