Feature Request: netcam_url pointing to a .PNG file instead of JPEG

Description

Would like to be able to create time-lapsed movies from a network URL which points to a .PNG graphic instead of a JPG.

-- TeamLoser - 21 Jun 2006

Follow up

Comments

I am not very likely to implement such a feature since no cameras that I know produce PNG images.

But let me give some hints how to do it.

You run your Motion on a Linux box. It most likely have apache installed.

If you do not want to run Apache for anything else just let your firewall reject all connections to port 80 from the outside of the machine.

You can now create a small either CGI or PHP program which - when called - fetches the PNG image and convert it to JPG of a high quality.

You can also write a program that has an IP socket but that require more skills.

With Apache you can either do the conversion in PHP. Just let PHP return a raw image instead of an HTML page. Like it is done in the MjpegFrameGrabPHP related project. It has all the basics. You just need to add the conversion.

Another way is to use an nph- type CGI script which can be a bash program that picks up the PNG, pipe it to some command line conversion program and returns the jpeg to standard out. The CGI must be the nph- type to avoid Apache adding the wrong headers.

On the registration page it is clearly written that we prefer to see peoples real names instead of silly nick names, because that saves us from clicking on the WikiName to see who people really are. I wonder why many people recently ignore this and register under names like TeamLoser instead of KlementiSuvorov ??? It is a new tendency. Just a year ago all registered using their name. I would like to understand why.

-- KennethLavrsen - 23 Jun 2006

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What I'm doing right now is wget-ing the image and using the "convert" utility to turn it to a JPG file. Works well enough, just wanted to eleimate a step. I'm grabbing a PNG image from the US National Weather Service web site which is a radar image and I use MOtion to create a time-lapsed movie of these images.

Motion is terrific! Thanks for your consideration.

-- TeamLoser - 23 Jun 2006

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I will never stop being excited about what crazy and smart ideas people get for the use of Motion.

Cool idea with the weather films.

-- KennethLavrsen - 27 Jun 2006

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And many thanks to folks like you who create/support such wonderful pieces of software! Well done!!!

-- TeamLoser - 27 Jun 2006

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