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We are using your app (pay version) with many phones. We are very happy with the performance of the app but we consider that still there are some improvements, specially related to the quality of the images.
For example, now we are running the app in an Asus Zenfone S and Huawei P20 Pro, and we are getting better results with the Asus than with Huawei, and however the Huawei camera is better than Asus camera.
Today we have bought an Oppo Reno Zoom 10X, but the results are very poor using your app, despite the fact that the camera of this phone is great.
I attach you a pair of pictures taken with the built-in camera app and the same pictures taken with Security Camera app. Both are taken at 130 meters approx., with the same zoom level. If you pay attention to license plates, you can read them with no problem in pictures taken with the built-in camera app, and they are absolutely unreadable in the pictures taken with Security Camera app.
This problem with the quality of the images happens with all the phones that we have tested (and we have tested a lot of them) ;-)
Is there a way to improve this issue on future versions of your app?
I have checked the pictures you sent and the results from my app are really bad. I suppose you took these images with an extreme zoom, right? Such a huge difference in quality is (I think) caused by the fact that the Security Camera CZ app doesn't use the optical zoom :-( which is definitely used by the native photo app in phone models that you use as the camera.
I very apologize, but at this moment you cannot improve the quality of images by yourself. But I am putting your email at the top of my must-to-do list and I will include the use of optical zoom in (hopefully) the next version of the app.
EDIT: An option to use an optical zoom was added in version 2.6.0.
Hi, since the phone get android 11 update, cellphone camera keeps saying "can't access image sensor". I think is because application permission to camera is only allowed when app is being used. Any suggestion or fix to this problem?
You are absolutely right. Beginning with Android 11, only applications that were started by the user can access the camera sensor. For this reason, it is highly recommended to keep the application running on the (camera) display. Do not shut the app down (hide the app) by the phone's power button or Home button. The application now has a black screensaver, which automatically turns on after one minute. By keeping the app running on the display, the app will keep access to the camera sensor even on Android 11.
I have checked the application in both devices that is camera as well as monitor and on both devices I am using the latest version. Still after few days of use while connecting to camera after 20 seconds frame rate is going to 0 and live feed is getting shut.
When watching the live feed, there is as (i) icon in to bottom left corner of the screen. Please click on it. A small window will appear with information about the connection. If the framerate is low, the window also contains a reason for this. Please check the reason. In any case, I would recommend to restart the camera phone and may be also the Wi-Fi router if possible.
Thank you for your suggestion to restart the application once per day, I will think about it.
I restarted app on monitor as well as on camera application and It worked properly for 1 day but again it is showing the same issue which I was facing earlier.
Please do you use the latest version of the app 2.4.2 on your camera phone? You can check this from your monitor phone, when you go the camera settings, almost at the bottom there is an option "About this camera".
If you use the latest version, please ensure that you do not close the application on the camera phone. Instead leave the application on the display! Also please ensure that you have your camera plugged into a charger. It is very important.
Hey I can't understand the new update 2.4.0. Can you please guide me?
The last update didn't change many things. The most important different is that now it is recommended not to close the application on the camera phone. Instead, leave the application on the display. And that is all. The camera automatically switches to a screen saver and dims the display to save energy after one minute. This improves the camera (application) stability and prevents the app from being shut down by the background Android operating system.
How can I rename the camera?
Go to the camera settings (it is the "gear" icon). Then, almost at the bottom, is a choice to name the camera. Just click it and name your camera as you want.
I mean the video camera rotates, my viewing device automatically rotates, and I have to hold the phone upside down to see the image in the correct direction. I need the next version that supports image lock. Or manually adjustable rotation angle using the on-screen key.
This is very strange, because the application rotates the image automatically, it shouldn't be necessary to hold the viewer phone upside down... It seems to me that the motion sensor on the camera device can be broken (I've already seen several phones with such a problem). Please would you check if other apps on the camera phone rotates normally?
I have a problem with the brightness when the light changes quickly. At dawn the image becomes all white and I have to watch the direct for the brightness to return to normal, same thing at sunset when it becomes all black. Probably when changes are fast.
Dark mode option is enabled and phone camera is a Samsung S3 NEO, but this happens also with other phones I use. In addition it happens that when the clouds pass in front of the sun there are a lot of motion detections.
The app sets up the camera to "all auto" exposure mode, so I hoped that the camera's electronics solves all this dusk/dawn issues automatically. For most devices it works well. Unfortunately, some older (typically) Samsung devices have its own rules and doesn't follow the Android standards. I am afraid I cannot solve this issue if I don't have access to such a misbehaving device. You say that you face the same issue with other models too?
When I buy the full version, will this fix the motion detection from shutting off automatically after 3000 detections?
Unfortunately, the limit of 3.000 images per day is valid also for the paid version.
Originally there was no limit for number of alarms per day. Unfortunately, some users fired even more than 20.000 images per day, which caused that costs of the app increased rapidly. So, just a safeguard against misuse, there is currently threshold of 2.000 images per day after which user is informed that motion detection of his/her camera is not set properly; after 3.000 images per day the motion detection is stopped for the day.
I wish the flash to turn on automatically when taking photo on motion detection.
Can I ask you what happen when you switch the flash to "Always on” in the camera settings? If this works and the flash turns on, then I think the problem is not in the camera flash, but most probably your camera doesn't switch to the "night mode" properly. This is usually because of some light area in the camera view - for instance a street lamp...
I will add the option to turn the flash on only when taking photos on motion detection. EDIT: this option was added in version 2.7.0.
Pause detection for 30 min - what is it button used for?
The "pause motion detection for 30 minutes" should only pause the motion detection, nothing more - you should be still able to connect to your camera and watch live!
By the way, you can "unpause" the motion detection in the camera settings, if you switch the "Motion detection" button back on.
How can I use this application?
You can use this application by installing it on TWO Android phones or tables. One phone (probably some older unused phone) will be your remote camera, which you can then watch by the second phone - your monitor.
When installing the application, use the same login account on both phones - you can use email/password combination or simply use Google or Facebook provider as the login.
That is all, the application works just out of the box. You can see your camera on your monitor, receive notifications about movements that happen in front of your camera and much more. All functions are free.
How can I add another camera?
You can add new (or another) camera by installing the same application on another Android phone. Just use the same login account on this phone and set is as "Camera". That is all, this new camera will immediately appear on your monitor.
Bad connection. It worked for 20 min and then the live feed stopped.
Time by time I receive similar emails from Russian speaking users. I am wondering what is going on, because normal the application works fine for other users. The media server which routes the video for Europe and Russia is located in Belgium.
The only reason why the live feed can be unstable is because of the internet connection between the camera phone -> media router in Belgium -> monitor phone is unreliable.
First of all, I would recommend to restart both the monitor and the camera phone and also the Wi-Fi router.
After it has worked for 6 days now, activating the camera externally from home suddenly no longer works. Both devices work perfectly, both devices have internet without problems and still the camera can no longer be activated at home. Maybe you can give me a tip.
Is it possible to turn the camera back on remotely?
Please would you try to restart the application on your monitor phone? You can do this by this sequence:
(1) on your monitor phone go to the list of applications (usually by a long press on the square button on the main navigation bar of your phone)
(2) shut down the Security Camera CZ application (swipe the application from the list)
(3) return to main screen of your phone and start the application again
In about 15 seconds, the camera should appear as online.
I tried installing your security camera app but I'm having trouble downloading it? What should I do?
How to access images from the camera online? How do access them via Google (Google environment as you say) as some images appear blank and I would will like to view them online if they are still stored there.
This app can be download to Android phones with Android version 4.1 and newer. If your phone is Apple or older Android than version 4.1, then the app will not appear in the Google Play store. --
On 15.03.2021 21:32, Gabriel Frias wrote:
Do I understand well that you have switched storing images to Google Drive? In this configuration, the camera stores high resolution images to your Google Drive. But because night vision isn't applied to high resolution images, you can see them (those images) on your Google Drive as "black". In fact, night vision is just digital post-processing, which only applies to low resolution images that are sent to your monitor phone.
Just an example - it works like this: when the camera detects a movement, it takes image of that movement. Then it makes a low-resolution copy of this image, applies a night vision post processing if necessary and then sends it to your monitor phone. Then, it stores the original, high-resolution image to your Google Drive (or to your camera SD card).
The only reason for not applying "night vision" post-processing to high resolution images is that it would take too long time to digitally convert (for instance 20Mpx) images to "night vision" image.
When I watch a live feed and press the record button, I would like to know where the file is saved.
If you connect to the camera to watch a live feed and then you press "recording" button, the video is saved locally on the phone from which you are watching, to the standard "Movies" or "Videos" folder.
Is there a way to have alarm siren sounding on the monitor-device, rather than on the camera-device? In other words, so that I’m notified if there is movement without having my camera's hidden location exposed.
This could be solved by some loud notification. Notifications can be set per camera basis, so you can have different sounds for each your camera.
The camera turns off by itself and cannot be turned on remotely. Especially when the smartphone is not connected to the charger (battery charged 100%).
Please always keep your camera phone plugged into a charger, otherwise some models of phones can turn off the background applications. In the latest version 2.4 this problem is solved by a recommendation to keep the app still on the display (screensaver is provided to save battery). So try to install the latest version and do not turn off the application by the phone's power button or the Home button.
Why this app doesn’t work when I am connected to my Wi-Fi?
His app works on both data and Wi-Fi. Did you try restart of the Wi-Fi? It must definitely work on Wi-Fi.
How can it work if I only have one phone?
This app is intended to employ old, spare, unused phone as a home security camera. So if you don't have a spare phone, you probably don't need to employ it :-)
But yes, you can install the app on your phone, make it a "camera" and then watch this camera from a web page https://securitycamera.cz, so you don't need a second phone.
I don't think this is normal in an app that my daughter can see (photo include), in an app that I trust for the safety of my home and my daughter, I don't think this is socially accepted.
I must say that this is a big surprise for me. The app presents ads provided by Google company, which, by my experience, is the most reliable and responsible ads provider worldwide. All inappropriate content should be filtered out. I have currently double checked in the app's Google account that all adult content is explicitly prohibited.
So I think there can be two possibilities - the Google made a mistake and released inappropriate ad, or there is something with your phone (I mean some code, malware, which replaces ads content from one provider for another one).
Please would you try to close the ad with the small "x" icon and report it as "inappropriate"? I would appreciate if you let me know if you have succeeded.
I have no access to the camera on the remote phone. I take a remote phone, enter the application and exit through saving energy, it works, but after a day there is no access again. I have Android 11.
If you have Android 11 as the camera device, it is important to update to the latest version 2.4.2. Then, when the application on your camera starts, do not close it using the phone's power button or the Home button. Instead, just leave the application on the phones display - it will lock the screen and dim the display in a minute.
On Android 11, the Google changed access to the camera, which is now possible only when the application is on the top of the display.
If you have any other problems, for instance if the camera goes offline often, try to restart it and also restart the Wi-Fi router, it usually helps.
I can't find surveillance video on my phone.
As you probably noted, this app records detected motion as a series of high resolution still images, not as a video like other apps.
But if you connect to your camera, you can watch a live feed and record this live feed. You will then find your recordings on your "monitor" phone (i.e. the phone on which you pressed the record button) in the Movies (or Videos) folder.
The camera part of application is saying that I should keep the application on screen and lock it but my camera is supposed to be hidden so the app can't stay on that screen in order to work.
Well, this app isn't actually designed to be really "hidden". You can still ignore the recommendation and press the "Home" or "Back" button to hide the app - it still works like before.
But please note there are big security changes starting from Android 11. Google company denied access to the camera (photo and video) if the application wasn't started by the user. So (on Android 11) if you remotely turn off/on the camera, then it will lose access to the photo/video sources.
This is the reason why I added the new "black" screen saver and recommendation not to hide the app, because there will be more and more devices with Android 11 in a future ...
Why is the two-way radio feature not working on the camera end? I talk on the monitor end but cannot hear anything on the camera end. Will you please assist me with this issue?
I suppose that during live feed you hold the yellow mic button (icon), right? When you press the mic icon, do you see a big yellow mic picture in the middle of the screen on your monitor? If yes, then there will be probably something wrong with the camera speaker, please could you test it?
The live feed works only on Wi-Fi, not when I am with my monitor on mobile data.
Don't you have some data saving application installed on your cell phone? For instance, ad-blocker, firewall or so... The app should work well on both mobile and Wi-Fi internet connection...
Why the playback of the videos is not continuous, it arrives frame by frame and there are details that are lost.
You can check for the reason why the video is so slow - just press the (i) icon during the live feed. The icon is situated in the right bottom corner of the video preview. You will see the current resolution, frame rate and other info. If the video is not good, there will be also the reason why it is not.
For more questions, please let me know.
The live feed in unstable. Even after restarting both camera and monitor phones and the Wi-Fi router.
Can I ask you if you have language on your monitor phone set up to your native language? Or to US English (for instance)?
I am asking, because the application choose the geographically nearest media server for live video based on the country where you live. And the country is chosen based on the language of your phone.
So if you have US English setup on your phone, the video goes through USA. If you have (for instance) Japanese language, the video goes through a server in Asia. If you live in Japan and the video goes through USA, there may be lags and the video may be unstable.
Camera is moving on its own like its pulsating moving in and out and sends message for movement but is only the camera itself moving. It doesn’t catch any real movement though.
The "pulsating" is probably because the camera changes focus to foreground versus background of the image. If you have something close to the lenses, remove it. Or you can set up a fix focus - to do that, go to the camera settings, select Advanced... and there set up fix focus instead of autofocus.
I have purchased a 1-year subscription yesterday, but I am not watching the camera for 30 minutes. It closes in 1 minute.
If the live feed finishes itself after such a short while, there will be most probably some problem with internet connectivity. First of all, I would recommend to restart both the camera and the monitor device and also the Wi-Fi router. The problem will be at 95% there. If not, let me know.