Py Software, Active Webcam Deluxe Review

Overall Rating

Wide camera/server support
Unlimited number of cams for basic licence
Easy to setup
Easy to use
Great features, including MPEG recording
Attractively priced

None significant for me

It seems as if most major players in this market have not yet tumbled to the increasing number of webcams and IP cameras in the world being run by the likes of me who don't have the same generous budgets as big businesses. Consequently, finding an inexpensive means of recording the output from one's non-commercial cams is difficult, because the best-known packages are priced at corporate rates and based upon the number of feeds you wish to connect.

However, I've just found the ideal solution to this problem from a Canadian company called Py Software, whose Active Webcam Deluxe application can be had online for around ninety bucks per licence. Full specs of the application are available on Py's web site. So I won't waste space by going into detail here. Instead a brief description of my setup may help you decide if Active Webcam Deluxe is right for you.

I run a webcam site featuring four external analogue cams connected through an AXIS 241QA video server. In addition, I have four AXIS 206 internal cameras looking out the windows, an AXIS 207W monitoring the front entrance, a Sony SNC-M3 monitoring baby and a Panasonic BLC-10 for the playroom. These eleven cams show up as small windows in the Active Webcam interface, but obviously recording all of them at once would strain even a top notch Pentium Core Duo PC with 2Gb of RAM and SCSI hard disks.

Mind you, I've only tried recording four cameras concurrently, and the application handles this task very well. Recording more cameras at the same time will be limited by your hardware - not Active Webcam - and it's easy to switch feeds on and off, thereby reducing bandwidth requirement and increasing the frame capture rate of the cams you need to record. Meanwhile, full-screen mode on individual cams is only a right click of the mouse away.

Recordings can be saved in Active Webcam format, as AVI files or as MPEG's - which is a big bonus for this kind of money. Though I should add that, after recording is stopped, large MPEG files can take a while to be encoded - on my setup anyhow.

The only thing I haven't yet worked out is how to record cameras with Internet (as opposed to LAN) IP addresses. This isn't vital for me, but if it is for you then best confirm with Py Tech Support before buying. Otherwise there's a free trial of the program so you can check it out before shelling out.

In conclusion, I suggest that, when it comes to recording cameras connected to a computer; whether they be IP cams, inexpensive USB webcams or other cameras hooked up to a capture board, then Active Webcam Deluxe from Py Software is extremely competent and quite unbeatable at the price. I urge you to try it.