Recommendations for simple camera viewer apps (all platforms)?

W

wrybread

Pulling my weight
Sep 12, 2018
257
121
San Francisco
I'm setting up a bunch of people to view our Dahua SD49225T-HN, and most of them are technophobes to put it mildly. Some have Android, some iOS devices, some Macs and some Windows laptops. I'm looking for programs for each that let them control PTZ and click on presets. Other than that, as simple as possible. Doesn't even need to support multiple cameras.

The Android app Tinycam Pro is an almost perfect example of what I'm looking for. It would be absolutely perfect if it let me hide some of the other GUI elements (all the icon buttons at the bottom and top left except PTZ and presets), but it's close enough and an awesome app.

Does anyone have any recommendations for nice simple camera viewer apps on iPad, iPhone, Windows and Mac? And any others on Android that people like?

And how are people using the admin interface from Mac? Is there some browser that works well?

And any cheap Android tablets that people have found that work well? I'm testing on a Kindle 7" and a Kindle 8" (both latest generation) with the Google Play Store added, and the 8" works beautifully, and is only $80 or so. The 7" is much slower, because of it's 1 gig of RAM (versus 1.5 for the 8") and isn't very usable. But the 8" is nice but a bit small. And I really wish Amazon didn't lock those down so much, but I guess for $80 it's to be expected.

And thanks for any help!
 
I am using "IP Cam Viewer Pro" on iOS and Android (same menu and "look & feel" and there is also a lite version, with no charge, for max. 6 cameras).

Big plus, the app can handle new cams, and also old PTZ cams via RTSP and has also many drivers (press says >1000).

"Not so good" is, if you need support from the developer, you dont get really help (I just made this experience by my self, with Fredi 8088 and motion detect).

But if the app works with your camera, you will like it.
 
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wrybread said:
The Android app Tinycam Pro is an almost perfect example of what I'm looking for. It would be absolutely perfect if it let me hide some of the other GUI elements (all the icon buttons at the bottom and top left except PTZ and presets), but it's close enough and an awesome app.
Click to expand...

You can hide all on screen buttons in tinyCam. Go to App Settings - UI & Behavior and enable 'Hide rec & audio in single layout". To hide bottom icons you can just by pressing the screen. PTZ or presets can be visible at the same time.
 
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I've done that, but the audio buttons are still there when I touch the screen to see the buttons.

I know the icons disappear when touching the screen but I wish they weren't there ever. I'd prefer to only see PTZ and presets, no need for that button on the left that shows horizontal bars labelled "0, 20, 60, 80, 100" (what does that even do?), or the admin button, or the play button. And the audio buttons are still there in that mode. And no need for relay buttons in our setup on the presets screen (use the extra space for more presets buttons). And focus buttons should be on PTZ screen not presets.

Note that I was able to hide the "Tasker" button by going to developer settings.

No biggie of course, I love this app, its one of the best apps ive ever used in fact, I just wish the interface had the ability to hide things that people don't use, which would make it absolutely perfect. I'll email the developer on the off chance he's interested in suggestions .
 
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wrybread said:
I've done that, but the audio buttons are still there when I touch the screen to see the buttons.

I know the icons disappear when touching the screen but I wish they weren't there ever. I'd prefer to only see PTZ and presets, no need for that button on the left that shows horizontal bars labelled "0, 20, 60, 80, 100" (what does that even do?), or the admin button, or the play button. And the audio buttons are still there in that mode. And no need for relay buttons in our setup on the presets screen. And focus buttons should be on PTZ screen not presets.

Note that I was able to hide the "Tasker" button by going to developer settings.

No biggie of course, I love this app, its one of the best apps for android ive ever seen in fact, I just wish the interface had the ability to hide things that people don't use. I'll email the developer on the off chance he's interested in suggestions .
Click to expand...
Alexvas IS the developer
 
Oh! Wow and spectacular work! I absolutely love your app. Please take all of the above in the spirit of constructive criticism. Beautiful, beautiful work. I just wish you made an iOS version since after using TinyCam Pro everything on iOS (that I've found so far) is just unusable by comparison.
 
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And since I've mentioned some suggestions, here's the other two that I have:

- would be nice to be able to use gestures for PTZ in single cam mode. Swipe left to pan left etc. People keep touching the screen expecting this to happen. Maybe two fingers up and down for zoom. Maybe the gestures only work when the pic isn't zoomed, or maybe there's an option to disable zooming on the pic in Settings.

- would be nice to be able to prevent people from reassigning presets by holding the presets buttons long. People keep doing this by mistake.
 
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Sometimes ago in tinyCam app there was an option to use gestures for pan-tilt. Then the option has been removed since those gestures are not so obvious.
 
> Then the option has been removed since those gestures are not so obvious.

Thanks for the response. For whatever it's worth everyone I have install the app, which is about 10 people so far, try to move the camera with gestures. I find myself doing it too.

Another one of my favorite programs, a music player for Android called Music Folder Player, lets the user control volume with two fingers up and down on the screen. It's so incredibly useful that after using it for awhile I try to do it in Spotify and every other music player. Just a fantastic interface improvement. As I think this would be.

Anyway I'm available to beta test anything if you ever need someone, for these or any other features. And I can test on a wide range of devices. Love your work.
 
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