App for sub £50 CCTV camera

[u587162]

Hi

I bought some cheap and cheerful pan and tilt WiFi cameras off Amazon a few years ago. Several were from a company called Vestercam in which they use an app called eye4. Another brand is Florean for which I cannot find an app for.

Is there a way of connecting these apps to third party app software so that I’m not hindered by the poor support or poor functionality of some of these apps? I was hoping there might be some IP solution which makes the whole setup app independent of the manufacturer.

My cameras have micro sd card recording and have the ability to connect both wirelessly and wired and is mains operated though I use wireless connectivity.

If there is such a solution, will there always be a requirement that the manufacturer still operates an active sever for the cameras or can the independent app somehow connect via IP?

 

[Sally2000]

If you do a search on the app store you will find a number of apps that offer to monitor CCTV cameras, but they may not be able to operate the PTZ. The risk you take with these cheap cameras is that the control functions via their Chinese server can cease at any time.

As they say on this forum, "but cheap, buy twice"

 

[u587162]

Thanks for the reply. I've had these camera running since 2015/16 so I've had a good run so far. And yes I suppose it is a risk if they go out of business

So, I'm not an IT person but just for me to understand the mechanics of how all this works, why can any third party software not connect and perform the full functions of PTZ compared with the manufacture's own software? Isn't the IP address of the cameras not sufficient?

 

[Sally2000]

The video outputs of most CCTV cameras are of a very similar format, so it's not difficult for a third-party app to see them. PTZ commands can vary considerably. The app you got with those cameras uses a server in China and will have been designed to operate all the cameras' functions - and probably a few others you won't have been told about.
There are many other apps available in the app stores. They don't go through that server and may or may not have access to all the functions. Why don't you download some and try? They are very cheap or even free.-