Android Phone Turns To A Wireless Webcam For Your PC
Introduction
The first question that comes into mind is “What is the need to turn the phone into a webcam for a PC”? This is a common reaction that you will get from most people.
Yes, one can turn an old handset into a security camera or a baby monitor that can be used without buying a new standalone camera.
If your handset does not have a front camera and your PC does not have a webcam, then you can use the rear camera on the phone.
Usually, it is easy to buy a security camera, but you are strict on your expenditure, then you can make good use of your old phone instead of selling it and turn it into a nice idea.
Security Camera
One of the amazing ways to use your old phone is by setting it up as a security camera or a baby monitor. Yes, this is possible with the help of appropriate apps for Android and iPhones.
You can easily turn phone into a webcam on your PC.
How To Set Up Phone To A Webcam?
Android: Turn Phone into a Webcam on your PC
A quick search on Google will surely fetch you some good applications for a webcam but they don’t prove to be fruitful and usually crash.
IP camera is much better than others because you can get it through your browser and you get zero compatibility issues. Follow these steps to set up the security camera on Android:
- Get your computer connected to your phone with the same wi-fi network.
- Complete the installation of the IP webcam on your phone.
- Shut down all the applications of the camera.
- Launch the app that you have downloaded and tap to start the server.
- The application then will fire your camera and display a URL.
- You need to enter the URL on any browser on your computer and press enter.
- Then, within the browser, you will be able to see a menu list next to the video renderer. Select browser.
- Below the above options, you will see the Audio renderer and select HTML wav.
After all the above, you will be able to see a live video feed on your browser. You can record that footage through your browser. To enable this, you just need to press the record button.
The video will get saved as MP4, and you will see a slight lag if you enable HTML wav audio. You can even select the Flash option or view the URL in the VLC media player.
To perform this, you need to download and install VLC from the website and within Media, go to Network Stream.
Once the app starts running, there is no need to keep the screen on because the app can work even when the screen of the phone of off. The video can feed better when the screen is on.
Also read: 4 Reasons to Select A Time Lapse Camera Rather Than A Webcam
iOS: Turn Phone into a Webcam on your PC
There are two webcam applications that are famous: Epocam and Pocketcam. The process is too complicated while setting up Pocket cam. Only the paid version can give you access to all the features.
The other one, Epocam is free and is quite easy to set up. This is how you can do it:
- Connect your computer and phone in the same manner as mentioned above.
- Download the application of Epocam app for ios.
- During the installation, you may see some prompts that will ask you to install some drivers. You need to click on Install Anyway. Audio and video drivers will permit the app to work as a webcam.
- Now, start that app on your phone and computer.
- Next, the app will start searching for other devices that are running that application on the same wi-fi network. Soon, the video on your phone will appear on your computer as well. This app allows the user to use only one device as a camera at a time.
The app works successfully usually and many times, the phone and computer couldn’t connect to each other. Restarting the app on both devices can solve the issue quickly.
The app does not have a recording feature, but a user can easily set up a screen recorder app on your computer to record the feed from your iPhone.
Video Calls
You can make use of your phone as a webcam to make video calls from your computer and can use your phone as a camera to chat using skype.
Wrapping up
All in all, this is how you can use your phone as a webcam rather than buying an expensive one with additional costs of features.
If you are planning to buy a webcam, then stop and put it on hold. It is better to go through the information mentioned above and make a decision afterwards. Make use of the above steps and share your experience with us!
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