Canon raw mjpeg stream failure? Failed to read first camera header - giving up for now

Question

I'm attempting to "webstream" a Canon VB-50CFi using the netcam_url directive in motion.conf. The Motion FAQ page says this about this camera:

Canon Network Camera Tested with the VB-C50i range. (http://www.canon.com.au/products/multimedia/network_video_solutions/vbc50i.aspx)

Add this to your motion.conf

netcam_url http://192.168.0.24/-wvhttp-01-/getoneshot returns only ONE single image.

For Motion to get a video stream you should point the netcam_url to

netcam_url http://192.168.0.24/-wvhttp-01-/

I've add this line, but I'm not sure that's the correct URL for Canon cameras anymore. Hitting that URL "http://webcam//-wvhttp-01-/ with the latest Canon firmware give this error from the camera webserver:

---

WebView Livescope Http Server Error --- Unknown Operator operator=-wvhttp-01-/

Is it possible this URL has changed since the FAQ was written?

Also, this site claims there is a "raw feed" that can be accessed with these cameras on tcp port 65310, maybe that would be a better option than trying to obtain the feed through the LiveView Applet? http://www.overset.com/2007/01/22/live-streaming-of-a-webcam-feed-from-canon-vb-c10c50-from-a-relay-proxy-server/ I've pointed motion at that port but do not get a connection where it can acquire a feed.

I wanted to add that this site seems to provide a list of all the parameters that can be used to obtain the camera feed, operators, etc.:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6738822.html

As an example:

OpenCameraServer

CloseCameraServer

GetLiveImage

GetNotice

GetVideoInfo

I was able to access this URL and get a moving stream from the camera directly to my browser:

http://[ip_address]/-wvhttp-01-/GetOneShot?frame_count=no_limit

I used this as the netcam_url directive and it seems to grab the images, but the image is mostly (95%) black and only small white pixels move around so I'm not sure I have the right feed URL. Just wanted to add this information and the document in case it helps determine the problem.

Single change to motion.conf from default:
netcam_url http://67.169.3.27/-wvhttp-01-/

biggins# motion -s -c /usr/local/etc/motion.conf
[0] Processing thread 0 - config file /usr/local/etc/motion.conf
[0] Unknown config option "sql_log_image"
[0] Unknown config option "sql_log_snapshot"
[0] Unknown config option "sql_log_mpeg"
[0] Unknown config option "sql_log_timelapse"
[0] Unknown config option "sql_query"
[0] Motion 3.2.11 Started
[0] ffmpeg LIBAVCODEC_BUILD 3357952 LIBAVFORMAT_BUILD 3412480
[0] Motion running in setup mode.
[0] Thread 1 is from /usr/local/etc/motion.conf
[0] Thread 1 is device: http://67.169.3.27/-wvhttp-01-/ input -1
[0] Webcam port 8081
[0] Waiting for threads to finish, pid: 89466
[1] Thread 1 started
[1] Camera thread starting...
[0] motion-httpd/3.2.11 running, accepting connections
[0] motion-httpd: waiting for data on port TCP 8080
[1] timeout on connect()
[1] Failed to open camera - check your config and that netcamera is online
[1] Failed to read first camera header - giving up for now
[1] Could not fetch initial image from camera
[1] Motion continues using width and height from config file(s)
[1] Resizing pre_capture buffer to 1 items
[1] Started stream webcam server in port 8081
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Camera thread starting...
[1] timeout on connect()
[1] Failed to open camera - check your config and that netcamera is online
[1] Failed to read first camera header - giving up for now
[1] Raw changes:     0 - changes after 'EedDl':     0 - labels:   0 - noise level: 21
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Camera thread starting...
[1] timeout on connect()
[1] Failed to open camera - check your config and that netcamera is online
[1] Failed to read first camera header - giving up for now
[1] Raw changes:     0 - changes after 'EedDl':     0 - labels:   0 - noise level: 16
[1] Retrying until successful connection with camera
[1] Camera thread starting...
[1] timeout on connect()

Environment

Motion version:	3.2.11
ffmpeg version:	FFmpeg version SVN-r14424
Libraries:	ffmpeg,
Server OS:	FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE-p3

-- JonO - 28 Feb 2009

Answer

As you said looks that has changed the url or access address, maybe because firmware update.

Anyway hard to guess with data you reported , motion.conf was missing and a mjpeg capture also .

-- AngelCarpintero - 09 Jul 2009