Need small camera that can broadcast video to my home PC monitor.

jaes

New Member
My wife, daughter, and I own several rental property houses that we manage. Through the years (43+ yrs.), I have acquired houses that needed rehab., fixed them to point where our family is proud to rent them. They are all in good shape; however, as with everything they need maintenance. I am, now, 76 yrs. old with health problems that stop me from going to our properties to assess, first hand, a problem (e.g., can we fix it on the spot, or do we need to call in a professional). We need some sort of small camera that my wife or daughter could carry and feedback video to me on my home computer monitor. Also, we would need to have an audio set-up so we could talk about the problem that is being videoed back to me on the home PC. Could a smartphone with "skype" be something I should consider? If my daughter is "streaming" video back to me, she should be able to see (with a camera monitor) what she is streaming to me ---while talking about the problem. Maybe a smartphone camera and monitor would work? --May be the smartphone monitor would be a bit small? --should I be thinking of a "tablet" with a bigger screen? Anyway, that's the situation. I while I mention "sypke", "smartphone", "streaming", and "tablet" ----I know little or nothing about these things. I need your help in setting-up a system. Please, if you do help with suggestions, product Brand name & Model #, would be most helpful. ----Thanks for any help. ---Jaes.
 

Agent Smith

Well-Known Member
You pretty much took the words right out of my mouth: Skype. There are a number of other "Apps" as they call them for smart devices that will do the same thing, but Skype would probably be your best bet.

As to what kind of smart device you should use really doesn't matter. The cameras in each are all perfectly capable. A tablet may in fact be too big and clumsy. They do sell a handle strap that attaches to tablets on eBay. A smart phone would be your best bet and it really doesn't matter what brand of smartphone you get, albeit it should be something that isn't crap. I personally like Samsung and what Motorola offers for smart phones. For cell service I use Cricket. (Are you in the U.S.?) I only pay $35/month for my phone and have 2.5 Gigabytes of data to use which is fine for me since I mostly use WIFI, but if she's out in the field 2.5 Gigabytes should be plenty. If not, you can always add extra data to the plan. The great thing about Cricket is it's pay as you go with a monthly charge to your credit or debt card monthly. No credit check required. And Cricket uses AT&T so they have great coverage.

At your computer in your house all you have to do is download and Install Skype. Give your daughter your Skype username and she will be able to ring your computer where you can see and talk. You might want to prearrange a Skype season over the phone so that you can sit at your computer waiting for Skype to ring you.

How long do you think your daughter may be recording video? 2.5 Gigabytes could potentially be eaten up in a month's allotment. So if these recording sessions are rather long you might want to consider a larger data plan.

At Cricket's website they sell the phone's right there and will ship it out to you. Activation is very easy.

Just to let you know. In the past when I used Skype I had to update Internet Explorer. I don't use it, but apparently Skype uses it somehow and so you might want to be prepared to update it in case you discover something isn't working right. It's usually because of Internet Explorer. Just had to throw that out there.
 

jaes

New Member
Agent Smith. thanks for your help. After reading your reply, it seems we might have everything we need: (1) My daughter has top-of-line Samsung phone, (2) we have T-Mobile with unlimited --something?, and, (3) apparently my daughter says that it is easy to install Skype. ---So, apparently, we are good to go; but I really would not have understood it until you explained everything involved. I very much appreciate the time you took to (1) read my request for help, and then, (2) the time you took to give a very helpful reply. ---Jaes.
 
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