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[svenmonet]

I have both a DCS-910 and 920 camera.  I also have both ver. 1.10 and 1.30 of the software which I've tried running on two Acer laptops (one slower than the other).  If I run the 1.10 software on either computer with both manual and scheduled recording off the software seems to be quite active on the internet.  If you don't even start the main software window and just have the icon at the bottom of Win XP it seems to be chugging along on the internet.  My question is what is it doing and how do I stop it?

I want to record manual or scheduled recordings to Dropbox on the internet which is bandwidth/CPU intensive so I don't want the software to be doing anything else on the internet it doesn't have to.  If anyone has tried this exercise before and has any thoughts I'd appreciate any good ideas.  Manual recordings are quite large and the slower Acer can't keep up so I went back to the old software.  Scheduled recordings are smaller but for some reason I can't pause and jump to any given part of the recording. 

Thanks!

[Mackerel]

What software V1.1 and V1.3 are you using? D-ViewCam is now on V3.11.

Probably what you see as Internet activity is the LAN-activity between camera(s) and the computer. You will notice a high CPU usage on lower-end machines as they need to keep up with the network-traffic.
If your wireless/LAN is 10/100 only that will also have na impact on CPU-usage to handle the traffic.

You can configure the size and Frames per second on the camera to lower traffic, but the drawback on that is lowered quality of the video. It is all a trade-off. It should make no difference whether you use scheduled or manual recording, volume is related to quality of video as set in the software (camera in effect).

In order to answer your questions on usage of the software you should give us the name of the software used...

[svenmonet]

>What software V1.1 and V1.3 are you using? D-ViewCam is now on V3.11.
    The numbers I referred to were the ver. numbers on the actual CDs.  The first CD came with a DCS-910 and the second CD came with a DCS-920.  The actual software indicates 2.03 for the first camera and 3.01 for the 920 camera.


>Probably what you see as Internet activity is the LAN-activity between camera(s) and the computer. >You will notice a high CPU usage on lower-end machines as they need to keep up with the network->traffic.
>If your wireless/LAN is 10/100 only that will also have na impact on CPU-usage to handle the traffic.
  The camera are both using Ethernet cable...no wireless (yet) for the 920.  I believe you're right about the internet activity being the camera usage even if I'm not recording.

>You can configure the size and Frames per second on the camera to lower traffic, but the drawback on >that is lowered quality of the video. It is all a trade-off. It should make no difference whether you use >scheduled or manual recording, volume is related to quality of video as set in the software (camera in >effect).
   I left the default frame size (20 FPS) and resolution of 640x480.  I would like to have the highest quality if possible.  I am trying to store the data both on a local hard drive and on the internet via the program Dropbox.  It's obvious that the older Acer is having a hard time keeping up.  The manually recorded files sent to Dropbox tend to be about 450 megs. every 15 minutes for one camera.  I tried the 3.01 software on the old Acer but the CPU usage was pinned at 100%!  I'm using 2.03 and it seems to work but it's struggling. 
  I will re-check my problem with the playback of scheduled recordings.  I have it set to "economy recording" but I was having trouble playing back the entire hour of data faithfully.  I would jump 30 minutes into the hour and hit play and watch the clock tick but see no movement.  The scheduled recording files are smaller and I would prefer to have those stored to Dropbox to save bandwidth usage over the internet.

>In order to answer your questions on usage of the software you should give us the name of the >software used...

  Thank you for your help!

[Mackerel]

Even when you are not recording, the Main Console will still ask for, and receive, video-stream-data.
The newer versions require a lot more umph from the computer doing the recording, V3.11 will not work on anything not at least dual-core (core 2 duo). V2.03 could do with a bit less.
I am using my cams wired (hate people snooping on my wireless network), and a DCS-920 will generate (on best setting) about 4.5 Mbps traffic [per camera]. You will use up quite a few GB's when running multiple cameras for a while.
450MB per 15 minutes sounds about right...
If you do see the clock in the top left part of the screen advancing similarly to the time, related to the time-bar at the bottom, then either the playback can not be performed well enough (too little cpu-power), or, during the recording either a high cpu- or network-overhead can cause this. I noticed on lower-level recording computers, that, generating a multi-minute asf will degrade recording-quality to a hop-scotch mode. The same process on a Quad-core or i7 will not yield any noticable impact on recording. Also, if you use the same network-card for both recording and up/down-loading of 'stuff' or recorded data, you will also get less quality from your camera(s). This impact would also be minimized when using a gigabit network-card (strange though that may sound).

[Mackerel]

To improve image/video quality:
1. get a stronger machine (at least Quad-code or i5)
2. use separate dedicated network-cards (one for camera, one for other network-access)
3. make use of Gigebit-network-cards, -switches and -routers if possible
you can think of other ones (like splitting up recording over multiple machines)

DViewCam V3.11 is a slight improvement over V3.01, seems more stable, so try to use that one on the stronger box.
Hope this helps a bit...