iVCam is designed to be simple yet powerful inside. Most of its features are clear, while some features are not. Here’re some feature descriptions and tips for it.
For free version restrictions and purchase related questions, please check here.
PC client software
Zoom in/out and Manual-Focus
You can use mouse wheel on video or press “CTRL +” / “CTRL –” to zoom in or out, and click on the video to change focus, just like using the mobile app.
Shortcuts
You can use the following shortcut keys to perform common operations in iVCam (^ means Ctrl key):
| ^I | Connect via the phone’s IP address |
| ^D | Connect / Disconnect |
| ^+ / ^- | Zoom in/out video |
| ^O | Open camera settings window |
| ^P / Pause | Pause/Resume video transmission |
| ^S | Take snapshot |
| ^T / Ctrl + | Time-lapse shooting |
| ^R | Start/stop video recording |
| ^Q | Cancel video recording (Not saving video file) |
| Shift + or | Do not play the prompt sound when the button is pressed |
| ^B | Show registration window |
| ^G | Select the media file for background replacement |
| ^W / ^TAB | Borderless window |
| ^H / F1 | Help |
| ^Enter / double-click | Enter full screen mode |
| Esc / double-click | Return back from full screen mode |
System global hotkeys (supports multiple instances and can be modified in Settings):
| Ctrl + Alt + P | Pause/Resume video transmission |
| Ctrl + Alt + S | Take snapshot |
| Ctrl + Alt + T | Time-lapse shooting |
| Ctrl + Alt + R | Start/stop video recording |
| Ctrl + Alt + Q | Cancel video recording (Not saving video file) |
Command line parameters
The following parameters are supported when running iVCam.exe:
| /debug | Generate logs |
| /silent | Silent mode – The window is hidden by default and no notification messages |
| /fullscreen | Run in full screen mode |
| /reg ##### | Use the license code “#####” to register the software, the same computer only need to call once |
Settings
Explanation of some options in the settings dialog:
| General > Video Size > This size only | In addition to the selected video size such as 1280 x 720, iVCam also supports 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 by default, which supports a total of 3 output resolutions and provides better compatibility. Selecting this option allows iVCam to output only the video size, thereby forcing other programs to use this resolution only. You can try this if the iVCam video is in low quality in other applications. |
| General > Video Format | Some applications have problems with the processing of different video color spaces, which is manifested by the color cast of the video. You can force iVCam to output only RGB or YUV format to see if there will be improvement. |
| General > Audio > Recording Device | When recording a video, you can choose to record the sound from your mobile phone (the sound recording function should be enabled on the APP side), or the sound from the microphone of your PC. |
| General > Audio > Playback Device | To which device the PC client should play the sound recorded by the mobile phone (if the sound recording function is enabled on the APP side). |
| Miscs > Hardware Decoding | iVCam will enable hardware decoding by default, and CPU decoding will be used after failure. You can choose different hardware decoders here to see which one can be used, which has better effect and lower resoruce usage. |
| Miscs > Preferred GPU | Users with multiple graphics cards can specify which GPU to use for iVCam video decoding and background replacement, and can also use different GPU for video decoding by modifying the value of the registry key “DecodeGPU”. |
Video Recording
In order to reduce the CPU/GPU usage, we record the video file entirely with the data transferred from the mobile phone, instead of re-encoding the video displayed by the iVCam camera. iVCam data transfer will be affected by the video size, network bandwidth, mobile phone and computer performance, and the video will lose frames if the bandwidth or performance is not enough, so the final recorded video file may not have a fixed frame rate, and it may be out of sync in some video editing software, or even not playable in some video players.
You can use video format conversion software to convert the recorded MP4 file to fixed frame rate format and then play or put it into video editing software to edit. Alternatively,
- Use iVCam microphone instead of mobile phone as the default recording device in the iVCam PC client settings;
- Use USB connection which is more stable;
- Use smaller video sizes, lower video quality and frame rates;
- Use other camera video recording software to record video from the iVCam camera, check here for the sound recording instructions.
There is no such problem with taking pictures, what the iVCam camera shows is what is captured.
Snapshot and Video Recording file name
By default iVCam takes photos and videos with the file name “date+time.jpg|.mp4”, you can add a prefix to the file by modifying the registry item:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\e2eSoft\iVCam\SavePrefix (REG_SZ)
For example, if you set this value to “IV_”, the name of the recorded video file will be “IV_date+time.mp4”.
For multiple instances, you can use Instance#0#SavePrefix to set the prefix of Instance #1, Instance#1#SavePrefix to set the prefix of Instance #2…
Generate Logs
If you have any problems using our PC client software, you can enable the log function and send the log file to us for investigation:
Check Settings > Miscs > Generate Logs, then close the application and run again.
After you finish your operations, open Settings > Miscs, and click the button after Generate Logs to open the log directory.
APP related
Connecting history
Long press the play/add button / in the main view to show the IP addresses list of all PCs the app has connected to, you can choose which one to be connected if you have more than one PC running iVCam PC client.
Manual-Focus, Auto-Focus and Auto-Exposure (AE / AF)
It works the same way as the “Camera” app.
Tap the screen to “manual-focus” – it will focus on the area you touch and adjust the exposure time, ISO and white balance once then lock these values. When it detects light-changes or subject-movements, it will “auto-focus” and adjust these values automatically (AE / AF / AWB).
Long-press the screen to enable “AE/AF LOCK” to lock these values, but will not detect changes in light or subject movement.
Tap the screen to “manual-focus” again in this case, or long-press the screen again to change to “AE/AF LOCK” mode, in which case tapping the screen will do nothing, and you can only long-press the screen again to unlock and change back to “auto-focus” mode.
Check Camera Setting to learn more about the setting of camera parameters.
Zoom in/out
You can zoom in/out the video just like using the “Camera” app.
Use a different lens
Mobile phones now have multiple lenses – front, rear (telephoto, wide angle, ultra wide angle, macro, etc.). Normally, tapping the button in iVCam will switch between the different lenses on the phone.
For iOS devices, switching lenses is not a problem;
For Android devices, please make sure that the system is at least Android 9, and also that the manufacturer allows other apps to use these lenses.
In many cases, the manufacturer’s own camera app can switch between different lenses, but it does not provide an interface for other apps including iVCam to use, so iVCam cannot switch between these lenses. This is not a bug or functional limitation of iVCam. You can check Google’s official instructions if you are interested.
Using different MIC (iOS only)
iPhone has several microphones , and iVCam will use the default one (bottom) at first. When the button was tapped to change camera, iVCam will change MIC accordingly – front MIC for front camera, and back MIC for back camera.
Save battery power
iVCam app will close video and show black screen to save battery power after a while if there’s no user actions (transfer will still work). You can tap it to show the video again, but this time it will keep showing the video without closing it and showing black screen.
Network signal
There’s a network signal icon on iVCam video. It means that your phone’s network is not good enough to transfer video if it’s not full, and the video frames will be dropped sometimes in this case to keep the video transferring in time.
Reconnecting
You can re-search the iVCam PC to connect and transfer video by tapping the refresh button in the main view.
Bonjour service
iVCam uses Bonjour service to detect PC, but it will still work if there’s no Bonjour service installed on your PC – It will try to use UDP broadcast to find your PC. So, please ensure that at least one of them is available on your PC.