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ROANOKE RAIL CAM

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Saturday, May 28, 2011 7:16 PM

Two of the links I know of for the Hotel cam are down, but the third one is working.

Unfortunately it is the "low rez", "slow update rate" (1 frame per second):

http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCtrainsDOTcom

Don't know why the other two are not working.

 

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

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Posted by j610 on Sunday, May 29, 2011 4:21 AM

Hotel cam still down . Has anyone heard anything about the problem or when it will be fixed ?   RON

J610
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Posted by j610 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 8:01 AM

Has anyone been able to bring up the hotel cam .   RON

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Posted by jlrc47 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 9:01 AM

No only the low resolution is working http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCtrainsDOTcom.

I am hoping the IT peeps get to look into it now that Memorial Day is done.

Joe

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Posted by jlrc47 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:28 PM

Hotel Cam is up and running again. Thank you for getting it running again.

Joe

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Posted by mittelfruh1 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:51 PM

Still not working for me. It's been weeks.

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Posted by mittelfruh1 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 2:51 PM

Still not working for me. It's been weeks.

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Posted by jlrc47 on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 4:03 PM

Its up now at http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCmov. If it does not work for you, you might need to check your internet browser settings and if it needs any updates.

Joe

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Posted by Modelcar on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 1:41 PM

....To whom ever credit is due...Thanks.  Cam is working normal again.  Looks like a nice day in Roanoke.  No trains right now, but looks like a very pretty late Spring day...Just as we're having.

Quentin

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 10:10 PM

SPIDEYs back!  Sigh 

It may be an arachnid, but it seems to be too much of a HAM, and built the web smack dab in the middle of the field of view!  Grumpy 

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by j610 on Thursday, June 2, 2011 8:57 AM

Great to have the hotel cam back . These periods of severe withdrawal are tough .   RON

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Posted by Modelcar on Thursday, June 2, 2011 10:32 AM

.......The weather seems nice and clear in Roanoke today...Can even see the mountains in the background quite clear late this morning.

See no evidence of a spicer web now...if so, perhaps the sun has to be at a certain angle to bring it out....Or maybe it's been removed...??

No trains.  lots of cars in parking lot.

Quentin

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, June 2, 2011 1:29 PM

The spider web usually does not last long, it gets built in the late afternoon or early evening and by AM the wind and flying bugs have usually destroyed most of it.

Right now I see a remnant of it right at the top of the image half way across... Looks like an out-of-focus, jittery black cloud agains the blue sky.

Last night a similar "blob" was almost dead center in the scene (just above center and slightly to the left).

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by switch7frg on Friday, June 3, 2011 12:28 PM

  Hmm  Yes Spidey is back and with a vengence. Is he trying to capture a train. The web is tied to a tree  on one side and to the far signal bridge ??  At 1010am cam time train passed just under the web, whew close call.  Uncle Pete is in town , is that a lease hour power engine??

                                                                           Jim

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Posted by Modelcar on Friday, June 3, 2011 9:24 PM

...Just took a peek at hotel cam and sure enough....an eastbound with NSs on point for power.  And I believe I could see what must be at least part of the "web" fluttering in the breeze.  Left center area of pic.  Cam still showing color.

Quentin

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, June 3, 2011 9:58 PM

I have viewed the hotel cam several times lately in the wee hours of the AM (1 to 5 AM EDT) and it seems to be in color all night.

I supposed that someone saw our bemoaning about it in this thread and figured out how to make it stay in color.  It also seems to be better focused for distance than it was and I have not noticed the random "focus seeking" it used to go through when a car drove by with the headlights on. 

A big THANK YOU  Bow  to whoever it was that did those things!

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by mittelfruh1 on Friday, June 3, 2011 10:39 PM

You guys are killing me. I haven't been able to get the cam for about a month now. Maybe it's because I'm up here in Canada?? I've got the latest updates, all my other cams work like a charm. Anyone else still frustrated?

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, June 3, 2011 11:43 PM

mittelfruh1

You guys are killing me. I haven't been able to get the cam for about a month now. Maybe it's because I'm up here in Canada?? I've got the latest updates, all my other cams work like a charm. Anyone else still frustrated?

 

Have you tried all three methods of accessing the camera image?

The following is written from the viewpoint of using Windows... if you are using a MAC or something else then the address and image size and frame rates will be the same but some of my descriptions of how the media player gets run will be different than what you will see (and I have no idea what would be the equivalent).

 

For the largest image and most frames per second use:

http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCmov

This one will open a new  tab in the browser (or a maybe new window) and then run Windows Media Player and close the window/tab that was opened.  Be advised that being the largest image and the most frames per second it will consume the most bandwidth on your internet connection and if you have a limit of bytes per day/week/month imposed by your ISP you might overrun that limit and be reduced in the speed of your connection for the duration of their measuring period before it comes back to full speed again.  Also, if there are other users of your connection to the internet they may experience slow connection speed while you are viewing the video.

 

The 2nd method is to hover the mouse arrow over the word "Interactive" in the line of text below the banner at the top of this page (the one you are reading now), then select "WebCams" from the menu that drops down and follow the appropriate link shown on the webcams page that will appear.

This method will also, like the 1st method, open a new tab/window, then open Windows Media Player and then close the new tab/window, but it uses considerably less bandwidth from your ISP, because the image is smaller and the frame rate is so low (one per second).  But, because of the low frame rate, trains "jerk" along the track (and automobiles "jump" down the street) and that can be disconcerting..

 

The 3rd method is via a connection from the Hotel Roanoke:

RoanokeRailCam.com

and then click on the image at the top of the page to get to a page that shows the railcam.  The image will be embedded in the page viewed in the browser.

These will open in a new tab or window of your browser and present the smaller size image but at a higher frame rate than the 2nd method above, so it is kind of a middle of the road connection as far as bandwidth from your ISP.

 

If you cannot get any of these to work, then we can try something else to see what the problem is on your PC.

 

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by AgentKid on Saturday, June 4, 2011 1:32 AM

mittelfruh1

Maybe it's because I'm up here in Canada?

I am receiving it using the first link S.V. specified with no difficulty tonight. My ISP is Telus. There was a problem earlier in the week when the camera loaded but the image was frozen. I tried several times and the image stayed frozen. But as I say it works fine now.

Bruce

 

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Posted by Modelcar on Saturday, June 4, 2011 11:55 AM

.....Oh, a beautiful day in Roanoke....pretty clear with sunshine.

No trains as I just checked though....That's ok, I'm sure if one stays with it for a while, one will be seen.

Quentin

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Posted by Modelcar on Monday, June 6, 2011 10:01 AM

....Just checked in and found a beautiful morning in Roanoke.  That's a nicer view than I received last evening when I checked.  Just saw a green screen.  Never have seen that before.

Now as I did check, a NS engine was passing {east}, at a decent rate of speed using the far track.

Quentin

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Posted by mittelfruh1 on Monday, June 6, 2011 11:20 AM

Have you tried all three methods of accessing the camera image?

For the largest image and most frames per second use:

http://128.173.197.94:443/RRCmov

That's the one I've always been using, until it stopped on me about a month ago now. I also tried your second method, same black windows media player. It keeps telling me "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." Just to reiterate, it has worked fine ever since I started viewing it (Roanoke cam) about a year ago.

I can get http://www.nwhs.org/cam/vmt/ , but of course it's choppy as it refreshes every 5 seconds or so.

The third site I can't get to load is http://128.173.197.94/railcamax.htm. Again I just get a black screen within media player.

Thanks for any info/hints anyone might know.

Paul Cummings

 

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, June 6, 2011 11:47 AM

You don't say whether the 2nd method works.  but since it also utilizes Windows Media Player I doubt if it will work for you either.

----------------------------

The 2nd method is to hover the mouse arrow over the word "Interactive" in the line of text below the banner at the top of this page (the one you are reading now), then select "WebCams" from the menu that drops down and follow the appropriate link shown on the webcams page that will appear.

This method will also, like the 1st method, open a new tab/window, then open Windows Media Player and then close the new tab/window, but it uses considerably less bandwidth from your ISP, because the image is smaller and the frame rate is so low (one per second). But, because of the low frame rate, trains "jerk" along the track (and automobiles "jump" down the street) and that can be disconcerting..

----------------------------

The 2nd method you listed is a totally different camera, associated with the Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT), and is not technically related to the Hotel Roanoke camera.  (It is only somewhat related in that it views the same tracks, but from the other end.)  It is a good diagnostic that it works (such as it is!) on your system, so thanks for that info.

Your 3rd listed method should NOT open a seperate Windows Media Player window!  So I am confused at this point.  It should remain as an open tab with the video in that window of the browser.

 

At any rate, my best guess at this point is that you updated (deliberately or unknowingly!) your video CODECs somehow and lost the one for decoding this particular video stream.  It could have been caused by a behind the scenes update that you know pretty much nothing about or it could be you installed a new program and it, having been written by a conceited programmer, decided to change your system such as to render it unable to do what it used to (HEY! if you installed a program then you must really, really, really want to use that program to the total exclusion of absolutely any and everything else, right!?!?!?!  Ain't that the way it seems some programmers seem to think? ... Sorry, I am off on a tangent soapbox because I just ran into it again myself!)

I suggest that you go to Microsoft dot com and search for a download of Windows Media Player and re-install it to see if that will undo whatever the change was. (And hopefully doing so won't break any new program that you installed that caused this problem in the 1st place!)

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by mittelfruh1 on Monday, June 6, 2011 12:29 PM

Semper, you are a scholar and a gentleman;-). Sometimes the obvious "fix" is right in front of my nose. I just finished re-installing Media Player 11 for WinXP (after putting in a system restore point). Everything seems to work like a charm now. I owe you a beer or 2, tall coffee if you don't drink.

Thanks again for your time and efforts, and to the others that posted as well.

Paul Cummings

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Posted by grampaw pettibone on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 8:37 PM

Is it just me, or is the railcam gone? I have been getting a notice that the website is not availabe or cannot be found. Been that way for the past 4 or 5 days.

Tom

COAST LINE FOREVER

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 9:20 PM

I had some trouble this afternoon keeping the camera going.  it either would just show a black screen or it might run a few seconds and then go to the black screen.  Sometimes it would come back all on its own, but I usually got antsy and click the "Stop" button (the square at the bottom) and then click "Play" (the triangle pointing right in the circle in the middle at the bottom) and it sometimes it would work and sometimes not.

 

At any rate, it is working for me now as I type this (just watched an eastbound on track 1)  it is still in color and looks like a nice evening in Roanoke.  Lights changed to yellow on the tower between tracks one and two and the far signal bridge the rightmost signal is showing a diagonal yellow, so I suspect a west bound on either tracks 2 or 3 (switching to track 2 in mid screen).

 

Gramps: Have you read the posts on this page about trying the other web access to the camera?

 

P.S. Are you related to the find gentleman that wrote the Grampa Pettibone articles in that Naval Avation magazine many years ago... I used to laugh myself silly reading them!

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by grampaw pettibone on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 11:54 PM

Thanks SV. Do yo have links for the other web access?

I, too, read the collum in Naval Aviation News and was so taken with the feller that I adopted him as a non de plume... I was navy in the late 60s. BTW, G P came into existence in 1943 and still doing his page.

Tom

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It is better to dwell in the corner of a roof than to share a house with a contentious woman! (Solomon)

A contentious woman is like a constant dripping! (Solomon)

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 12:30 AM

Scroll back up on this page to my entry of 06-03-2011 11:43 PM... that is where I have listed the 3 methods of getting to the Roanoke Hotel Rail Cam.... (That is, unless this post ends up being the first post on a page, then go back to page 76 tp see them.)

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by grampaw pettibone on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 7:01 AM

Thanks SV

Tom

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A contentious woman is like a constant dripping! (Solomon)

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Posted by Modelcar on Wednesday, June 8, 2011 10:32 AM

.....A bright sunshine morning in Roanoke.  Wonder if they have extreme hot weather too.

No trains as I just peeked at it.  But the fence row of cars seem complete, so many must be there working.

Quentin

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