Hi,
I am looking to purchase a higher-end USB webcam which I plan to plug into my WL500gPv1 router with OpenWRT on it, and use it as a decent surveillance device. What I am looking for is a model with decent linux support, capability to use higher frame rates (25 to 30 FPS) and some decent resolution - should be at least 800*600, but I am willing to go for a higher one up to 1600*1200. I would like to know what webcam models/bands you guys recommend for such task.

Thanks.

For high-end buy an IP webcam.

I just set up this one as a Baby Cam:
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WVC54GCA- … B0010OXEDU

Lessons learned for this camera:
Note that there is a problem with the latest Linksys firmware.  WPA does NOT work.  It took me hours to find that out.  Most of the negative reviews are about one form or another of this problem.  I ended up setting up another SSID with no encryption just for the camera. This also makes the data stream closer to real time as there is no overhead for encryption/decryption. Security is not an issue for me as my camera is not open to the net and my (non-tech) neighbors are too far to pick up a signal from my router.  I'm not storing the video either (but that may change later).  BTW, this camera does MPEG-4 which is easier on bandwidth than MJPEG.  I use VLC to play the video and audio stream (Firefox doesn't play the audio for some reason). I'm streaming 640x480, 30fps, medium quality video over a Wireless G system at the moment.  Reasonably good quality in daytime, poor quality in low light.  Good luck and let us know which camera you ended up with.

(Last edited by saidiadude on 15 Jun 2009, 23:00)

The Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 provides hardware compression at 960x720.  I'm not sure about your frame rate.  I have it working on a NSLU2 with openWrt 8.09 r15469, with kmod-video-core, kmod-video-uvc kmod-usb-core, mjpg_streamer.   This command serves it on a web page at port 8080:

mjpg_streamer -i "input_uvc.so -r 960x720" -o "output_http.so -p 8080 -w /webcam_www"&