List of Changes to the Latest Version Frequently Asked Questions
Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.9)
Major Bugs Fixed:
- GOTCHA!: Changed the way you access SendIt through the Lookout property page. You no longer need to check on Launch Application
and then browse for SendIt. You simply check the item "Upload and/or email images". This change eliminates the memory retention bug which
would eventually starve the system of memory depending on how many and how often images were sent.- GOTCHA!: Miscellaneous bug fixes.
Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.7)
Major Bugs Fixed:
- GOTCHA!: If saving a recorded frame (File > Save Frame As...) to a JPEG file while no camera window is open GOTCHA! would produce a General Protection Fault (GPF). This has been fixed.
- GOTCHA!: When uploading images via FTP, sometimes the images would be incomplete or not there at all. This has been fixed.
- GOTCHA!: When in Hidden mode (Commands > Hide) GOTCHA! would pop up a message box, upon shutting down computer, prompting the user if they wish to save the video buffer. Now GOTCHA! simply automatically saves the video buffer to a timestamped filename within it's working directory.
- GOTCHA!: If the second working directory failed, GOTCHA! would pop up a message box warning the user, however, all functions would stall until user clicked OK. This warning box still pops up but does not stops the monitor to the main working directory. It also sends this warning message to a log file called gotchalog.txt.
- GOTCHA!: When buffering the images for upload, GOTCHA! would only buffer one to two images. More images are now buffered, if set by user, for upload via FTP.
- GOTCHA!: If you disable the video (Video Off command) and then restart GOTCHA!, GOTCHA! would not remember the setting. This has been fixed.
Features Added:
- GOTCHA!: Recycle video files. Now GOTCHA! can be set up to recycle a specified number of video files, enumerated like so, R0000.mv2, R0001.mv2, R0002.mv2, etc. This feature is located under "Options > Properties > Recording".
- SendIt: User can now set the subject title of the email that is sent by SendIt when motion is detected.
Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.6)
Major Bugs Fixed:
- SendIt would upload old image files even if no motion was detected in that frame. Whenever SendIt would initially be called by GOTCHA!, SendIt would automatically force an upload of all chosen images even if the images were old, that is not new due to motion detection. SendIt will now only upload the latest images created by GOTCHA! either because of motion detection or simply time lapse activated.
- GOTCHA! would not automatically save your Timer Schedule changes once clicking OK on the Timer Scheduler dialog box. GOTCHA! wouldn't save your changes to the Timer Scheduler until GOTCHA! was restarted. Changes are now automatically saved once you click OK on the Timer Scheduler dialog box.
Features Added:
- Saving Video Frames (live or playback) to JPEG file. GOTCHA! can now save the video frame, either live video or playback video, in JPEG format as well as bitmap format. This can be found under "File > Save Frame As...".
- Auto-Hide GOTCHA! with Password Protection. GOTCHA! can now be automatically hidden in the system tray when activated. This option can be found under "Options > System Tray Icon Password". Simply put GOTCHA! in your Start Up folder and make sure you have the option "Observe upon GOTCHA! acivation" enabled (found under Options > Properties > General") as well as the option "Hide when activated" found under "Options > System Tray Icon Password".
- GOTCHA! saves images as JPEG files instead of bitmap files.
- SendIt uploads JPEG files. Because of the previous feature SendIt no longer needs to convert to JPEG.
- Server Port Number Configuration. You can now configure your own server port number for out going email notification.
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Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.4)
Major Bugs Fixed:
- Couldn't open GOTCHA! video files via Windows Explorer. In the last release the ability to open files from Windows Explorer, while GOTCHA! was running in the back ground, was corrupted. In this small upgrade, this ability has been put back.
- GOTCHA!, when "Hidden" in system tray, would not popup if invoked by double clicking on a GOTCHA! shortcut. If GOTCHA! is hidden in the system try and the user clicks on a GOTCHA! shortcut or under Start > Programs, the "Password" box prompt will now pop up instead of the annoying message "GOTCHA! is already running".
- SendIt can now communicate via PacBell's ISPs.
Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.3)
Major Bugs Fixed:
- Password protection didn't cover all the bases. When hiding GOTCHA! with password protection, anyone could open GOTCHA! without a password by trying to execute another instance of GOTCHA!.
- SendIt can now properly communicate with the Internet Service Provider Earthlink in order to provide email or FTP notification when motion is detected.
Final Release 3.06 (3.0.6.2)
Features Added:
- Mirrored Working Directory. GOTCHA! has a secondary working directory that can be disable or enable. This directory is basically a mirror to the main working directory. Therefore, if you wish to save your video files on the local hard drive as well as a remote server (if on a network) then you can set your working directory to the local hard drive and the secondary working directory to the remote server location. GOTCHA! will then store the motion detection on both the local and remote drive simultaneously.
- Password Protection. GOTCHA! can now be hidden into the system tray as an icon and can only be accessed using a password.
- SendIt Status window can be disabled. If SendIt is setup to upload and/or send email, SendIt's status window will popup into the foreground whenever motion is detected letting you know of its status. Since this can be annoying when working on the same system that SendIt is running on, you can simply disable this status window within the Property settings.
- Added scroll bar to SendIt's main window for better viewing of messages.
Major Bugs Fixed:
- GOTCHA! wouldn't autosave if in Timer mode and a power down occurred. GOTCHA! autosaves the video buffer if a power failure occurs while in timer mode and auto start.
- Beeping during Time-lapse mode. During time-lapse mode, GOTCHA! would beep constantly if you had the feature "Detect if camera's view is blocked or if camera is physically disconnected" enabled.
- Auto-save to registry Property settings. GOTCHA! now automatically saves the Properties configuration once you click on OK. It used to save these settings only after exiting GOTCHA!.
- All time stamped filenames now include month, day, year, hour, minute, and second. For example, 120999_100258.mv2 is video saved on December 9, 1999 at 10:02:58am.
- GOTCHA! video format detection algorithm has been improved.
Final Release 3.05 (3.0.5.0)
Features Added:
- E-mail and FTP Notification Enhancement. Instead of sending only one snapshot of the motion event, SendIt can now send buffered video frames of a single motion event. That is, you can setup SendIt to buffer up to a user specified number of video frames to send via e-mail or FTP to a server. So if someone were to walk in the camera's field of vision, then you will receive multiple snapshots of this people walking. This feature only works if Gotcha!'s Lookout is re-armed after 0 seconds. Use SendIt in GOTCHA!'s Lookout Mode (Options > Properties > Lookout) to activate it upon motion detection. Refer to SendIt's Help file for detailed setup instructions of SendIt.
- SendIt now sends multiple files. SendIt now has the capability of sending multiple files (via e-mail and/or FTP) when motion is detected. This is important enhancement for the multicam version of GOTCHA! which needs to send multiple files because of its multiple camera views.
- Send e-mail to multiple addresses. SendIt can also e-mail to multiple addresses by separating each e-mail address with a semi-colon (;)
- GOTCHA! can automatically save the video buffer based on size. For example, you can now have GOTCHA! save the video buffer to a unique filename every time the video buffer reaches 1 megabyte. The size limit is user configurable.
- Disable the beeping alarm if the camera is either covered up or physically disconnected. Under GOTCHA!'s Options > Properties > General tab you can now disable the alarm (beep) when the camera is either blocked or disconnected. Before there was no way to disable the beep if the camera was disconnected
- GOTCHA! can now warn you, via pager, if your hard drive is running out of disk space. Added Disk Usage Warning to GOTCHA! under the Options menu. You can enable this feature to notify you via pager if your hard drive capacity is approaching a user defined level.
- GOTCHA! has a new bitmap algorithm which will make it more friendly.
Major Bugs Fixed:
- SendIt would always look for the RASAPI32.DLL file (used for Dial-Up Networking) even if you were running on a network. If you were not using a modem but were sending files over a network then you had to install Dial-Up Networking to make SendIt happy.
- SendIt's user account fields were limited to 20 spaces. For those who have account names greater than 20 were out of luck.
- GOTCHA! will now only checked for valid video buffer if the options for launch Observe and Timer on program activation are not enabled. These options can be found under Options > Properties > General. This fix is important to those who run GOTCHA! in the Startup menu. So if for some reason there were a power outage and the computer were rebooted then GOTCHA! would automatically start and NOT pause to ask if you wish to save the video buffer. This was not good if no one was present to click OK so that Gotcha! could continue monitoring the area.
Final Release 3.04 (3.0.4.0)
Features Added:
- E-mail Notification with image attachment. Replaced the FTPIt complimentary application with SendIt complimentary application. SendIt can be setup to FTP and/or E-mail image files. Use this application in GOTCHA!'s Lookout Mode (Options > Properties > Lookout) to activate it upon motion detection. Refer to Help file for detailed setup of SendIt.
- Option to write directly to harddrive. Added an option to enable GOTCHA! to either write directly to the hard drive each frame recorded or temporarily buffer (store) the recorded frames in memory to be written to the hard drive at a more efficient time. The latter releaves the burden of continuous disk writes during movement, however, you may loose several frames if GOTCHA! happens to be recording during a power system failure.
Major Bugs Fixed:
- Sometimes GOTCHA!'s pager would hold on to the modem, thus disallowing any other application to answer an incoming call. This has been fixed in the pager, as well as GView.
- If changing your working directory to a directory on your server, GOTCHA! will now warn you if the server directory is write permission denied.
Upgrade Release 3.03
Features Added:
- Includes the FTPIt complimentary application to upload image files to a remote server upon motion detection. Also, has the ability to convert to JPEG format. Refer to FTPIt's Help application for further details.
- Added a feature to create image files with unique file names for storage of separate video images.
- Within GOTCHA!'s Observe mode, you can create a bitmap every so many user defined seconds regardless of motion. This image file can be located, for viewing, on a website for periodic updates of the camera's field of vision.
Major Bugs Fixed:
- GOTCHA! would cause a GPF when dialing into GView with a frame size larger than 10kbytes.
Upgrade Release 3.01
Features Added:
- Added the option to check if the camera's view is blocked, instead of having it a requirement.
- Added an option to automatically start in Listen mode when Gotcha! is executed.
- The Frame Rate (frames per second) range in the "Options > Properties > Video" has been increased to 24 fps, instead of 10. When selecting the frame rate you are really selecting the "desired" frame rate that you wish to obtain. Due to factors such as the compressor used, the PC's processor, digital camera or video capture card used, video format size, etc., the frame rate will be affected. For example, having a slow computer will not be able to produce a very fast frame rate.
Major Bugs Fixed:
- On some older systems, when opening the Properties box (Options > Properties), the Properties box would pop up empty. This was due to old Windows system files. This upgrade will install newer versions of these files. Newer versions of Windows 95 or Internet Explorer 4.0 include these updated versions. The files and their version numbers are:
Advapi32.dll (rev. 4.70.1215)
Comctl32.dll (rev. 4.71.1712.3)
Final release 3.0
Features Added:
- Supports RGB 32 video format.
- Pager is now part of GOTCHA!, instead of a separate application.
- When recorded video is present, GOTCHA! will change the grey background to a rose color. When in playback mode it will also change the background color to purple.
- If camera becomes disconnected, GOTCHA! will beep. If using speakers, make sure they are turned on.
NOTE: Please also refer to the Troubleshooting section within GOTCHA!'s Help application by clicking on the menu item Help > Help Topics within GOTCHA!.
Q: I can't find where to register my activation codes?
Q: I lost my registration (activation) codes. How do I get them from you?
Q: I get an "ATIVCR2.DLL" error. I use the ATI ALL IN WONDER PRO product?
Q: Will my video capture card work with GOTCHA!?
Q: Can GOTCHA! take snaphots every so many minutes so that the picture can be posted on my website?
Q: Why is my video screen black or blue?
Q: Why is my video quality poor?
Q: Every time I run Gotcha! it starts to beep constantly?
Q: GOTCHA! doesn't recognize my video capture device?
Q: I get the error "Cannot find RASAPI32.DLL"?
Q: I can't find where to register my activation codes?
A: Within GOTCHA! go to Help > Registration. The registration dialog box will appear. If you do not see the Registration option in the Help menu then make sure that you have a camera view opened (go to File > New Camera...). Only pre-3.0.6.4 versions need a camera window open when registering. When entering your registration code make sure that you do not have trialing spaces and note that it is case sensitive.
Back to FAQs Q: I want GOTCHA! to monitor more than one camera. How can I get the version that does this?
A: First, visit our multicam site and if you already have multicam capable video capture devices installed then try the GOTCHA! Multicam trialware. If you wish to order GOTCHA! Multicam then click here to order.
Back to FAQs Q: Will my video capture card work with GOTCHA!?
A: If your video capture card or digital camera is Microsoft Video for Windows compatible, then GOTCHA! will work. You can check our list of tested video capture devices or download the GOTCHA! trialware to test with your system.
Back to FAQs Q: Can GOTCHA! take snaphots every so many minutes so that the picture can be posted on my website?
A: GOTCHA! does have a feature that allows you to decide the interval of snapshots taken. Go to Options > Properties > Recording and click on the option Save video frame as gotcha.jpg and specify the number of seconds for the interval. This bitmap will be recorded in your Working Directory (Options > Working Directory), which can be changed to a network server if you have access to one. You can use the SendIt program via GOTCHA!'s Lookout mode (Options > Lookout > Launch Application) to upload your image file. Please refer to the SendIt Help application for details and examples.
Back to FAQs Q: Why is my video screen black or blue?
A: Make sure that your camera is turned on and properly connected. Or if your video capture device is in overlay mode change it to preview mode. Go to Options > Video Source to change modes or source. Also, try running other video applications to see if it is a problem with the camera. If so, contact the technical support of your camera vendor.
Back to FAQs Q: GOTCHA! doesn't recognize my video capture device?
A: Close down GOTCHA!. Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel and double click on the Multimedia icon. Click on the Advanced tab (Devices tab for Windows 98) then double click on Video Capture Devices. If you do not see your device listed, then GOTCHA! is not the cause of the problem. Your device is either a non-Video for Windows compliant device or is installed incorrectly. Contact your video capture device vendor for further help.
Back to FAQs Q: I get the error "Cannot find RASAPI32.DLL"?
A: This is an old bug within the Sendit application. Download the latest GOTCHA! (SendIt comes with GOTCHA!) by clicking here.
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Q: I just installed Gotcha! and the video quality is not as good as the other video applications I use?
A: This is because the camera setup is different than the camera setup within the other video applications. Within Gotcha!, go to Options > Video Source or Video Format to change the camera video settings. You can also copy down the settings that are used in other video applications and simply use them within Gotcha! to get the same video quality.
Kodak DVC323 Digital Camera Users: If you are using the Kodak DVC323 camera with Gotcha!, then the initial video may look very grainy. To fix this, go to Options and click on Video Source. The camera's setup dialog box will appear. Click on the Camera Controls tab and within the Video Quality group box, set the Sharpness to High.
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Q: I just installed Gotcha! and I am using the Philips USB Camera PCA645VC. The video looks corrupted, or I get a GPF from Gotcha!
A: First of all, you may have an older version of GOTCHA!, if so, then download the latest by clicking here. You may also want to download the latest Philips' camera driver from their website. Also, try changing your Colors within your display setup. Right click on your wallpaper then click on Properties. Click on the Settings tab and then change the Colors field to 24-bit color or something else other than the current setting. Warning: If you change to 256 colors the video quality will be grainy.
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Q: Why is my video quality poor?
A: Your color display may be set to 256 colors. Try changing your Color palette within your display setup. Right click on your wallpaper then click on Properties. Click on the Settings tab and then change the Color palette field to a higher range of colors like High Color (16-bit) or True Color (32-bit). Also, from within Gotcha!, you may want to go into Options > Video Format and change the quality settings. This may also appear under Options > Video Source.
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Q: Every time I run Gotcha! it starts to beep constantly.
A: In older versions of Gotcha! the feature Detect if camera's view is blocked or camera is physically disconnected is set as enabled by default. You can disable this feature by going to Options > Properties > General.
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Q: From within GOTCHA! I go to Options > Properties. The dialog properties box pops up. I can change any option I want, however, there is no OK button to click. Only a button that says "Return to Observe Operation".
A: This means that GOTCHA! is currently activated in one of its modes (Timer, Observe, LookOut). When activated, GOTCHA! will not let you change any settings, however, it will allow you to review them. To change the settings within the Properties box, click on the Stop button or simply hit the F3 key. This will stop all operations so that you may make your changes.
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Q: I get an "ATIVCR2.DLL" error. I use the ATI ALL IN WONDER PRO product?
A: Download the file "W8P153" from ATI Tech's website at http://support.atitech.ca/faq/player.html.
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Q: I lost my registration (activation) codes. How do I get them from you?
A: Simply send us an email at sales@gotchanow.com. Include your name, address, email address, and the original username if you were not the intended user.
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Q: There are horizontal black lines through my video display. It's as though a set of blinds are in front of the video. How do I get rid of this?
A: This is usually an anomaly caused by the video capture device driver. Please visit the video capture device manufacturer or vendor to download the latest video capture device driver.
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Copyright 1996-2002 Prescient Systems. All rights reserved. Last updated April 8, 2002.
