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Hi there,

I was recently given a webcam as a gift. However, the quality of the videos isn’t that great – and the file sizes are enormous! I’ve tried altering the frame per second settings but it doesn’t help much. I have a few things I’d like to post for comments – but the videos are quite blurry. To be honest, I don’t think the quality of the cam is that amazing.

Can anyone recommend a) set up tips or b) a webcam that is capable of producing good quality video clips. I’ve searched eBay and computer stores online, but there are 100’s to choose from.

Cheers!

Tips:

1. Lighting: webcam image quality is enhanced almost 10 fold by lighting your scene. I don't mean just slap a spotlight on the subject, but nice AMBIENT lighting seems to work best.

2. Compression: Compressing the video is sometimes done on-the-fly. But if your stuff is huge in size AND blury, it may be a cack webcam

As for purchasing, we've just done several installations for clients who wanted 'Live-Cams' on the premises for streaming to their website.

Here's some observations:

1: Cost does NOT equal quality
2: USB2 is practiacally essential. Check the cam is USB2, and make sure your machine accepts USB2
3: Software wasn't an issue for us, as we were using custom software, but getting a cam with a decent brand name will mean longevity support for drivers, and usually a nice software bundle
3: If its' REALLY bad, send it back: We bought 5 identical cams. One of them had APPALLING quality. It was sent back and replaced, no quibble. If however that one cam had been the one we bought, and the ONLY one, we'd have probably never known how good the actual quality was

OK, heres' some I would recommend (at home, and at work, I use an Apple iSight, which is Firewire, and pretty much creme-de-la-creme, but we HAVE been buying others, so I know of what I speak )

1. Logictech QuickCam Sphere V3 (£63 approx)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductI ... tID=101340

2. Creative Live Motion (£69 approx)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductI ... tID=282304

These cameras offer top quality for video recording at your desktop. 640x480 pixels at 30fps put on your TV screen is pretty much VHS quality.

We have installed both for clients, and not heard a bad word about either of them.

Try using http://www.pysoft.com/ActiveWebCamMainpage.htm Active webcam.

Euan

EuanBingham wrote:Try using http://www.pysoft.com/ActiveWebCamMainpage.htm Active webcam.

Euan

Not sure of the relevance there, Euan.

To further the discussion on the cameras I can personally recommend:

http://www.creative.com/products/produc ... duct=13979

What software are you using to record from the webcam?

Kati

Some webcams also require focusing, which is usually acheived by rotating a rim which sits around the front end of the cam, encircling the 'eye'. Watch the picture on your PC screen while you tune.

As seige mentioned, lighting is EVERYTHING. Aim a high powered desklight at the nearest white wall and let the light reflect off that, onto whatever it is you're filming, for best effects. Daylight is definitely the best by far, but finding a place that is lit by broad daylight, and also has a powersocket handy for your PC, is nigh on impossible. That's why I'm sure most here will agree that its most practical to film your home porn indoors, with plenty of desklights bouncing off walls and ceilings

I'm not sure about the USB2 claims though, I have had excellent results with various cheap USB1.1 webcams. You will however, want to unplug all other USB peripherals whislt filming, and close down as many apps that are running at the same time. This prevents skipping and jumping and low framerates.

Also, don't have any bright light sources behind or next to you in the camera's field of vision.

I've found the best way to film, is to capture directly to AVI in the rawest file type possible, and then use Windows Movie Maker to edit and compress the video later. Directly compressing will save HDD space, but sometimes loads the PC too much and you get skipping occurring.

If you have a creative webcam, try change the encoding from RGB to VCQ8. This improved framerate, quality, and size when I did so with my first webcam...

Hope that helps, happy filming!

Arthur wrote:I'm not sure about the USB2 claims though, I have had excellent results with various cheap USB1.1 webcams.

To clarify, I was talking about the other way round. The camera we chose was a USB2 camera, 640x480 at 30frames p/sec.
The target PC only had USB1, and it wasn't working at all. However, £8 later and we'd got a cheap USB internal PCI card fitted, and all was fine.

My comment was: check that if you are buying a USB2 camera that you have a USB2 capable machine. Otherwise, you'll be dissapointed at it not working or working incorrectly.

I agree about focus rings, but many cams are either fixed 'infinity' focus, or autofocus. Only turn the bezel if it does so freely... don't force it or you may end up unscrewing it!

Otherwise, sound advice Arthur

Also check to see if the lens is clean. No matter how good the lighting is, if the lens is dusty then your image quality is going to suffer.

Lens quality can be an issue although at the price of a web cam you're generally not going to get a high specification lens.

seige wrote:

EuanBingham wrote:Try using http://www.pysoft.com/ActiveWebCamMainpage.htm Active webcam.

Euan

Not sure of the relevance there, Euan.

Because the software you use plays a big part in the quality of the video.

Euan

Hmmm, but that software, at $60, is a little bit more advanced than your standard Video record/edit stuff, especially considering it's main purpose is web streaming as opposed to standard capture.

That was my question really...

You can download a free trial version.

Euan

Hi again,

Thanks for all your comprehensive replies. You know, that is something that I love about this site - everyone is so helpful, and really goes out of their way to invest time in replying.

Kati - the software was just that which came with the camera. To be honest, I think the main problem is the quality of the cam - but I'll re-read all these tips and try some of them out.

Thanks for all the web links too - going to have a look through them now. I'll let you know how I get on!

Many thanks

If you want something to record things off of a camera, then download the Logitech Software.

When I got my new PC, I didn't have any old drivers so I just downloaded them off of their