Video camera and skype

IAC General Discussions
Post Reply
Arthur Bates
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:16 pm

Video camera and skype

Post by Arthur Bates »

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use a video camera on skype and if so how is it best connected to get optimum definition. Arthur B.
User avatar
Stephen
Posts: 223
Joined: Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:36 pm
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Contact:

Re: Video camera and skype

Post by Stephen »

it can be done but ... why?

when you can buy off the shelf webcam for about 7 sobs on ebay which will give good quality for skype video stuff
it will be plug and pray and connect straight into a spare usb .....away ye go...

any higher resolution you will need a blistering optic fibre connection to get the bandwidth needed for hi quality video

think of some of the BBC news reports from Afghan etc ... the quality drops below an acceptable level because of the restricted bandwidth... and thats the Beeb!
Stephen

Film making is not a matter of Life and Death
It's much more important than that.
PeterVideo
Posts: 13
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:36 pm

Re: Video camera and skype

Post by PeterVideo »

Arthur, to answer Stephen's point first, you can put your video camera where you like eg on a tripod, and thus you can point it where you like, rather than trying to clip a webcam onto something. Secondly you get a real optical zoom which offers much better results than the digital zoom on a webcam.

I have two camcorders both Sony - one DV and one HDV. The Sony TRV900 DV camera is plugged into the PC via the firewire slot and the Skype recognises it and uses it if selected. You can flip between webcam and camcorder. However my HDV camera does not work despite being set as as having DV output. However if you want to use either camera try Windows Messenger Live which does work with both types of camera.

Try it and let us know how you get on. Regards.

Peter Kidman
Post Reply