Webcam question

mordeith

Should video from a webcam to your PC be stutter free if you're not actually sending any info online. I have this camera and the video while Skyping is ok, if jerky, which I can understand bearing in mind upload speeds and such but surely when I'm just using the camera offline the feed should be stutter free?

Anti

Depends on the webcam. Usually it will state the fps ( frames per second ) on the box. Check online at the makers website, it should say there.

OMcGovern

mordeith wrote: »

Should video from a webcam to your PC be stutter free if you're not actually sending any info online.

Did you stick it into a USB 2 port ? That should be faster.
Sometimes, the USB ports at the back of the computer are more reliable/faster than the front ones. The back ones are directly mounted on the motherboard.

mordeith

I have it plugged into the USB 2.0 ports on the back. I checked the specs on the webite and there is no mention of the fps only that the resolution is 800*600. Looking at other sites it seems that the max fps is 30 but that's probably at a smaller resolution. The only thing is that the Creative site mentions connectivity as USB 1.1 but isn't that another name for USB 2.0?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

mordeith wrote: »

I have it plugged into the USB 2.0 ports on the back. I checked the specs on the webite and there is no mention of the fps only that the resolution is 800*600. Looking at other sites it seems that the max fps is 30 but that's probably at a smaller resolution. The only thing is that the Creative site mentions connectivity as USB 1.1 but isn't that another name for USB 2.0?

No USB 1.1 is a hell of a lot slower than USB2.0

USB 1.1 is advertised as being 10Mb while USB2.0 is advertised as 480Mb

Anti

believe me no webcam outputting to 800*600 would use 10mb/s. Some webcams are stutter free, others are not. Places like pcworls or elera or peats usually sell decent 30fps webcams for cheap, go and grab a brand new one perhaps ?

debfarr

ok have a webcam to skype with the daughter in america, its a creative one, but noticed that when we were over there with her last week the pictures she is getting from us are not of great quality very blurry, my question is should I purchase a new one and if so what would be recommended, any advice appreciated,

Overheal

I have never had an issue with a Logitech peripheral. I wish I could say the same about creative, but thats not the case: their speakers and sound cards seem grand, but its when i went for their mp3 player i got pissed off with them.

Anyway the Live Cam range appears to have 15 fps which isnt that great and could explain apparent choppiness.

If you plug in the device and a popup appears telling you the device can perform faster with USB 2.0, you might be able to get more kick out of it by buying a new USB 2.0 card.

debfarr

so overheal what you are saying is to buy a new USB 2.0 card, would it not be cheaper to buy a new webcam perhaps??

mordeith

I have the same webcam and I've never mamaged to get stutter-free video while offline either.