Video
Skype video with DV Camera
23/04/06 00:36
Apparently not every DV video camera will work
directly with Skype. Why would you want to... higher
video resolution and low-light detection than a cheap
webcamera. Unfortunately our Sony MV450i seems to be
one of those cameras. Even though other software can
see the DV output Skype was not able to.
Fortunately, Skype forums had the answer. Either of 2 free softwares will allow Skype to see the DV video stream.
Once either of these is installed you can link it to your camera and then tell skyp to use "virtual" cameras that have the same name as the software that you are using.
Of the 2, Split cam seemed to show the biggest image, Trackrcam crashed if I tried to make the image too close to fullsize.
Also, at least for me, the camera mode of our Sony Camera would time-out if let unused for too long (a few minutes). This of course can cause a problem when the video just drops out. Our solution is to be sure that the DV camera does not have a video tape inside. Then, for some reason, the timeout seems to be much longer.
Fortunately, Skype forums had the answer. Either of 2 free softwares will allow Skype to see the DV video stream.
Once either of these is installed you can link it to your camera and then tell skyp to use "virtual" cameras that have the same name as the software that you are using.
Of the 2, Split cam seemed to show the biggest image, Trackrcam crashed if I tried to make the image too close to fullsize.
Also, at least for me, the camera mode of our Sony Camera would time-out if let unused for too long (a few minutes). This of course can cause a problem when the video just drops out. Our solution is to be sure that the DV camera does not have a video tape inside. Then, for some reason, the timeout seems to be much longer.
Latest Skype has free video conferencing
04/12/05 20:01
In case you use Skype (free voice chat over the
Internet) there is a new update released (2.0.0.43)
under their beta testing that allows videochat on
Windows. Although they do not have many details on
what cameras it works with it does indeed work with
my logitech ones.
There is a full screen option and windowed video too. Previously, I would use Skype to talk with my folks on the west coast but for showing video I had to throw something together in Macromedia's Flash Communication Server.
Although the quality is not as good as the AppleiChat (especially at full screen) the Skype video chat does run on Windows and hopefully soon on Linux and MacOSX too.
You can download the upgrade at the Skype website HERE. Assuming this works fine I wonder how much congestion this will make on the Internet for Christmas.
There is a full screen option and windowed video too. Previously, I would use Skype to talk with my folks on the west coast but for showing video I had to throw something together in Macromedia's Flash Communication Server.
Although the quality is not as good as the AppleiChat (especially at full screen) the Skype video chat does run on Windows and hopefully soon on Linux and MacOSX too.
You can download the upgrade at the Skype website HERE. Assuming this works fine I wonder how much congestion this will make on the Internet for Christmas.
Gmail notifier resets winxp video resolution to 8 bit
12/08/05 08:50 Filed in: Consumer
For the longest time my winxp home (sp2) kept
resetting the screen color to 8 bit after each
reboot. Although this was a minor annoyance it was
something I wanted to have fixed 
Using the msconfig windows utility
I was able to see it was one of the
software'sbeing loaded at startup that was
causing this.
After disabling all likely candidates it actually turned out to be the gmail notifier that was doing this. Don't ask me how, it is only supposed to check the my email at google's gmail site. After uninstalling it all was well again.
Using the msconfig windows utility
I was able to see it was one of the
software'sbeing loaded at startup that was
causing this.
After disabling all likely candidates it actually turned out to be the gmail notifier that was doing this. Don't ask me how, it is only supposed to check the my email at google's gmail site. After uninstalling it all was well again.