On Sat, 24 Sep 2005 15:10, jm wrote: > i would like to get a webcam with linux support, that gives excellent > broadcast quality rather than the grainy garbage you see in so many > products. any recommendations that i can check into?
The problem with most webcams is that they use USB1.1 interfaces which severely limits their bandwidth and hence image quality, even with those proprietary compression schemes that make them hard to support under linux. I've seen webcams that claim hi-res in their advertising, but on closer inspection you find either a lo-res CCD with software interpolation on the the PC, or a higher-res CCD with high compression levels going on before getting pushed down the wire. If you want better quality, you need to look for cams that require USB2 or Firewire (that is _require_, not just _support_ as they're still low-res) and use the full bandwith for the image. They're very rare beasts so far as no-one seems to be demanding them, possibly because of the increased internet bandwidth and frame dropping when used for video chatting. About the only one I've ever seen in the consumer segment is the iBot2 which supported native 640x480 resolution, but the maker has gone out of business, possibly due to bad reviews. There's top-end units as used by security applications and those ummm "non-family-oriented" websites, but ultimately, quality costs :-) Another alternative is a DV camcorder with USB2 or Firewire streaming, or analogue output form a camcorder with a video capture card. John. P.S. Replies to your posting are not appearing on the list as you are a gmail user, so your posts have a reply-to set for your gmail address rather than the mailing list, I think there's a setting you can tweak to change this, or at least mention this in the first line of your mail. Thanks! Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com
____________________________________________________ Want to buy your Pack or Services from Mandriva? Go to http://store.mandriva.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrivaclub.com ____________________________________________________
