webcam for lessons

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webcam for lessons

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El Craic

Posts: 164
Joined: Jul. 28 2003
From: Atlantic battered NW Ireland

webcam for lessons

I need to buy a webcam as I've just got a new pooter & I have decided to start taking lessons via video conference. I've been on amazon and kelcoo and millions of other websites and I've got jargon spilling out of my headache. Has anyone had experience of this stuff?

What I want to learn to do is have a reasonable quality link-up, then edit and record the lesson to DVD. What do you think I need to know? I don't want to buy something and be disappointed but then I don't want to overspend unnecessarily.

Thanks guys

_____________________________

You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 8 2004 14:31:29

Escribano

Posts: 6416
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy

RE: webcam for lessons (in reply to El Craic)

I assume you have a broadband connection? I doubt that you will be get a close enough sync. between video and audio to be worthwhile.

The big problem is jitter. To keep pace with the transmission stream the receiving computer may throw away frames on a congested or noisy link; the Internet is notoriously unreliable for real-time data.

This means you will lose content. Not a problem for general messaging but significant when learning the guitar. Think of the satellite phone reports from Iraq last year.

What software would you be using for conferencing? Can you see demo of this anywhere, before buying? It will only really work without jitter with a QoS (Quality of Service) protocol like Resource ReServation Protocol (RSVP) and I think all routers between you and the other end have to support QoS.

If you still want to try, a decent USB webcam costs about £30 up. Can't make a recommendation.

I would suggest a separate mike into your sound card as the mikes included in these cameras are cheap with a narrow frequency range for speech, like a telephone.

Hope this helps.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 8 2004 15:14:17

El Craic

Posts: 164
Joined: Jul. 28 2003
From: Atlantic battered NW Ireland

RE: webcam for lessons (in reply to El Craic)

Thanks Simon! Maybe it will prove too difficult to do proper lessons.

I was offered the VC class as a review from a formal lesson taken last year, but not asked for money anyway, but I got all excited.

Anyway, I have a very good digital mike so I guess I'll go about £30-40 for the webcam and we'll see how it goes.

Broadband's coming end of next week I hope. Way-hey...

_____________________________

You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 8 2004 17:03:40

Guest

RE: webcam for lessons (in reply to El Craic)

Hola Emma

Why are you not talking with John Flanigan? he knows more about video streaming etc than anybody.

Sean

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 9 2004 14:30:56

El Craic

Posts: 164
Joined: Jul. 28 2003
From: Atlantic battered NW Ireland

RE: webcam for lessons (in reply to El Craic)

Hi Sean i'm at work so i got this straightaway.

Well I questioned John briefly about cams and he suggested Logitech, but it was only today it actually occured to me to ask anyone, believe it or not. So I will ask him good idea...

...although he works about 70 hours a week! I told him it was wrong but he won't listen to me!