Webcam

[Duane Attaway]

On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Adam Davis wrote:

> I'm looking to get a webcam that takes some fair-quality single-shot
> pictures, but can also take near-streaming video.  I'm also interested in
> software that can capture that video and allow me to easily post it to a
> website (preferably not in the form of a .jpg and a page-refresh every few
> seconds, but an actual streaming applet of some sort).

I'd recommend any pci webcam that uses the Brooktree bt848 chip.  They are
often called wintv, Hauppauge, etc...  Its about the best ntsc video 
quality possible at 640x480.

The video4linux package compiled within the kernel (or as modules) and the
xawtv package provides you with the tools you need for snapshots and
streaming.  The xawtv package has the streamer command line tool that will
let you take videos or snapshots in any resolution and speed.  Very
configurable options.  It is very light on resources and a 486 with
minimal memory can take full speed videos if you have the hard drive
bandwidth to take it.

I have found USB hardware solutions provide a video capture that resembles
a picture, but leaves much to be desired.

For the ultimate in resolution, I have found that your digital camera will
respond to commands through the download link to take pictures.  The link
may download pictures slowly (latency of seconds,) but the resolution is
unbeatable.  Having a flash on this webcam does wonders for image quality
too.

--
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