Webcam question
Discussion
Due to the current situation, I'm working from home. Actually, I have been for 10 years, and I'm set up, don't need anything.
Unfortunately, my wife isn't so lucky, and we needed a webcam in a hurry to support remote schooling. Same story as everyone else. I thought I'd got lucky with Dell and ordered, but after a suspicious silence, it turned out they were anticipating delivering in July...
Dug through my box of assorted crap to find my emergency, reserve, likely no longer supported by windows, webcam, and found it. Well, half of it. The bottom half. The bit without the camera. Still necessary, from what I remember...but not much use.
So, I've ordered a logitech USB-C webcam as being the only one they had in stock. Logitech, that is. Presumably because it's USB-C and no bugger has those on their work supplied laptops. (10-14 day delivery, so she can use my webcam in the meantime and I'll fudge a microphone from something if I need it. I've a feeling my plantronics wireless headset will work, with sufficient pissing around). Worst case, I dial in. Not the end of the world for a bit.
Fortunately for the subject on hand I bought my wife a new laptop recently, with USB-C. Just a single port though. So, as it charges through USB-C...WTF do I need to run the webcam and charge at the same time? A USB-C hub of some description? Or is there some clever power pass through device? Anyone have any recommendations?
Or would I be better off to stick a USB-C card in my desktop, and use the new webcam on that, with the regular webcam on her pc?
Or cheaper still, a usb-c female to usb converter that would work?
Unfortunately, my wife isn't so lucky, and we needed a webcam in a hurry to support remote schooling. Same story as everyone else. I thought I'd got lucky with Dell and ordered, but after a suspicious silence, it turned out they were anticipating delivering in July...
Dug through my box of assorted crap to find my emergency, reserve, likely no longer supported by windows, webcam, and found it. Well, half of it. The bottom half. The bit without the camera. Still necessary, from what I remember...but not much use.
So, I've ordered a logitech USB-C webcam as being the only one they had in stock. Logitech, that is. Presumably because it's USB-C and no bugger has those on their work supplied laptops. (10-14 day delivery, so she can use my webcam in the meantime and I'll fudge a microphone from something if I need it. I've a feeling my plantronics wireless headset will work, with sufficient pissing around). Worst case, I dial in. Not the end of the world for a bit.
Fortunately for the subject on hand I bought my wife a new laptop recently, with USB-C. Just a single port though. So, as it charges through USB-C...WTF do I need to run the webcam and charge at the same time? A USB-C hub of some description? Or is there some clever power pass through device? Anyone have any recommendations?
Or would I be better off to stick a USB-C card in my desktop, and use the new webcam on that, with the regular webcam on her pc?
Or cheaper still, a usb-c female to usb converter that would work?
And as is rarely the case, their FAQ has the answer:
What if I do not have a USB-C port on my computer?
There are adaptors available that enable you to connect StreamCam’s USB-C cable into your USB-A port. These adaptors can be found by searching at your preferred retailer with the following keywords: USB-C female to USB-A 3.0.
$6.99 on Amazon. Done.
What if I do not have a USB-C port on my computer?
There are adaptors available that enable you to connect StreamCam’s USB-C cable into your USB-A port. These adaptors can be found by searching at your preferred retailer with the following keywords: USB-C female to USB-A 3.0.
$6.99 on Amazon. Done.
alorotom said:
Ah so your Covid19 entertainment is homemade franky ... fair play
Trying to pass this all off as “home working” ... well I suppose it could be if you are live broadcasting
I'd rather assumed it was a particularly high quality webcam desirable in the smut environment, too. Hence a certain surprise that it was in stock....Trying to pass this all off as “home working” ... well I suppose it could be if you are live broadcasting
Annoyingly, amazon aren't shipping the right adapters; delays because of coronavirus. So I've ordered off ebay. I suspect they'll come in a long time before the webcam does.
In the meantime, I've got her setup with my webcam for the childrens school sessions. It's a lot nicer through the 55" TV than the laptop, and with the sound through the TV too, as well as the better mics on the webcam, it should be pretty decent. I'll be curious to see what extra improvement the smutcam offers.
Naturally, day one of this, I've a teams call that conflicts.
Fortunately, I've ~$500 of plantronics headset from work that I've never used in the last 6 years that does bluetooth, deskphone and USB, so I took 10 minutes to cable that in for USB and test it - I only use the webcam for audio for work, so it's a workable substitute.
skeeterm5 said:
Hi
assuming she has a smart phone there are a lot of apps that allow you to tether your phone to your laptop/desktop and use that as webcam.
S
Thought of that, and this appealed as I've a stand that would work, but part of the intent was to simplify the setup - having to run an app, then plug it in, they do x then y before it would work....assuming she has a smart phone there are a lot of apps that allow you to tether your phone to your laptop/desktop and use that as webcam.
S
Right now, two cables, right channel on the tv, and 3 settings in zoom, that's plenty for me to have to deal with for her.
It took us 10 minutes to find the f
king remote for the TV to be able to change the input...It works, is a webcam. That's about it, to be honest. Logitech streamcam.
It suffered greatly from not being the same make and model as the previous one, and thus is a brand new technological marvel and to thus be treated as suspicious by the wife, instead of just a webcam.
The annoyance factor was that although it'll happily do HD at 60 frames a second, I've a feeling that it saturated the wifi and resulted in an unstable connection. Naturally, stepped back to 30 fps, it was fine. Once then connected to Ethernet, I wasn't allowed to re-test at 60 fps. I've been tempted to try it on the sly a few times since then, but It looks like most of the people she talks to are connected to t'internet via a fraying piece of string, so would almost certainly cause more problems than it's worth.
Honestly, meh. Without 60 fps, it really offers nothing greatly over a regular webcam apart from some bundled software and being available. The viewing angle is the same as pretty much everything else, and it's got no other hardware advantages.
Given a choice, I'd go for something cheaper if available, or wider field of view over normal (would suit us better). Apart from that, it's fine.
It suffered greatly from not being the same make and model as the previous one, and thus is a brand new technological marvel and to thus be treated as suspicious by the wife, instead of just a webcam.
The annoyance factor was that although it'll happily do HD at 60 frames a second, I've a feeling that it saturated the wifi and resulted in an unstable connection. Naturally, stepped back to 30 fps, it was fine. Once then connected to Ethernet, I wasn't allowed to re-test at 60 fps. I've been tempted to try it on the sly a few times since then, but It looks like most of the people she talks to are connected to t'internet via a fraying piece of string, so would almost certainly cause more problems than it's worth.
Honestly, meh. Without 60 fps, it really offers nothing greatly over a regular webcam apart from some bundled software and being available. The viewing angle is the same as pretty much everything else, and it's got no other hardware advantages.
Given a choice, I'd go for something cheaper if available, or wider field of view over normal (would suit us better). Apart from that, it's fine.
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