Optimize Your Netcam's Performance
May 12, 1998
By Jerry Day and Patrick Norton
Once you set up your netcam, there are a few things you can do to look your best in a videoconference, and a few things techtv needs you to do to look good on TV.
First, fire up VDOPhone, NetMeeting, or some other application that lets you watch your own video. Then sit back far enough away from the camera so that the video shows you from about the shoulders up.
A good light source will do more for the quality of your video than anything else. For starters, don't just point a desk lamp at your face! Giving yourself the third degree is not only uncomfortable; it turns your face into a shiny white blur that looks awful on video. You're better off pointing that lamp at the ceiling, which will diffuse the light around the room.
You can leave the area behind you just the way it is, unless it's a plain white wall, a window, or a lamp. In that case, you'll need to point your camera in a different direction or hang something up. If your backdrop is a window or a lamp, you've probably noticed that your head appears as a dark shadow in the middle of a bright background. If the effect is fairly mild, make sure the BLC switch on the back of the camera is slid to ON, which activates the camera's built-in backlight compensation. It might help a bit, but you're probably better off adding a light in front of you to even out the lighting and get your face out of the shadows.
Ceiling fixtures do a good job at this, too, unless they're well behind you-- then they can also create backlighting problems. Don't be afraid to experiment with a lamp or two, until both you and your background are equally illuminated and your face is free of shadows.
Fiddling with the Controls
By this point, you've probably played around with a few of the buttons on the back of the camera other than the Power slider. If the video your camera's producing looks exceedingly light or dark, adjust the contrast. To do that, just hold down the large Contrast button on the back of camera until the picture looks good to you, then let go. Did you hold it down too long? Don't worry-- just hold on, and the camera will cycle around again.
The WB switch controls the camera's white balance. When the WB switch is set to AUTO, the camera will automatically compensate for mild changes in room light. Want to know what Image does? Switch it from POS to NEG. Groovy, huh?
Now that your video looks good, you really, really, really need to get a headset microphone if you can scrounge one up. Although the BigpictureTM and many other cameras come with a built-in microphone, they tend to create almost as many problems as they solve. That's because they tend to be of low quality, which makes for bad sound. With a built-in mike, you have to holler if you want anyone to hear you at the other end.
Using a headset lets you talk at a normal volume, prevents the mike and speakers from feeding back, and minimizes the problems created by sound delay. Either way, before you start talking to us, turn down the volume on your TV. Otherwise, you'll become seriously disoriented because your voice will be out of sync with the voices on the TV.
From techtv.com/callforhelp
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