Good cam / shitty cam

[AmberCutie]

So my first post on Ambers forum...lol...
Living in Bangkok and having a decent cam (the 9000 Logitech) I know that it is not always the cam itself... I have been top 20 since September last year but ALWAYS had a lousy connection. Being in Asia I am happy with a 1 MB upload...
I will get a $1000 camera next month so we all will see if a super cam in combination with professional lighting ( yes I will shell out a load of money on a set up) will combat my f..king bad Thai connection...Any help in combatting that is welcome ....any ideas Bawksy?

Mila!!! I'm so excited to have ya here. I really did announce in chat while I was on cam that i was stoked to see your name on the member list! Send me a quick MFC mail from your model account to verify and I'll get you set up on here (if you have time, at least ).

Also, I agree with Bawksy. Lighting is key. The one thing I've noticed about your cam is that you're always pretty dimly lit and a bit hard to see. (And you know I've been a long time fan, hehe.)

:dance:

 

[AshaSnow]

In comment to CandieCane's video broadcasting during the past weekend. We actually didn't end up using my cam in the hotel on that first night (mine is a Logitech Quickcam 9000) because she didn't have the Logitech software on there. Instead we were using the laptop's integrated cam plus the crappy 3G connection.

On the second night I don't know what cam we were using but it wasn't her $1000 one, it was some weird little one I've never seen before, and at some points we were totally losing the 3G connection so lack of quality is to be expected.

Hotel lighting definitely sucked, and at the hall we had rented out we had the overhead lighting plus one lamp that had 5 bulbs, which we positioned as best we could.

If we could have been in an actual house/apartment using broadband connection and the proper cam, it would have looked amazing. Candie did the best she could considering the whole dead converter thing plus lack of any landline broadband connection.

 

[AmberCutie]

Very true, Asha. And what a weekend you all had!!! I'm super excited to have you here too! I was hoping you'd sign up .

 

[MilaMilan]

I will send a mail in the next hour Amber....my marketing people are working on the profile ....lol..kiss Mila

 

[bawksy]

it wasn't her $1000 one

I find it humorous that she has a $1000 camera and her regular image quality is still less than impressive. Now that I think of it, Mellanny has the same problem. She claims to have a $1000 camera too, and as you can see, it's nothing to write home about:

I love MissPredator, but she looks green most nights she's on

Agreed.

 

[AngelicTease]

I upgraded my logitech software earlier and it somehow took the audio off, and the new software didn't even have a audio option(not that I could find anyway). So I tried using a old camcorder as a webcam and people have said my cam quality is better woooo hooo! And now my bandwidth hasn't gone below 200kb per second and and and on the online cammers page it says my connection is 'very good' eeeee before it was just good or poor!
It's probably still crappy compared to other peoples cams, but at least it's a teeny bit better than before?

 

[LuxDahl]

I upgraded my logitech software earlier and it somehow took the audio off, and the new software didn't even have a audio option(not that I could find anyway). So I tried using a old camcorder as a webcam and people have said my cam quality is better woooo hooo! And now my bandwidth hasn't gone below 200kb per second and and and on the online cammers page it says my connection is 'very good' eeeee before it was just good or poor!
It's probably still crappy compared to other peoples cams, but at least it's a teeny bit better than before?

Nah, looked great (stumbled upon your room earlier). You just need more lighting.

 

[bawksy]

So I was trolling the lounge, and I noticed KristyLIVE was showing off a brand new Logitech Pro 9000 that she had just bought. She installed it as a watched, and switched over, much to my excitement. As soon as it turned on, I could immediately see that she had a clearer picture. But then she started moving and she had TERRIBLE motion blur. Now, some quick Googling shows that motion blur is a side-effect of the settings not being configured correctly, namely the "Low Light Boost", resolution, and the shutter speed settings. A couple of people tried to give her hints on how to fix it, but she was just like HERP DERP THIS IS TOO HARD before she gave up after like 3 minutes.

Amber I seriously think you and/or Jawbs should sell your cam consulting services to other models, or at least write a book called "How To Configure Your Logitech Pro 9000 for Dumb Camwhores".

Pic very related. Original shit cam is on the left, misconfigured Logitech Pro 9000 is on the right.

 

[SatanJonez]

So I was trolling the lounge, and I noticed KristyLIVE was showing off a brand new Logitech Pro 9000 that she had just bought. She installed it as a watched, and switched over, much to my excitement. As soon as it turned on, I could immediately see that she had a clearer picture. But then she started moving and she had TERRIBLE motion blur. Now, some quick Googling shows that motion blur is a side-effect of the settings not being configured correctly, namely the "Low Light Boost", resolution, and the shutter speed settings. A couple of people tried to give her hints on how to fix it, but she was just like HERP DERP THIS IS TOO HARD before she gave up after like 3 minutes.

Amber I seriously think you and/or Jawbs should sell your cam consulting services to other models, or at least write a book called "How To Configure Your Logitech Pro 9000 for Dumb Camwhores".

Pic very related. Original shit cam is on the left, misconfigured Logitech Pro 9000 is on the right.

It's honestly not that hard to configure...

 

[bawksy]

Yay! She finally figured it out! I don't think she has it configured perfectly yet, but she disabled a couple of key settings that got her frame rate / blur under control.

I'm not a fan of hers, but she looks pretty good. If she puts some effort into her lighting setup, I think she could win Miss MFC. She got up to #4 a couple months back, and that was on her shitty webcam.

 

[AmberCutie]

I popped on to watch her right after I logged last night, I think she has the Orbit, not the 9000. She referenced that it was $120 also. She seems pretty clueless as to how cams work, saying something about how expensive cams use too much bandwidth or what not. I couldn't make sense of it. If I wasn't so hungry I might have logged on to try and help her since I think she's pretty cool.

We'll see how she does with the new one. 9000 or not, it does look better.

Oh, also the blur could be because she has the exposure up way too high. Slows down the cam a lot. I worked on mine this weekend to get the exposure setting down a bit by adding more lighting to my room and turning gain up instead. (Which reminds me, Kristy needs a LOT more lighting, she's always in a dark room when she's on cam it seems.) Picture is slightly darker than previously, but there should be slightly less blur/ghosting. (Not "go see", Bawksy. sheesh! lol)

 

[bawksy]

Yeah I recommended she put more effort into her lighting setup and she was like "Effort? Who wants to do that?"

She's kind of dumb if you couldn't figure that out already.

When I was on she blabbering about the "expensive cams use too much bandwidth" thing too. She might actually be onto something with that. If she left the cam set to the highest resolution, which is up in the 1024x960s or something, that could be sucking up too much of her bandwidth. It would be a waste too, since MFC just downsamples it to 320x240 anyways.

Oh well I'm done worrying about her.

 

[Jawbs]

If she left the cam set to the highest resolution, which is up in the 1024x960s or something, that could be sucking up too much of her bandwidth. It would be a waste too, since MFC just downsamples it to 320x240 anyways.

All of the video and audio encoding is done on the models computer before it is sent off to MFC. The resolution settings within the cameras options doesn't matter as model client enforces the 320x240 resolution from the camera.

 

[FifthElephant]

If she left the cam set to the highest resolution, which is up in the 1024x960s or something, that could be sucking up too much of her bandwidth. It would be a waste too, since MFC just downsamples it to 320x240 anyways.

All of the video and audio encoding is done on the models computer before it is sent off to MFC. The resolution settings within the cameras options doesn't matter as model client enforces the 320x240 resolution from the camera.

As long as the camera can get its maximum frame-rate at the chosen resolution, otherwise it may be jerkier than it might otherwise be.

Also - anything that might take CPU away from the actual cam software is bad.
In some cases rescaling the video from the cam may take a fair amount of CPU.

And given that stupid stuff like having too many emotes on screen has been claimed by many models to slow the framerate - making the softwares job easier by starting out at 320*240 is probably a good idea.

 

[bawksy]

That's good to know that the downsampling is done locally on the client. That means no matter how "high quality" a cam is, it will never use up more bandwidth.

So, Amber/Jawbs, do you set your camera to be 320x240 so no downsampling is needed, or do you find that you get better quality if you capture at 640x480 and downsample from there?

 

[FifthElephant]

That's good to know that the downsampling is done locally on the client. That means no matter how "high quality" a cam is, it will never use up more bandwidth.

Perhaps not quite true.

Lower framerate = lower bandwidth - generally.

Bad focus or other sorts of blur also reduce it.

It'd be lovely - personally - if MFC would transcode the stream to make other bandwidths available.

Sure - 700kbps video is 'great' - sometimes I would like to drop to 128K though.

 

[KayleeStarr]

I recently purchased a Canon VC-C50i and I haven't received it yet. Should I have just gotten the pro 9000 instead?

 

[bawksy]

I recently purchased a Canon VC-C50i and I haven't received it yet. Should I have just gotten the pro 9000 instead?

I'm not too familiar with that model but it looks fukkin expensive ($750) and only supports like a 640x480 resolution. While it should work great for MFC (the 26x optical zoom might be nice too), it really might be overkill. Plus, if MFC HD ever rolls out, this camera will not be able to produce an HD image. The Pro 9000 is only like $80 and looks like it can handle 720p HD.

 

[KayleeStarr]

Well I was really wanting the clarity and remote PTZ. I think i got a really good deal on ebay for $250 and it included a network interface and unidirectional mic. If MFC does go HD then I hope this cam helps with me making money so i can buy a good HD cam.

I just have to remind myself that I can write all this off at tax time. :dance:

 

[bawksy]

Here's my latest entry. Yet another top model with a shit cam setup.

For comparison, here's what she looks like on a decent cam with decent lighting:

 

[CandieMoose]

:naughty: Ok for the record, I DID bring a good cam... but because its a security cam and not a webcam I have to use a converter, which decided to break on the way to the hotel! It was a Saturday night and I called any store in town and could not get another one. I had paid alot of money to fly these girls in, I was not going to just not log in because the converter had broken!

 

[bawksy]

So I was able to finally get a scientific comparison of what happens when a model's internet connection quality drops from "Very good" to "Good". That one small drop makes the model's client software encode the video AND audio at a much crappier setting, which is immediately visible and audible. Now, of course you can't hear it here, but when this happens, the audio sounds sort of "muffled" due to the extreme drop in bit rate.

The drop in video quality is more subtle, but still visible. Check the wall to the side of Teag's head. Note how in the first picture, it's a pretty smooth gradient. Now in the second picture, the entire wall is basically made of big squares!

Now Teag had an excuse when the second photo was taken: she was in a hotel. But the moral of the story here ladies is that you must, MUST have a "Very Good" rated internet connection speed in order to get good quality audio and video, or else the MFC client software will totally fuck up your quality, even if you have a great camera.

 

[RufffRider]

i skimmed through all the posts and i agree with Lighting being a major issue. FrameRate and your internet band width are also issues.
I also agree with the LogitechPro 9000 being the best cam for most cam girls, consider the Microsoft LifeCam IF you are willing to read the manual and play with the settings.

ONE IMPORTANT FACT that i did see mentioned
You might improve you camera by going to the manufactures web site and downloading the latest DRIVER for your cam. This does not always automatically load when you plug in a USB cam.

If your not sure how to find this you can email me, or PM on MFC

 

[tightlockup]

What about Firewire cams ? They use less CPU overhead than USB cams - could they help produce a better less/blurry stream ?

 

[AthenaBlaze]

Dude, Bawsky, I would actually love your opinion on my cam and lighting (I actually know my lighting is crap, but I'm working on it.) What I really want to know is which of my cam set ups are better. I have a camcorder and a logitech 9000. Would you be willing to stop by my room some time to let me know what you think?

I have the same...well the logitech...and I SO totally want to know what mine looks like from the other end!... :-D

 

[bawksy]

What about Firewire cams ? They use less CPU overhead than USB cams - could they help produce a better less/blurry stream ?

No. Firewire's just another digital transport mechanism. Neither better nor worse than USB. What's important is the actual camera on one end, and the processing software/drivers/settings on the other end.

 

[FifthElephant]

I have the same...well the logitech...and I SO totally want to know what mine looks like from the other end!... :-D

I caught you just as you were going offline, as you were bending over the camera, so the lighting may not be your normal standard, so I won't comment on that.

However, I notice, in common with some other models, that there is something odd going on with sound.

There is a almost-ringing hearable.
If you turn up the volume with the mic on a little more, do you get a high pitched whistle?

The effects of this are most obvious about 10s in, on the long 'r' of 'how are you' .

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[AthenaBlaze]

I have the same...well the logitech...and I SO totally want to know what mine looks like from the other end!... :-D

I caught you just as you were going offline, as you were bending over the camera, so the lighting may not be your normal standard, so I won't comment on that.

However, I notice, in common with some other models, that there is something odd going on with sound.

There is a almost-ringing hearable.
If you turn up the volume with the mic on a little more, do you get a high pitched whistle?

The effects of this are most obvious about 10s in, on the long 'r' of 'how are you' .

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Hmmmm....I listened to what you attached...but I didn't notice ANYTHING unusual...
Sounds totally normal to me...or am I trippin? lol
And usually if the lighting was a little bit off, night time is the only time I have a harder time w/ being that I don't have a lot of the natural light I like using..but I try :-D

 

[pyrite1965]

I have the same...well the logitech...and I SO totally want to know what mine looks like from the other end!... :-D

I caught you just as you were going offline, as you were bending over the camera, so the lighting may not be your normal standard, so I won't comment on that.

However, I notice, in common with some other models, that there is something odd going on with sound.

There is a almost-ringing hearable.
If you turn up the volume with the mic on a little more, do you get a high pitched whistle?

The effects of this are most obvious about 10s in, on the long 'r' of 'how are you' .

Anyone else have any suggestions?

I hear a ringing the entire time, may be a window AC or fan?

 

[FifthElephant]

I have the same...well the logitech...and I SO totally want to know what mine looks like from the other end!... :-D

<snip>
The effects of this are most obvious about 10s in, on the long 'r' of 'how are you' .

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Hmmmm....I listened to what you attached...but I didn't notice ANYTHING unusual...
Sounds totally normal to me...or am I trippin? lol
And usually if the lighting was a little bit off, night time is the only time I have a harder time w/ being that I don't have a lot of the natural light I like using..but I try :-D

I'm probably just too critical on the sound. It's just something that irritates me.
It is not particularly bad, and some may not notice it at all.