How to improve camming quality?

[RavishMeAlice]

Hey, so in the past few months my cam quality has just looked shitty and I have no idea why. Before it was fine. At one point my computer began overheating a lot and eventually stopped turning on. I replaced the hard drive and then it worked like new, except the choppy broadcasting on MFC.
I use a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 and my internet upload speed right now is 0.68 mbp/s. What can I do to fix this? It's really driving me crazy! :crybaby:

 

[ScarletVixen]

Might be your processor. Components can degrade over time, especially when you mix high heat/overheating into the equation over a period of time. The excessive heat could have damaged your motherboard as well. I had a laptop that slowly broke down and it was doing the overheating+turning on and off thing, it ended up being a combination motherboard and processor failure.

 

[rexcode]

It is definitely possible that your laptop has been damaged by the previous overheating. It also looks like your upload speed is a little slow, but if that was the same speed you had when things were working properly, that's probably not the cause of the problem.

To prevent overheating, I recommend using a laptop stand. Rubbermaid makes a nice one for not a lot of money (they have them at Walmart and Target, as well as on Amazon). It's basically just a wire mesh stand that improves the air circulation.

If you're using the old model software, you might want to try the web broadcaster to see if that improves the frame rate.

And although this isn't really part of the problem you're having, don't neglect proper lighting. Cam feeds tend to be grainy if there's not enough light. A couple of umbrella lights will make a major improvement.

 

[RavishMeAlice]

Ah I see. I had a feeling the overheating may have effected other parts of my computer, but I didn't think much of it because everything, except broadcasting on MFC, is fine.

I don't need to broadcast in HD, all I want is my streaming to not look like a slide show of blurred pixels and I'll be happy! lol
At one point, before I replaced my hard drive, I had a laptop cooler, a fan pointed directly at my laptop, and an air conditioner on max to keep it cool until it just wouldn't turn on any more. It doesn't get too hot nowadays, but I do use the laptop cooler just in case.

I'm thinking just replacing my computer would be the best idea. Would a simple laptop be enough to stream decent quality on MFC? What sort of specs should I look for?

 

[Just Me]

You should try a faster internet connection first before replacing the computer. Even just trying from a different location to see if it is your connection or computer.

 

[UncleThursday]

You should try a faster internet connection first before replacing the computer. Even just trying from a different location to see if it is your connection or computer.

I agree. The very first thing you should be looking at is how fast your upload speed is. If it is low, then that could be the biggest problem.

Many computers get hot when using webcams, especially webcam software not native to the webcam itself, like ManyCam and such (HUGE processor hog, at least on the Mac version). Unless you can see your computer's internal temperature through a program like SMCFanControl (on Mac), you won't really know just how hot it is inside there. If it's getting over 80 degrees celsius, then you have an issue to deal with. If it isn't, then as long as you don't maintain a constant 70+ degrees celsius, you shouldn't be doing a lot of damage internally.

Even with my hard drive fan not working in my iMac, I rarely get over 70 celsius, even while video editing (which takes up a huge amount of processor power).

Look into your ISP's speeds for your plan. And if you are using Comcast, pretty much NEVER believe the speed they say you could potentially get on a home connection (not sure about how it has been since they went Xfinity, but when I used to use them, their upload speed, even at off peak hours, was absolute dogshit).

For the best performance, with a HD stream, you're going to want 1 megabit/second upload speed, as a bare minimum. I have 5 Mb/s peak upload, and even on peak hours if I run a speedtest, I am always above 4.9 Mb/s on my FiOS connection, even from my NJ residence to testing servers in California.

 

[bawksy]

And if you are using Comcast, pretty much NEVER believe the speed they say you could potentially get on a home connection

Comcast actually gives me up to about 10% better than what I pay for. Depends on time of day, but I'm pretty happy with it. I was happier with FiOS, but that's another story.

I've also had Comcast elsewhere and had it be terrible. I guess it's location dependent.

 

[AllisonWilder]

Ah I see. I had a feeling the overheating may have effected other parts of my computer, but I didn't think much of it because everything, except broadcasting on MFC, is fine.

I don't need to broadcast in HD, all I want is my streaming to not look like a slide show of blurred pixels and I'll be happy! lol
At one point, before I replaced my hard drive, I had a laptop cooler, a fan pointed directly at my laptop, and an air conditioner on max to keep it cool until it just wouldn't turn on any more. It doesn't get too hot nowadays, but I do use the laptop cooler just in case.

I'm thinking just replacing my computer would be the best idea. Would a simple laptop be enough to stream decent quality on MFC? What sort of specs should I look for?

Are you specifically broadcasting in HD on MFC? Like you're checking the HD box? Were you doing that before your stream got all warped, too? If not, try turning that off and see how that looks. It obviously won't help with the overheating or anything, but it might significantly help your stream.

 

[UncleThursday]

And if you are using Comcast, pretty much NEVER believe the speed they say you could potentially get on a home connection

Comcast actually gives me up to about 10% better than what I pay for. Depends on time of day, but I'm pretty happy with it. I was happier with FiOS, but that's another story.

I've also had Comcast elsewhere and had it be terrible. I guess it's location dependent.

Considering Comcast is based in Philly, and I am literally 15 minutes from Philly, you'd think it would be good around here. When I was on @Home, things were good; when Comcast took everything over it started going downhill. After a few years, I was despising paying Comcast because of all the outages, slow download and upload speeds, and general shitty customer service. I've had less internet outages in the past few years of FiOS use than I did in my last 6 months of Comcast.

 

[HiGirlsRHot]

It seems to me the three most likely issues, are poor internet speed, underpowered laptop, or camera (including out of date drivers)

The key to figuring out which one is the culprit is to swap one out at time and see if helps. So if you could try camming from a different location with a good internet connect and it was still bad, that would help rule out the ISP. Try borrowing a friends new laptop and see if that helps, and finally swap out the camera.

While doing this it is really important to enlist the help of fellow camgirl or a trusted regular to give you consistent feedback on the quality. Joe and Mark may have different standards on what is good feed, but they are probably easily able to tell you if the feed is better at your friends house than your house.