webcam changes the shape of my head - How to fix?

[Electric Rider]

I know this sounds crazy but i'm used to the shape of my head and face when I look in the mirror. The video from my Logictech C510 webcam seems to make my face/head shape longer, more narrow. Like a monitor, is there a vertical and horizontal adjustment I can make?

Or perhaps i'm just loony.

[El Heggunte]

Hi there,

well, looks like your webcam is capturing @ 352x288

Configure it to a square-pixel resolution (320x240 or 640x480),
assuming the device does support such resolutions

Otherwise, first record and save @ 352x288, then use a simple video editor for resizing to 384x288.

[poisondeathray]

egghead

[johns0]

What resolution are you setting the webcam at?It's a 1280x720 hd webcam so if its set at that on a square monitor then the picture will look elongated.

[Electric Rider]

This might help. Here is the video in question. It may look good to you but i'm telling you it's narrower than real life. I recorded this in 1280x720 resolution. I have other recording software and all the apps I use give me the same results. I do have the camera set to widescreen however because I use a widescreen. If anything I would think the widescreen would make it fatter not narrower.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheElectricRider

[El Heggunte]

It's a 1280x720 hd webcam

OMG 1280x720 is too much for a webcam --- waste of pixels and of bitrate IMHO

[johns0]

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheElectricRider

Looks ok to me,have you tried this webcam or video on another system?

[johns0]

It's a 1280x720 hd webcam

OMG 1280x720 is too much for a webcam --- waste of pixels and of bitrate IMHO

I have a 1280x720 webcam and its much better picture quality than a standard 640x480 resolution webcam.

[Electric Rider]

I haven't tried it on another system yet. The wife is currently using my other PC. Perhaps it's just one of those things only I will notice or care about.. like how they say video makes you look 10 lbs heavier.

The 6 minute video was about 198 MB's till i converted it from windows media format to a mp4. That took off 40 mb's. Next time I'll try an mkv to make it even smaller. This was just a test, most of the time I record in 800x600.

Oh can anyone tell me why the beginning of my video is messed up after conversion and upload? The converted file i used for upload on my PC is not messed up. I used Handbrake to do the conversion.

[sungator]

When you look in a mirror, it's at eye level. Where is your webcam positioned with respect to your face? If it is "looking up", then your head will appear to be elongated ( thin and long ).

[intracube]

The proportions of the video look OK to me - I normally notice when it's off. You could confirm by holding up a dinner plate to the cam and checking the dimensions.

It's possible the resolution your computer is set to doesn't match your display's dimensions.

Click on the image to enlarge, and measure the width/height of the square with a rule:

Oh can anyone tell me why the beginning of my video is messed up after conversion and upload? The converted file i used for upload on my PC is not messed up. I used Handbrake to do the conversion.

It looks like an I frame isn't being inserted at the beginning of the video. I'd expect the playback locally on your computer to look similar to YouTube, or possibly show black instead of grey - depending on the media player.

You could upload the video to a file hosting site like MediaFire or FileFactory and let the forum members take a look at it.

[Electric Rider]

It looks like an I frame isn't being inserted at the beginning of the video. I'd expect the playback locally on your computer to look similar to YouTube, or possibly show black instead of grey - depending on the media player.

You could upload the video to a file hosting site like MediaFire or FileFactory and let the forum members take a look at it.

Nope, the local copy is flawless. I tested it with various players built into software, After Effects, Sony Vegas, Cyberlink Youcam 5, as well as VLC, Windows Media player, Gom player, and Divx player.

Good idea. I'll upload it today, might take a while and then i'll let you guys know so someone can look at it.

And thanks everyone for the tips and suggestions.

[Electric Rider]

Here is the video file. It should contain no problems for you as it was fine for me. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PR42F021 It's called " small version.mp4"

If there is nothing wrong with the file itself, could it have gotten borked in uploading or something on YouTube's end?

[intracube]

If there is nothing wrong with the file itself, could it have gotten borked in uploading or something on YouTube's end?

I tried your video with ffplay, which usually warns if a video doesn't start with an I frame. As I didn't see an error or corruption on playback, it looks like the video is OK in that regard.

Yes, YouTube can sometimes screw up videos when it re-encodes them. I don't know why your file isn't being converted properly though.

I've noticed several bugs with YT, but I don't think any of these would affect your video.

You could try demuxing/remuxing the streams with a separate program. Avidemux is sometimes recommended, but it threw up an error about B frames and the remuxed video had a noticable a/v sync error. You could try it anway for diagnotic purposes.

EDIT: Set the video/audio output settings to 'Copy' and the format to mp4.

Also try re-encoding the video with a different program.

[Electric Rider]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. Appreciate all the help folks.