Webcam information needed. I need to do offline recording

[jolo]

Thanks in advance.

Here is my situation and hopefull you can help me wit some pointers and recommendations.

My son's gitar teacher moved to California from Colorado. They are very close and want to keep up a some lessons.

We did a test that worked great where my son had some questions for him, then his wide, who is very techy, has a digital camcorder and recorded Dave (the teacher) showing my son how to do some techniques while talking. Mostly, the camera was on his hands. Was great.

Now my son wants to do something back, show him any problems, ask new questions, etc. So I was thinking of getting a Webcam for this purpose. So he can record offline, create a .avi or .mpg or whatever type of file gets created and send it back. He would even be able to reduce the size more on Divx which his teacher can see on his PC and on his Lite-on LVD2002. (It was a gift from us).

I do not have much money and purchasing a full digital camcorder is something I cannot afford, although I think it is not needed here.

What are your opinions about this ? It also opened up the possibility of offline recordings, etc to my wife's not very PC literate family in Chile, where we can make a VCD out of recordings.

Conferencing does not seem to be of importance, buy of course who knows, especially if the prices keep getting less.

I read somewhere to always get CCE ? I think,what is that. To tell you the truth, I have done a lot of searches on the web trying to get some serious information and much of the time I wind up getting porno sites. Apparently if you use the term webcam in a search, those porno sites like to pick it up.

So please, any advice on brands, software, problems, functionality, etc would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jon

[jolo]

Sorry one more item. This webcam would definately need to be USB and we have two PCs both with USB 2.0. Is it important to use 2.0 as opposeded to 1.1 ?

Plus I was wondering if he plugs in his guitar into his sound card, which he does often to record using Cakewalk software for recording audio, could that get picked up directly instead of the sound of an amplifier in the microphone ?

Thanks once again.

[daamon]

Hi jolo,

What are your opinions about this ?

In principal, I'd say it's possible - though I've not recorded the input from a webcam (don't have one) so can't comment on what software to use / how to do it / what format it captures in / whether they can capture audio from a source other than mic - anyone?.

However, let's presume you crack that nut and that you capture in AVI.

AVI, even for short footage and small frame size, can be made to a smaller file size for emailing. So, you would be better off converting to a compressed video - something like Divx (as you say) or MPEG1 (used for VCD's).

There are guides on this site that will tell you how to do both, and which tools to use.

I read somewhere to always get CCE...

CCE = Cinema Craft Encoder, software for encoding from one video format to another. There's also TMPGEnc (what I use), which is freeware for encoding to MPEG1 for VCD.

See "VCD" link in blue, top left of the page for specs on VCD/MPEG1.

which he does often to record using Cakewalk software for recording audio, could that get picked up directly instead of the sound of an amplifier in the microphone ?

Again, I'd say it's possible. One of 2 ways:

1. Set your video capturing software (as yet unidentified) to capture the audio from the guitar input and not the mic. This would be the easiest as the captured footage would have the audio from a better source and in synch. Then encode to Divx / MPEG1 etc.

2. I'm not familiar with Cakewalk, but let's assume you can record his guitar playing onto your PC in a file - probably either WAV or MP3.

You can certainly use WAV (not sure about MP3 - anyone?) as a separate input from the video when encoding using TMPGEnc - as long as you start recording the audio and video at the same time!!! (Else they'll be out of synch and you'll have to muck around chopping off audio or video - messy).

Sorry if this is vague or not too detailed, but I saw the question hadn't received any responses and thought it was a worthy project so decided to try to help - even if only a little.

Good luck...

[jolo]

Thank you all.

But I have several encoders. It it is in .avi, and short files, then I would could Main Concept to make a MPEG1 or MPEG2 file,

If there was a lot, then I can use Dr. Divx to convert to Divx to highten the quality.

Has anyone used any of them ?

I have read, don't get a cheap one, meaning over $70, and that they do resolution of 640 x 480 as well as 1024 x 768, which would absurdly high for this. I would be thrilled with 640 x 480 and good sound.

Cakewalk is probably the best company that makes home recording software. Rather amazing stuff.

From professional level to some that are specialized for guitarists that have four tracks and cost $50. You can plug in a guitar, actually two if your souond card can handle it, play, then do what you want with it. Also it can convert to midi to .wav or .mp3. and even burns the music on to a CD.

But if the webcam cannot connect to the soud card and just has an external microphone, then the digital to digital sound is out. But so pathetic is the links to the porno sites which is what a bunch of people use them for.

I would love to hear about experiences with them before purchasing one. Some of them can even be taken off line for taking pictures. I do not care about that, I have a digital camera. Hmm, that does do about two minutes of NTSC video. But the webcam, if under $100 might be perfect.

Thanks for the help, but PLEASE if you have one of these little things, please let me know.

Jon


I am sorry, but I have to change the sbject very briefly, to express an opinion about home music recording. I totally believe that the RIAA is not frightened in the least about the P2P issues. Their fear is musicians understanding technology and realizing that the RIAA is not needed at all.

Jon

[Richard_G]

Attached to the pc I'm currently using (my daughters) is a $20 USB webcam. I can open up Windows MovieMaker 2 and record video from the webcam. In the device selection menu I can select the source for the sound, currently set on mic input, to use line in so your son could record his playing while he is also recording the image.

Try it, I just did and it works!

[jolo]

Perfect !!

I heard software selection is important.

But please, what webcam are you using what is recommended.

Is it true that it is important not to purchase a "cheap on".

For example there some Logitechs that go from 79-99 that I heard in that "not cheap range". The others at 29 -59 that are.

Thanks,

Jon

[johns0]

I would recommend Logitech Quick Cam Pro4000 for better quality.Thats the webcam i`m buying next.I`ve bought cheap webcams and they are not worth it.

[jolo]

That was the exact one that I was looking at as well. It seems that people, especially families really like it.

Jon