On the live stream I periodically get asked what webcam I use and how I get the image to look at good as it does.

I inform that yes I use a Microsoft Lifecam VX-3000. It does the job and does it well for live streaming.

However I will be the first to admit it’s not perfect. There are drawbacks to webcams, such as:

Tiny lens

The itty bitty lens only allows for the bare minimum of focal length. In layman’s terms that means anything over 10 feet away will most likely be out of focus. If you’re sitting in front of your computer, you’re good to go. If it’s far away.. well.. don’t expect a perfect picture.

Light overcompensation

Aside from the manual focus ring on most webcams, all functions of the webcam are software based. While this is convenient it is at the same time very frustrating.

The single largest complaint of anyone who uses a webcam is that “static” appears when the light is too low. What the webcam tries to do at that point is “grab” light from anywhere in the frame, and if it finds none it will literally fabricate pseudo-light which appears to the eye as static.

Minimal data transfer

Your webcam is most likely connected via USB 2.0 spec. As anyone knows, USB is great but not exactly fast concerning transfer speed. Your best bet is to stick to 320×240 resolution. Some webcams do 640×480 (and even 800×600 for some), but the end result is that you’re pushing thru USB 2.0.

If you ever wondered “Why does my video look so much better at a low frame rate compared to high?”, it’s because the lower frame rates allow for higher bigger-data frames at the expense of frame rate.

The advantages of using a camcorder

Big lens with true optical focus

The larger lens makes a huge difference, and additionally has true optical focus. Even if you were standing 50 feet away from the camera, you would still be in focus.

Auto-focus

The vast majority of webcams don’t have auto-focus. Camcorders do and they adjust very quickly.

Colors that look more “real”

Again this is from the larger lens; it’s able to capture more of what the true image looks like and the difference can be seen easily.

Firewire

Firewire (IEEE 1394) is obviously superior to USB in every way. You can transfer much more data over the wire.

Vastly superior microphone

The on-board microphone on almost all camcorders have built-in noise reduction and compression. If you’re right next to the cam it’s almost the same as speaking into a vocal microphone.

It’s sadly true that on even the most expensive webcams the microphones are absolute junk. Not so on camcorders.

Any disadvantages?

There are two.

The camcorder is bulky and usually requires to be mounted on a tripod. If you can deal with the bulky-ness of the camcorder, go for it.

Connecting devices over Firewire, while great, may sometimes cause your computer and/or software to “think” about it more because of the high data transfer rate. USB 2.0 never has this problem. While it’s true you can run a Firewire-based webcam and still multitask without issue, periodically you may encounter a software lock-up (usually your camera software). This happens no matter what OS you’re using, be it Windows or OS X.

It’s stuff like this on YouTube that makes it cool:

Yes, that’s the NES Super Mario Bros. video game in-game song being played with a radio-controlled car with a mounted hammer hitting bottles for the notes.

When tech translates into real life like this in a (really) creative way, that’s just plain awesome.

I can guarantee you will watch this at least 3 times.

[Source: Geekologie]

For a small while (since July ‘07) Blockbuster has been offering Blu-ray titles for rental but never really “went for the gusto” as they say. I can totally understand why because there was still the whole HD-DVD/Blu-ray war going on.

Well, we all know that’s over now and so does Blockbuster. Instead of having Blu-rays for rent in just a tick under 2,000 stores, you’re now going to see them in around 5,000 stores. So if you haven’t seen the Blu-rays in your local Blockbuster, you should very soon.

For those using the postal mail version of Blockbuster, yes you will be able to get your Blu-rays that way also.

[Source: iPod Observer]

This is the second WebCamMax tutorial I’m doing because the first one was basic but didn’t get into anything advanced. This one does. It explains how the live feed (on Windows) is done. See video below for details.

Since starting the live chat I get asked how I put together the stream. I use WebCamMax. In the video below I give a quick explanation on how I have mine configured.

Today I am doing something a little different for PCMech. I am releasing a Wordpress plug-in.

To those not familiar with it for some reason, Wordpress is blogging software. It is open source and free, which has resulted in it being VERY popular. We use Wordpress to power PCMech itself.

PCMech is now running LIVE on PCMech Live, using the platform provided by the fine folks at Ustream.Tv. When I went to implement Ustream on this website, I wanted the ability to switch between more than one show. See, I want flexibility to show somebody else’s Ustream show here on PCMech in the event that I am offline for awhile. Ustream does provide code to embed the live feed into a website, but it is not dynamic.

So, I created the WP-Ustream Wordpress plug-in. Here is a short video showing the plug-in in use. You can view out new page on Wordpress and check out the page on WP-Ustream.

As you can see, we do a lot of screencasting here at PCMech. Rich does almost all of it, but he uses Windows. Windows is lucky to have a program called Camtasia which is the de facto standard for screencasting on the Windows platform. But, once you get to the Mac side of things, you’re left scratching your head.

This isn’t to say that there are no decent options, but Mac users will immediately be stumped by the fact that there is no Camtasia available for OS X. Not yet anyway…I hear they are working on one.

In the meantime, what are the best options for an OS X user? Let’s jump right to some links because I know you are reading this article for solutions.

• iShowU. iShowU is a nice little utility for doing screencasting. I have purchased this application and have used it. It works quite well for me. You can capture either a section of your screen or the whole thing. If you are using multi-monitors, you can select which screen to record. It does not do a great job if you try to span more than one screen, but this is something I would expect with any program. IShowU offers easily configurable presets for quick export of your videos. You can even re-size them on the fly, which is convenient.

  

• Snapz Pro X. This is another decent option, but on my trial I ultimately decided I didn’t want to use it. The problem I was having was losing the recording window as I was recording. Also, I would start the program and be unable to find it. You have to call it up using a keyboard shortcut and I found it counter-intuitive. I’m not going to rip on the product, though. Many people swear by it. It just didn’t fit my personal preferences.

  

• Jing Project. Jing is a Techsmith (the company behind Camtasia) service that DOES work on OS X. This obviously means the company is doing OS X screen capturing so it is only a matter of time to see a Mac version of Camtasia. But, for now, we have Jing. Jing operates like a little OS add-on that allows you to quickly record a video and put it up on Techsmith’s servers at Screencast.com.

  

• ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow is perhaps the closest thing to Camtasia that I have found so far for the Mac and it is quite impressive. It can record pretty much anything and offers no hiccups at all (I’ve tried it). You can even perform after-recording editing functions like adding callouts, zooms, pans, trims, drop shadows, etc. It is not a full-blown movie editor, but there is nothing from stopping you from doing the convenient stuff with ScreenFlow and then exporting to MOV and editing in iMovie. ScreenFlow can only work on OS X 10.5 Leopard. I highly recommend ScreenFlow and I, myself, plan on purchasing the program soon.

  

So, those are the options I have played around with. Expect to see some more screencasts done by your’s truly using my new Mac Pro. Honestly speaking, Techsmith probably waited too long to tap the Apple market. Camtasia will definitely be a big kahuna in this market when they finally release for the Mac, but ScreenFlow is a great application that does things Camtasia can’t - even on Windows.