Nimbus

Hi,

My friends daughters teacher wants to set up a web cam so that the class can watch the eggs hatch and chicks grow from the comfort of their classroom. They already have a PC (don't know the specs) and wanted to know how to set up the web cam so they can see (and hear) what's going on.

What is the maximum length of cabling for a webcam? Are there different connection methods (my home one is plugged into a USB port). Do they come with sound? I assume they also come with the necessary software. I don't think they need to record the images (but will check).

Any one have any advice?

Nimbus

Update

Apparently they are going to be using a special camera that has an RGB output, so I guess you need an RGB capture card.

Any recomendations?

S55 HOT

My Logitech web cam came with webcam software on a free month trial

I guess that's not much use though......

Nimbus

No, not really....

Foot_Tapper

This sort of thing might do it

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...&category=1200

Nimbus

Thanks, but it turns out that they already have the camera now. The problem is that is got RGB output which they want to feed into their PC. So they now need an RGB capture card.

IWatkins

Nimbus,

I've used DataPath cards in the past for analogue RGB signals. Basically gives you the ability to display an RGB feed on your desktop in a window.

When they say it is an RGB camera, do you mean it has three/four phono/BNC type outputs ? Obviously, deciding how the camera puts out the sync signal is important to the spec/connectors you need on the card etc.

I would first get the spec of the camera in question and also check whether the output is PAL etc. I.e. get all the info before looking at capture cards.

Of course, the obvious question would be, why don't they simply plug the camera into a TV/Video recorder

Or better, bring the eggs into the classroom

Cheers

Ian