Anyone with experience with Skype video conferencing?

[henryrobinett]

Hey all! I hope someone can help me. I'm setting up a remote teaching set up. I've been teaching music for many years privately, in colleges and online. Now I have a demand for skype lessons. If anyone has any experience in this I'd love to hear from you. Obviously I can get skype easily. I have an account somewhere, if I still have it and can remember the user name and password! But if someone can suggest remote cameras, that'd be great. I assume some I might pick up at Staples might not be compatible.

I have a video camera but I also have iPhone 5. Perhaps I can get a holder for it? My Macs are towers and don't have a built in camera. I know there are inexpensive little real time video cameras - are these called webcams? Any suggestions? I want and need to keep this inexpensive!

I'm on 10.7.5 on a Mac 2.8 ghz

[henryrobinett]

The Logitech C615 seems to be a popular item.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Portable ... 045&sr=1-4

[henryrobinett]

I've never done video conferencing, or webcaming of any kind. With guitar lessons I'd prefer to not use the built in mic, except for quick and dirty and convenience. Will it be possible to set up my own mic and pres and output those vith video to Skype?

I use Metric Halo audio interfaces.

[BasV]

I know 2 guys who are teaching chapman stick using skype, Greg Howard and Steve Adelson.


Cheers,
Bas

[henryrobinett]

Nobody does something like this or knows anything about setting this up?

I also have an iPhone 5, and an iPad 2. I have a video camera that connects with usb. If I could use that, or those, it'd be great. I just don't know how to set those up as a webcam. If I used the iPhone/iPad I'd have to get swivel type stand. Does anyone have or know of a good stand for those?

[G]

In my own experience with Skype, it's a finicky app that usually works with the camera of your choosing, and sometimes not. You're talking about all different kinds of random hardware (along with your particular connectivity) that may or may not work. You'll have to test what you have as you go.

You can, however, choose separate video and audio sources in Skype preferences. So it probably won't be a problem feeding good quality audio from an external interface (or worst case, feed that to the Mac Pro's S/PDIF input).

I use a Logitech C910 web cam that shoots 1080p video and captures great quality audio. It even works perfectly with Mountain Lion's dictation. But it's not easy to aim left-right. It's designed to sit atop a display.

If you want to use your iPhone or iPad, I'd recommend Joby hardware to keep it in place or to attach it to a real tripod.

http://joby.com/gorillamobile

Not totally sure from the above, but if you're actually talking about multiple cameras: Skype preferences don't provide a way to use multiple cameras (that I know of). You may need something in between to handle switching like Boinx (software—but I don't know if it can output a single video feed that will appear as a cam source to Skype) or some external hardware. Maybe you could use multiple copies of Skype, i.e. one on the Mac, the iOS app on your phone, etc., but then if I recall, doing a video conference with more than just 2 clients on Skype costs $. There are cheaper services like ooVoo, but that feels cheap. I wouldn't want to present that to a customer. You might also look into Google+ Hangouts, which are free, and work with up to 10 clients, I believe.

[henryrobinett]

Thanks G! I'm wondering whether I should buy one of these webcam thingy's or whether I can use a regular Sony video camera to do the same thing. Forgive my ignorance, but that's why I'm asking. I'm not so much interested in multiple camera shots, although that's a great idea. I don't want it to get too awfully complicated. I was looking at the Logitech C615. But if I can set my video camera, Sony HDR-CX210 Handycam, up to do the job I can save some money. It seems obvious that I should be able to do it this way. This would be cool since I also se this camera to record lessons for my lesson website.

[G]

Well, that's the thing. You're fishing for someone who has a Sony HDR-CX210 and has hooked it up for real-time video streaming. And then if that someone was able to feed that stream into Skype. It may indeed be possible, but it would probably be faster to simply try it, than to wait for a bite online. Does the camera have Firewire? If so, there's a chance that it will feed a live video stream to the Mac. Whether Skype would see that as a viable input source, I have no idea. That's where you'd just have to try it.

[henryrobinett]

Understood. But I don't even know how to hook any of this stuff up for that yet. I mean more a general question like, can video cameras, in general and in principle, do webcam type functions?

[henryrobinett]

First, part of the problem was, and you're correct, I hadn't actually logged on to Skype. As a matter of fact I haven't used Skype since I first got it 5 years ago, or so, when I had an overseas gig. So I downloaded the new software and tested the equipment and found that skype can't see my camera. So unless I'm doing something wrong it's not compatible. But I don't know why, unless there IS a difference between video camera/handycam and a webcam. This is basically what I was asking if anyone knew.

[G]

Understood. But I don't even know how to hook any of this stuff up for that yet. I mean more a general question like, can video cameras, in general and in principle, do webcam type functions?

That is indeed the $64000 question. Some older Firewire-based cameras could be connected and viewed in real-time. That was the original method of capturing digital video from tape-based cameras. My old Sony DCR TRV900 MiniDV cam, which could do that, was purchased in 1998 and eBay'd in 2007. Most modern cameras don't depend on (slow) real-time video dumping to computers since it's faster and less wearing to plug in a USB cable and send data at maximum possible speed, or swap out a flash RAM card and not be dependent on the camera at all.

But even more recently, electronics take on multiple duties, so who really knows except Sony, you and the user manual? Sony would probably boast about it as a marketing point, since it would require a special mode where the camera would present itself as a UVC device over USB and not as a storage device.

[henryrobinett]

Perhaps one more question G. I went to purchase the Logitech C910, like the one you have, but it's apparently been discontinued or updated to the C920. But there are no Mac drivers. Is yours Mac compatible? I ended up getting the C615 as I was planning. I had to wait until after the holidays.

[G]

Perhaps one more question G. I went to purchase the Logitech C910, like the one you have, but it's apparently been discontinued or updated to the C920. But there are no Mac drivers. Is yours Mac compatible?

Good question. It is indeed Mac compatible as far as it's a UVC device, which OS X supports natively since 10.4.something (10.5 to be sure). But it's true, there are no Mac drivers from Logitech. That just means you can't set some custom values on the camera. It works fine, nonetheless.

Logitech has been on a Mac kick lately (their wireless keyboard, trackpad, Broadcaster camera), and I seem to remember one or more cams that were Mac-specific. You may want to dig around for that one. Sorry I can't recall any specific models.