iSight Performance

M

mindbend

Registered
Is iSight capture performance (using QT 7) a factor of the host machine? I am only seeing 240x180 in iSight recording prefs. I'm using an iBook 800 MHZ, 640 RAM. Haven't tried it on the work machines yet.

Also, even at the pathetic 240x180 res, I'm getting really choppy frame rates. I wasn't expecting the iBook to get full screen, full 30 fps, but what I'm getting is more like 5-10 fps at 240x180. I've tried the h.264 and the MPEG-4 as well as device native. They all perform about the same, which is not very well.

The movie officially reports 10fp, but that is misleading because the movies are NOT playing back consistently at all. It's like they are stuttering the whole time, sometimes spitting out a good 10 fps, followed by a full second of 1 fps, etc.

So basically I'm wondering what kinf of performance I should expect on an iBook and to what degree the host machine determines the options. It seems I can only record device native (640x480) or 240x180. Is that correct?

Thanks.

p.s. I have all current software updates for Tiger.
 
I am wondering if you are talking frame rates during communications or during recording?
 
I am just talking about recording using QT7's new movie record option.

I have not used iSight for iChat communications.

Just tried it out on a dual G5. It gets the full 30 fps at 640x480 easily, but it's still blurry when capturing motion. I assume this is just how it is with the iSight. I was hoping to use it in a surveillance setting, but frankly I'm less than impressed. It's probably great with iChat, but it's nearly useless for capturing clean, non-blurry motion at least from what I can tell.
 
One question is what was your lighting like? In a low light situation the shutter speed on the camera will have to be really slow which could lead to blurring.

If might need to shell out for a different camera with a more sensitive CCD. There are only fifty jillion different variations of CCDs for use in different operating environments. There is one that is right for you but that might not have been one used on a web cam.

One possibility would be to use a regular camcorder with a firewire connection. My Sony works pretty well in that regard and it captures motion much better.
 
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