Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SuperHero]

So I picked up a second hand laptop yesterday and got my wireless set up at home. The next thing for me to do is get my web cam running so I have my parents watch the kids in the living room rather than the cramped computer room.

Well the problem is that the video runs very choppy. I'm guessing because it's using shared ram. I have 512 ram, but it only shows 480mb when I check the properties. Other than adding more ram, which I don't know if I can yet, is there some way to allocate more ram to the video.

Other suggestions also welcome.

[Missile Command Kid]

1) How fast is the computer? More specs would be helpful.
2) How fast is your Internet connection? Cable or ADSL?
3) How fast is your parent's Internet connection? Cable or ADSL?
4) How far away are you from your parents?

[gsxr750r]

You're talking webcam video, right? It's gonna be choppy no matter what. They like to advertise 15 or 30 frames per second (30 frames equals TV-like full motion video) but the reality is that you'll get somewhere between 3 and 10 frames per second in most cases. Usually closer to 10, if you have a decent connection. That's been my experience, anyway. I use MSN video chat, and talk to the parentals weekly. If I'm chatting with a friend in Korea, I can do 15 to 20 fps tops. In truth, 15 looks really good, and you don't need to go to 30 anyway.

Another thing. Some router firewalls will screw up the video and make the audio very choppy -- bad enough that you can't understand them. I don't think your Linksys will do that, but if you want to check, disable the Linksys firewall and see if that makes a difference (you have to leave your conversation, log out, and then log back in and chat again to be sure all ports are reset).

[SuperHero]

the problem was not enough shared memory. I googled, got a manual and changed the shared memory to 64mb and the video looks like it does on my desktop.

[gsxr750r]

Ahh... sweet azz.