Good VideoHere is an example of perfect image quality. This kind of image is easy to broadcast when your computer is one of the latest genration of Dual-Core Pc's, and you are using a good quality Camcorder and video capture card as opposed to a standard webcam. Your customers will see sharp, detailed images at full 30 frapes per second, without any "lossy" compression artifacts, blurring or drop outs. Expect to make lots of sales.
A fast "clean" Internet connection of at least 250 Kilobits per second is required, and your computer must be free from any power robbing programs such as file sharing programs, spyware, viruses, etc.
Jaggy VideoThis is a good example of what happens when your computer is too slow. You may have a very good camera (and capture card even), but your computer's CPU cannot compress the image fast enough to transmit the full detail of the picture. Expect to make good sales, with the occaisonal customer comment that your video quality is poor.
Normally, a Pentium 4 is fast enough for the job. (Dual Core or Quad Core is best). Closing ALL other programs you may be running will improve your video quality
Blurry VideoIn this particular case, there are no "jaggy" artifacts as are in the example above, but the image is blurry when the model moves. This is usually because the camera's shutter speed is too slow. Increasing the shutter speed of the camera should illimiate this kind of motion blur. If you cannot adjust the speed. Make sure that the camera's "auto light level" gadget is disabled if possible, and add more light to your room or studio to compensate. The more the camera must compensate for low light, the worse your image quality will be.
Small " Webcams" have a very small appature and therefore require alot of light to work. If don't have enough light, the cam compensates by using a "Light Amplifier" to artificially brighten the image. Depending on the camera, sometimes the camers hardware does it, and sometimes it's done by software. Regardless, BOTH SUCK. They eat up CPU time (and slow the image down), and they add lots of grainy "noise" to the video image which makes your PC work harder to compress all of that extra useless detail, and slow your video down even more.
The solution is to replace her camera with a newer, faster "USB 2.0" camera, or even better, to use a Camcorder & Video capture card such as the Osprey 210 PCI card.
If you are already using a good camera and capture card and you still get motion blur, then your PC is too slow. Try this experiment:
Log in to CHATVIBE and turn on your camera. Then press CTRL-ALT-DEL and click on TASK MANAGER. Your CPU usage should only be around 5 to 10% or so. Now, wave your hand in front of your camera. What does your CPU Usage shoot up to? If it creeps up higher than 40% or 50%, you may want to consider buying a faster computer. Your computer is spending 40% of its resources just to compress the video data of your moving hand. A faster computer will do a better job, giving a clearer picture, more frames per second, while using less CPU time.
Grainy VideoOlder USB Cameras have extremely poor color reproduction. As you can see in this picture, these types of cameras tend to make skin tones as well as the overall picture very GREEN. Expect to make poor to average sales, with the occaisonal customer complaint about poor video quality.
If this is the case, you can try fixing it with better lighting. Make sure that you are not using ANY Floresent lighting, as this type of light can make things worse. If your camera has a HUE adjustment, reset it. Check the WHITE BALANCE of the camera as well.
Grainy VideoIf this is the image quality that you are sending out via Chatvibe, it's time you invested in all new hardware. Expect to make NO SALES if this is the image quality you will transmit.
Many USB cameras the use a built-in "Light Amplifier", which is supposed to brighten dark images. This works, but also introduce alot of "video noise", which you see as random, moving dots all over the image. CHATVIBE has to work much harder in this situation to compress the image, resulting in bad quality once delivered over the web. To make matters worse, most webcams are generally low quality and tend to make the video image appear Green.
An easy solution is to simply add more light to your room. Avoid fluorescent lights. Due to the difference between the flicker of the light (60Hz) and the refresh or sampling rate of your camera, your image may 'wobble' or flicker. In addition, fluorescent lights tend to make skin tones (and everything else in the room) a sickly green color. Halogen lights are better, but regular light bulbs are best. Be sure to set your cameras White Balance to Indoor or Auto. Exeriment with color gels on your lights.
Black ScreenDo you only see only a BLACK screen when run Chatvibe?
Check that Chatvibe is trying to access the correct camera or capture device. You may have more than 1 capture device or camera installed on your computer, or you may have had another camera or capture device installed in the past.
Re-Install the software that came with your camera or capture device, or better still go to the manufacturers website and download the latest version of the camera or capture card drivers. Make sure that you have the latest version of Windows including the latest security fixes.
Blue ScreenThe video capture card is not receiving a video signal from your camera. Your camera is either turned off, or the wrong input connector is being used.
If you are using the RCA / COMPOSITE / VIDEO cable that came with your camera (usually indicated as VIDEO and is usually YELLOW, you must load the software that came with your camera and select COMPOSITE VIDEO as your video input source.
If you are using the 5-pin connector, you must select Y/C as your video input source.
Connecting, Connecting...Your video appears to work, but your customers see no video, or see an endless looping 'CONNECTING' message, or sometimes the occaisional few seconds of live video, with lots of freezes.
Your computer is too slow, or your computer's CPU is too slow. Try disabling ALL other programs. Especially, do not run any programs that attempt to split your video to chat with other networks at the same time as a LiveCamNetwork powered site. Your CPU must work very hard in order to compress your video quickly enough to send good quality to your paying customers.
If you use your computer to listen to music while you chat, try using a smaller program such as Winamp for MP3's. Large programs such as the Microsoft Windows Media player will slow your computer down. Even better, forget MP3's and listen only to audio CD's, and use the built-in Windows CD player. It uses almost no CPU time.
Your UPSTREAM connection is too slow. For best results, you should have a 150k Upstream or better connection via Cable or DSL. To measure your speed, run the speed test included in Chatvibe 3.0. Note : 2Much is in no way responsible for your connection speed or video quality. 2Much does not offer support if your connection is not fast enough. If you are getting less than 150Kbps upstream connection, please contact your ISP
Your computer has been infected with ADWARE or SPYWARE components which is now eating up valuable CPU speed and other resources. Go to LavaSoft to read about and download Ad-Aware or download it free from Download.com. Highly recommended.