Problem with USB HP webcam?

Question

Hi there,
I am helping my client use video with Adobe Connect. She is the only one on our team who cannot make her webcam work when we are an Adobe Connect meeting.
She has a Thinkpad with Windows. She also has a HP Webcam 2100 that plugs into the USB port as her Thinkpad does not have a built-in webcam. I had her install the latest Adobe Flash player.
When we are in a meeting, she starts her webcam and clicks share and all we see is a black screen where her video should be. She says that the video camera works with Skype and other video type applications. I have told her to close all apps that might use the video camera while we are using Connect. Still no dice.
Is there a checklist of things we should do to try to debug this problem?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

Hello,
I took a look at the specs for that camera on HP's site and see that it supports DVD/VGA quality which is what Adobe Connect (Flash) expects to see. However, I do see that it can output video at "up to 30 frames per second".
Adobe Connect (Flash 9) can only accept DVD quality webcams (640x480) at up to 20 frames per second. Thta setting is controlled by the host of a meeting room in the room preferences.
I suspect the user has not altered their camera settings to be 20 fps. If they are outputting at 30 fps then a black box would happen because it's "too high" for Adobe Connect (Flash).
I see in HP's documentation : "Click the resolution drop-down list below the icons in the upper-right corner, and select the resolution setting to use for the recording. The default setting is VGA, which provides optimum performance in most environments."
While Adobe does not specify, recommend, or test any webcams, we do work with any webcam that the PC/Mac supports at the 640x480 and 20 fps setting.