Great USB Camera
Written: May 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: picture quality, USB, software suite
Cons: ambiguous installer
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| mdelcorso's Full Review: 3Com HomeConnect PC Digital Camera |
The 3Com HomeConnect PC Digital Camera is an excellent solution for people who need a Digital Video Camera solution for a USB platform.
This camera runs on USB PC's running Windows 95 OSR/2, Windows 98, or Windows 2000. Windows 95 version 1 and Windows NT are not supported as these operating systems do not support USB. A minimum of a Pentium 166 with MMX, along with 32mb of ram are recommended.
Features include a frame rate of up to 60fps at 160x120 pixels. Low light sensitivity of <1 lux, with automatic adjustment to light levels. Supported color formats include 16.8 million TrueColor and RGB555. Grayscale formats include YUV16, YUV12, YUV9, and 256. The camera uses VLCE lossless compression technology. Supported resolutions include 1280x960, 640x480, 352x288, 320x240, 176x144, 160x120, and 128x96 however the quality of the picture wasn't great above 352x288. Supported protocols include H.323, H.324, Microsoft Video for Windows, and TWAIN scanner support.
Included with the camera is a 9 ft detachable USB cable, CDRom, and
Installation guide. The software includes PictureWorks Live for video snapshots and motion capture. PictureWorks NetCard is for Video e-mail. A trial version of Webcam32 is included for posting pictures automatically to web sites. Also included are Microsoft Netmeeting and RealPlayer G2 however they are bot outdated versions.
Operation of the camera is excellent. I had no problems using it on a Celeron 466 running Windows2000. However, installation of that software wasn't very easy. First, you must run the preinstall program before pluging in the camera. Then you shut down and plug in the camera. However, when I rebooted I got an error because I had removed the installation CD. I then rebooted again and the Windows2000 hardware installer set up the camera but I had to search out the various utilities on the CD. I suspect that none of this would of happened if I hadn't taken out the CD but the installer wasn't clear that it should of stayed in.
Other than the slight problems with installation, this is a great camera. I would recommend this camera as the best solution for USB webcams.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mdelcorso
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Member: Michael Del Corso
Location: Berkeley Heights, NJ
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 29 members
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