HD Webcams! For showing PC Screen?

By +Byt
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Experienced

+Byt Subscriber¹

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Hey All,

I have a client that needs a Webcam to work on Skype, so his employees can call him if they get stuck working a special peice of machinery, they can take the webcam over to the machine, and he can see what settings they have put into the control panel of the machine, and talk them through changing it etc, i know this isnt the best system in the world, but its the only thing we can think of that will be doable from his phone when out and about.

I have been looking at this webcam - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-960-000767-C920-HD-Webcam/dp/B006A2Q81M/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1361194648&sr=1-1

But it has been so long since a even owned a webcam, i wondered if you video the screen of a CRT monitor with it, will you get them black lines running down the screen? all these old engineering machines use CRT monitors and Windows 95!

Also if the webcams will be ok, can you plug them upto a PC with extra long usb cables? or are wireless webcams good?

Cheers

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Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I know you're looking for webcams but my 2 cents :)

Remote access might be better than a webcam and probably easier to see on a phone

We used to have HTC Touch Diamond phones at my last IT job and used them for remote access, nightmare on such a small screen but it worked

The black lines could be fixed by setting the webcam to the refresh rate of the CRT I would have thought

Grand Master

LUTZIFER

Posted
Posted

That's the one I have. Absolutely love it. Works awesome. Was the top of the line but Logitech just released a new one, which pretty much looks the same.

New one is Logitech c930e

http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/webcam-c930e-business?crid=1252

Grand Master

firey

Posted
Posted

It sounds like he wants them to be able to show him what is going on on a piece of machinery not an actual PC, so when he says "Control Panel" he doesn't mean Windows Control Panel. OP can you clarify?

This is what I got from it, was he wanted the ability to take the webcam over to the machine and show parts/physical control that help is needed with, not whats on the computer monitor.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

It sounds like he wants them to be able to show him what is going on on a piece of machinery not an actual PC, so when he says "Control Panel" he doesn't mean Windows Control Panel. OP can you clarify?

This is what I got from it, was he wanted the ability to take the webcam over to the machine and show parts/physical control that help is needed with, not whats on the computer monitor.

Quote:

"i wondered if you video the screen of a CRT monitor with it, will you get them black lines running down the screen?"

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

you will always get the scanline on a webcam/video camera from a CRT, even if it's a 100hz screen. du to the collision between the webcams 25/30 fps and the scanlines 100, giving you the slower "wave" down the screen as opposed to a flicker.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

you will always get the scanline on a webcam/video camera from a CRT, even if it's a 100hz screen. du to the collision between the webcams 25/30 fps and the scanlines 100, giving you the slower "wave" down the screen as opposed to a flicker.

A lot of webcams have a 50/60Hz flicker fix in the settings, not 100% sure but I always thought that was what it was for, TVs, monitors, etc

Grand Master

xendrome

Posted
Posted

Quote:

"i wondered if you video the screen of a CRT monitor with it, will you get them black lines running down the screen?"

Right I think he wants to see the whole unit, being the controls for the system, the physical control panel, and any CRT screen that is hooked up to the unit that shows it's status/job. Not the actual OS or what is running on the CRT

Grand Master

xendrome

Posted
Posted

Give them all iPhones and use that face thingy :p.

or you know, just Skype on anything :)

I think the problem is, it's probably precision engineering equipment, so details need to be able to be seen. Especially if it's some type of fabrication machine or electronic soldering automated system.

Neowinian

outspoken

Posted
Posted

I don't understand why you _need_ to have a Video camera? I am sure you can send Good quality photos (using a digicam) of the machine's panel and display. Use the Webcam only to show engineers face when talking (so you know he is not lying when he says he did not press the big red button).

Experienced

+Byt Subscriber¹

Posted
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Posted

Sorry for the late reply guys, just to clarify...

This old machinery has CRT monitors to control it, but alot of the machinery has DOS commands to control it, or they are using old Win 95 Boxes... They even have spares incase one of the boxes suddenly dies they can just swap it out with a new one! Apparently a new updated version of the software to run on a new PC (Like Windows 7) its over ?20k, and we cant justify that.

So what we need to do, is one of the engineers can skype call the main engineer if he is out of the building, and be able to show him what is going on with the machine, what lights are on the machine at the top, what is showing on the screen, and what the status is of the various water levels etc. The only way we can think of doing this is having a webcam connected to a laptop, which is connected to the network wirelessly, so it can be taken around the building showing the people on the skype call whatever they need to see,

I hope that helps clear it up!

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