Using Your Digital Camcorder as a Webcam

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/tweleve_questions_three.htm

Credit to by Andrew Alexander
Published on Dec 13, 2001 12:00 AM

“The answer is that you cant easily use a miniDV camera as a webcam. Now I’ll tell you why.

The feature most common among miniDV cameras is the port which you use to attach it to your computer, known as a DV port (digital video) and by many other names, such as “i.Link”, “firewire” and “IEEE1394″, all referring to the same technology. When you connect your camcorder to your computer, you are using this firewire connection to stream the video and audio signals onto your hard drive. This is done by use of a Windows technology known as WDM (“Windows Driver Model”). WDM is a relatively new system meant to replace VfW (“Video for Windows”), the previous standard for importing and converting video from one source to the computer.

Unfortunately, most webcams and webcam programs need VfW to work, and firewire uses WDM, not VfW. Windows has in its programming a facility to translate a VfW program to output WDM, but not vice versa, so when you fire up your webcam program, the odds are it will not recognize your miniDV camcorder, connected by firewire.

So how can you make it work? Get an analog video capture card, such as the Matrox eTV G450, or an ATI Radeon with video capture, or Hauppage WinTV. All these cards use a VfW device to capture video and should be recognized in webcam software. Otherwise, invest a couple of bucks into a USB webcam. ”

Hmmmm? spend money on Hauppage WinTV or logitech webcam? I think I’ll get the webcam.

I thought maybe the pop up blocker or firewall.
I probably have to download some software? I’ll search it out and be back.

Anna my laptop is out dated and Ididn’t getthe one with the camera. Wish I would have. Also wish that I would have upgraded my camera instead of this other venture I spent the money on. [slapping yanqui forehead]

Tim