Philips PCVC740K ToUcam Pro Internet WebCam
See it at Amazon.com for $69.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(3 out of 5)Great Picture Quality.............BUT...
While it is true that the Philips PCVC740K ToUcam Pro webcam gives a great picture...even in low light... the Philips "VLOUNGE" software interface that comes bundled with it is horrible, Especially for capturing live video...the VRECORD application, previewed live video well...but when it came to recording, it would give me a USB bandwith error...even after I unplugged all other USB devices!!!! It also comes with some decent(but not exceptional) software applications including: Spotlife for live webcam use or creating live or still video on a website, (although its live video capture would let me record video, it gave me an error everytime I tried to record both video and audio together!) Reality Fusion's Gamecam software which lets you get inside games using your image to deflect balls etc, and a stripped down Ulead photo editor, PhotoExpress 2.0 LE.....
The camera itself, while delivering great image quality, in design is a bit awkward. Much lighter than Logitech Webcams, I found the oval shaped casing would often tip...and the tripod it comes with needs more weight on the back leg to keep it from slipping off the monitor (although it is probably perfect for laptop use). Still snapshots on this model can be taken by just saying CHEESE or by depressing the button on top of the camera. (Note: This webcam must be connected to computer via USB port to function...even for snapshots)
This camera is also suppose to deliver up to 60fps, that was one of the determining factors I had in choosing it over a Logitech or an Intel model...but that 60fps stat depends on your computer system and the number of USB devices...typically it still captures in the range of most other webcams...5-30fps BEWARE AMAZON CUSTOMERS: All of these Philips ToUcam models look similar!! If you buy/bought this webcam from Amazon, make sure it comes in a cardboard printed box (not on a plastic card like the lower end models) The ring around the lens of this Pro model is a yellow-orange color (The lower end model has a red/maroon color)............FYI
(5 out of 5)ToUCam Pro is great, but not the XS!!!
WARNING! BEWARE! You order a Philips PCVC740K ToUcam Pro webcam
from Circuit City through Amazon.com, and Circuit City gives you
a Philips PCVC720K TouCam XS. This is a different camera,
different processor, different characteristics, and most importantly, NOT linux compatible.
I'm still looking for the TouCam Pro for the advertised price.
BE CAREFUL - the sales people at Circuit City don't make the distinction between the 740k and the 720k.
However! If you actually get a ToUCam Pro, you'll find it to be
very nice - doing very clear, fast downloads of 640x480 images
under linux using the pwc and pwcx drivers. Oh. It also works under Windows. :)
(5 out of 5)Nothing Wrong With This Camera
I had this camera up and running on my Windows ME machine within about five minutes and it works great! The picture is very sharp. This was the fourth USB device that I hooked into my USB hub and I have had no problems or error messages. The camera perches nicely on the top of my flat LCD monitor, although if you're going to have it on a wider surface I can see where the back support of the camera does tend to lift up off of that surface (unless you taped it down). Power is provided to the camera via the USB cable (my USB hub is plugged into the wall, and that might be a requirement) and the picture and sound are fed back to the computer using the same cable. The software recognized my previously installed microphone (attached to my SB Live! card) and allows me to switch between the two to capture the sound.
I can only record 60 frames per second (fps) at the default output size (320 X 240) if nothing moves in front of the camera and without sound. Add movement and sound with the picture and you'll get substantially less than 60 fps and also dropped frames. With the clear picture and sound being transmitted from the camera I'm sure that it takes a lot of a computer's resources to record it all. I'm running mine on a Pentium III 933 MHz chip with 512 MB worth of RAM and it's doing an adequate job of keeping up with the data coming from the camera. The frames per second and the resolution can be adjusted downward as required. I think that the problems people report with this device involve having it hooked up to a machine that's too slow for the camera settings.
The camera takes megapixel snapshots (by saying "CHEESE") through any TWAIN compliant software (Ulead Photo Express 2.0 SE software included with device) and will record them in whatever format the program can record. The camera records video in the AVI format only and you'll need to use the Windows player to view your recorded AVI file and your own editing software (it does come with VideoLinK Mail which records low quality video suitable to use as e-mail attachments). Sound is recorded in the PCM format. It also has SpotLife software bundled with the camera that allows you to instantly start transmitting streaming video into Cyberspace courtesy of a server provided free by SpotLife.
All in all you can't beat this camera for ...(theprice).
(5 out of 5)Great Performance, Great Price
I have just installed my Philips ToUcam Pro and the picture quality is unbelieveable! The picture is better than anything I have seen and was a much better value. The camera even gives a great picture in low light. If you are looking for a great web camera, you have to check this one out!
(4 out of 5)Quick and easy Mac set-up, great pix
I just got this camera and was able to set it up with my Mac Powerbook G3 without any hassles. The Mac software it comes bundled with (Oculus) is easy-to-use and has many great options -- I was able to start publishing pictures to my web site in a matter of minutes.
It's also worth noting that third-party developers have created Linux drivers for this hardware, something which factored into my purchase since I also plan on using this camera directly with my web server running Linux.