Skype video slow and Jerky with Logitech web camera

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Level 1

105 points

Skype video slow and Jerky with Logitech web camera

A couple of months ago I bought my parent a brand new 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac Mini with 2GB memory and a 320GB hard drive to replace the old Windows system they were using.

A while back they had purchased a Logitech HD Pro Web Cam C190 web camera for Skype.

They have attached the camera to the Mac Mini, and while it works in that it does display video in Skype, the playback is slow and jerky. They are using version 5 of Skype.

What could be done that would improve the video playback on this system when using Skype.

Posted on Jul 2, 2011 3:10 PM

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Answer 1

Jaems13

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24 points

Jul 3, 2011 9:24 AM in response to Tron Thomas1

OS 10.5.X+ has decent support for PnP USB cameras however not perfect. I've had a couple of Logitech cameras such as the Logitech 9000 and the tilt/zoom variety. Both performed pretty much the same as you've mentioned.

Of the small bit of research I did I learned that most of the Logitech cameras are software driven. They rely on certain drivers to really make them perform well. At this time there's very little Apple support on Logitech's site since their core market is Windows. I found this linkfor you which might have a more updated driver. If it works, let me know as I'd really like to get a webcam for my Mac Mini.

On a side note, I've used the Sony PS3 Eyecams before and they work a bit smoother than the logitech but they don't work for all Apple applications.

Good luck!

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Answer 2

Jul 3, 2011 9:34 AM in response to Tron Thomas1

The Logitech HD Pro Web Cam C190 is a good camera.

The most likely source of your problem is the internet connection. Is it fast enough for video streaming?

Also 2GB is not much RAM. What OS is on the mini?

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Answer 3

Jaems13

Level 1

24 points

Jul 3, 2011 9:40 AM in response to Peter Bannon

Good point, Peter. A good test would to be looking at the video from Photobooth and see if it lags there as well. Ram upgrade might help but I'd definitely want the proper driver from the vendor if they have one.

OP: Consider all of the above 🙂

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Answer 4

Tron Thomas1 Author

Level 1

105 points

Jul 3, 2011 12:48 PM in response to Peter Bannon

My parents have Internet access through their cable company. The connection is pretty fast, probably as least as fast as my DSL connection, if not faster.

When they used the camera on their old Windows computer the video was pretty smooth, smoother than it is on the Mac Mini, and that Windows system only had 640 Megabytes for RAM. The big problem with the camera on Windows was that it was very grainy, as it was running at a lower resolution, most likely because the system could not perform well enough to drive the camera at a higher resolution.

I'm wondering if there is a way to reduce the resolution of the camera on the Mac Mini so that maybe it would run faster. I've never used that kind of camera, so I have no idea how that would work.

The Mac Mini is brand new from a couple of months ago, so my parents are running Mac OS X 10.6. I'm not sure if they have the very latest updates, so they may be using 10.6.7 instead of the very latest 10.6.8.

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Answer 5

Tron Thomas1 Author

Level 1

105 points

Jul 3, 2011 8:02 PM in response to Tron Thomas1

Another thing I forgot to mention is that on their end, things seem fine. They've tested the camera with PhotoBooth and it was fine. They also don't notice their camera is slow when they are one Skype. I'm the one who notices the problem. I never had this problem when they were on Windows. I also don't have this problem when I've talked on Skype with another person who has a MacBook Pro.

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