[Stryker412]

I did a Kinect Video chat with my niece and nephew a few months ago. I noticed my video was really grainy compared to theirs. I did it again this weekend and still getting the same result. Could my camera be faulty?

 

[AHDTVDiet]

How's your lighting compared to theirs?

 

[onlysublime]

to improve the video chat, you really need to turn up the lights. the "normal" family room lighting isn't bright enough.


because normally when you use a webcam with a PC, you're sitting right in front of the webcam and the lamp is fairly close by, giving lots of light.


lights should help with the graininess but it's still VGA resolution (640x480). also, if the video camera is not tracking you, wave your hand or move around so that it'll track you and focus properly. if there are multiple people in front of the cam, the kinect defaults to a wide angle view and doesn't track anyone.

 

[JuiceRocket]

Stryker,


As onlysublime stated, the resolution of the camera is a limitation. Lights are amazingly important, I've noticed a serious drop-off in quality once the lights get below super bright. Unfortunately as amped up as Kinect Chat is, the quality doesn't come close to Skype a HD cam on your PC.


I tried using Kinect Chat for quite some time, since I have family on the East Coast, and we thought it'd be great to have larger discussions (having 20 people trying to take turns squeezing infront of a webcam on our laptops has always been problematic), but the Kinect video and audio quality just didn't cut it.


Good luck, it can be used, just don't expect to have a high quality experience. When I first heard of Avatar Kinect, I wondered if they had built that as a partial answer to the low quality video feed.


-JR

 

[Stryker412]

I have a ceiling fan above me with three bulbs plus I had our big picture window partially open to allow sunlight. Their picture was still better even with only one window open. Should I try to allow as much light in then recalibrate something?

 

[Cool Face]

depends where the light is coming from. the best setup is to have the bat-signal blaring in your face, as you face the kinect sensor. as gordon has the only bat-signal in town though you might wanna just put a lamp somewhere where the kinect sensor is facing out towards you. if you have windows behind you, close them. at least the blinds or curtains. lights directly above you, i've noticed, dont really affect the kinects response.


some tips i've gleamed:


1. clean your kinects camera window. use a soft lint free cloth with some water.

2. calibrate, calibrate, calibrate! at all times of the day, with different lighting conditions. even when doing this, the kinect camera still has those "off days". its not perfect.

3. if you have the room or the above doesnt work and you desperately want the kinect to work better.... hang a white bed-sheet about 2-3 feet behind the kinects' play area. i mean that square area where the sensor can see you. note: this is just an extremely absurd suggestion but it should work.