PALTALK VIDEO SUPPORT
To use video with PalTalk you must have your camera drivers properly installed
under Windows. If you experience problems with video, check to be sure that
your camera works with the software package that came with it.To check to see that your video is working ok, select the FILE menu on your buddy list. Select VIDEO SETUP OPTIONS. A small window will pop up and ask you to select the correct video capture device. Select your the camera or device that you wish to use from this window.
After you have selected the proper device, a larger window will appear and you should see a "self view" on the window. You can make adjustments to your picture by selecting the SOURCE button to the left of your self view. All of the supported features of your camera should be visible on the pop up window. If your picture is frozen, deselect the Slow Video Preview box under the self view area. Turn it back on when you are done making camera adjustments.
You can change your picture size and color depth by pressing the FORMAT button on the video setup window. Your picture size should be set to 176x144. The color depth setting is very important. MOST cameras should be set to a RGB setting. Preferably the same depth as your desktop.
Example:
Desktop set to 16 bit (High Color) is 16bit RGB for your cam.
Desktop set to 24 bit (True Color) is 24bit RGB for your cam.Most people will not have to make any adjustments or changes to the default settings. If your computer freezes or locks-up, be SURE that your color depth is set to RGB.
Under the self view screen there are two selection boxes. These boxes are used to control the speed and resources on your computer when you run video in PalTalk.
Slow Video Preview when selected slows your "self view" down. You may want to deselect it when making camera adjustments. Your self view will speed up to real time and allow you to adjust you focus and brightness, etc. Normally Slow Video Preview should be selected during video transfers.
PalTalk acts as a web cam server. Therefore your camera only sends a frame when the person you are doing video with requests it. You will see your self view update on the chat window only when a picture is being refreshed from the other end. This is done to save your system resources.
Slower Frame Rate slows your capture settings down to save your system resources. If you find it hard to type, move your mouse, or experience a general slowdown of your computer when doing video, select this feature!
PalTalk video support
PalTalk will work just fine "right out of the box" with almost any capture card or camera. USB cams are becoming very popular due to low cost, high quality picture, and ease of installation. You can also use your capture card and any video camera.You MUST be sure that you have properly installed your video device under Windows. Your capture card or cam must work with the software that came with it. If all is well you will be able to control your camera and settings easily from PalTalk. If you are having problems you may need to re-install your video drivers and software to resolve it.
We have provided a list of popular camera manufacturers for your convenience.
( The order of appearance in no way reflects a rating or endorsement.)
Video setup frequently asked questions:1. I have an IBM camera. Why does Paltalk blow up every time I send or receive video?
2. I can see other people on video, but they can't see me? What's wrong?
7. My picture looks all fuzzy according to everyone I send my video to. What's wrong?
9. Paltalk is blowing up or disappearing when I run video. What can I do to fix it?
1. I have an IBM camera. Why does Paltalk blow up every time I send or receive video?
This is due to an improper video compression setting. Here's how to fix it:
a. On the video window, press the OPTIONS menu, then select VIDEO SETUP.
b. Click on the FORMAT button which appears on the left side of the dialog box which comes up.
c. Look for a dropdown box which says something to the effect of: 'Pixel Depth (bits) and Compression
d. Drop down the list and and pick any of the items which look like: 8;RGB, 16;RGB, 24; RGB... in general, pick any of the RGB settings.
e. Apply the change and return to start a video session with your pal. All should be well now.
2. I can see other people on video, but they can't see me? What's wrong?
There are a few reasons which this may be. Here are a few:
a. You are on a home network or a LAN network inside a corporation. Your IP address is therefore not visible to the outside world. You will need to talk to your network administrator to send all incoming traffic on TCP port 8080 from the LAN server to the machine currently running paltalk. Then your picture will be visible by the other party.
b. Your version of Winsock may be old or not compatible with some of the networking calls which Paltalk makes. We require at least 1.1 of the Winsock libraries and preferably 2.0 or better of Winsock. Check the winsock DLLs on your hard drive to find out which version of Winsock you own currently. To find your version of winsock, do a file search for 'wsock32.lib', right click, and view the properties of the file.
c. You are running a firewall, such as Blackice, on your system. This will prevent your pals from seeing port 8080 of your machine EVEN IF you are directly connected to the internet. Bottom line is that you will have to open up port 8080 for incoming TCP traffic via your firewall. Hopefully your firewall allows wild card port selection for incoming traffic. Check here for more information on using PalTalk with firewalls. Contact us at support@paltalk.com if the firewall documentation is not clear on this point.
3. I can be seen by other people with Paltalk video and I can *usually* see other people.
However, there's one person who I can never see. What's wrong?See the answer to point 2 above. Send that text to the person who you cannot see. The most likely cause is that they have something on their system which is preventing you from seeing port 8080 on their machine.
4. I am experiencing a problem getting Paltalk to start. It complains about
a library not being present? wininet.dll? What is that??Wininet.dll is a library usually installed when Internet Explorer is placed on a computer system. In particular, it should be Internet Explorer 4.x and above. As such, you will not be able to use Paltalk Video or the Paltalk video version if you do not have Internet Explorer at all. We provide a separate download which has no video support, but just the text, file transfer and text support of previous versions with the new look and feel. Please look for it on http://www.paltalk.com. It will be coming in the first week of April for general download for those who do not have or want Internet Explorer support...
NOTE: Installing Internet Explorer does NOT mean that you have to ever use it for browsing! You can still make Netscape your default application for browsing. However, Internet Explorer is at the heart of many popular programs which require web support, so it's never a bad thing to install it anyway.
5. When I try to load Paltalk, I am unable to do so because it is looking for
a library called avicap32.dll? What should I do?This means that you will be unable to use the video version of PalTalk. This is a crucial library required for video capture from your camera. It is unlikely you can use a camera with your computer at all if you don't have this DLL. We recommend you move to a later version of the 32-bit OS's such as win98 and, at least, acquire a copy of avicap32.dll from out on the Microsoft site.
6. I am finding it difficult to type sometimes when video is running. My whole
computer seems to get slow at times during video. What can I do?This is the video capture mechanism taking too much of your CPU cycles. There is a setting which can fix this for you during times like these:
a. Go to OPTIONS in the menu on the video window.
b. Pick VIDEO SETUP.
c. Check the option called: SLOW VIDEO PREVIEW. Also select SLOWER FRAME RATE.
What this will do is slow down the video capture to a very slow rate so that you can devote more of your machine's horsepower to processing other events. Some machines experience more problems than others with this. Your experience is entirely dependent upon the hardware you are using and the nature of the camera and its drivers.
7. My picture looks all fuzzy according to everyone I send my video to.
What's wrong?This can be easily fixed. Here's how:
a. Go to "Options" in the menu on the video window.
b. Pick "Video Setup".
c. You will see a slider with the label: Image Quality. Move the thumb closer to '100'. This will increase the resolution and you will look better to the other person.
NOTE: It is also possible that your camera needs to be "focused" better. Many of these cameras have a focus adjustment which you can move to sharpen the image. Try that as well for sharper images.
NOTE: Increasing the image quality will make your images download slower for the other person! You will sacrifice speed for quality.
8. I'm being prompted for a driver selection the first time I try Paltalk Video.
Which one should I pick?You should always pick the digital camera on the USB port. In general, do not pick your video capture cards.
9. Paltalk is blowing up or disappearing when I run video. What can I do to fix it?
This is probably due to one of several things, but the most likely causes are as follows:
a. Update your drivers for the camera. The new drivers may support our style of video capture better.
b. Check the SLOWER FRAME RATE in the video setup area. This will stop overruns and excessive load on your video capture device.
c. Be sure that you are set to a RGB color mode in the video format area of PalTalk video setup.
d. Consider getting a different camera. See our list of tested and approved camera brands on our website.
10. The audio is suffering on version 2.1! Especially during a video session.
What can be done about that?This is a bug in the initial release of the 2.1 beta product. Your audio should be equal to 1.7.003, the previous release, or very comparable as long as you do not use hands-free or use video at the same time. So here are the recommended things which can improve your audio on the 2.1 release:
a. Switch OFF hands-free mode if you are not being heard well by the other party! The only people who should use hands-free are the people who have good physical separation of speakers from the microphone, or who use a handset/headset. hands-free can really degrade the sound quality if not used properly.
b. Wait for the production release! It fixes the audio quality problems during video sessions so that the sound quality is at least as good as it was before using video.
c. In the meantime, if you want to improve audio being sent to your pal, try the following procedure to fix the early 2.1 beta we put out:
1. Go to "Options" -> "Video Setup" -> Check to On the Option called "Slower Video Preview".
This will cause less CPU usage and will make your audio sound cleaner to the other person.
2. If the other person's audio sounds bad while in video sessions, tell them to do the same thing.