How to video chat with your DV camcorder Video

How to video chat with your DV camcorder Video Transcript

>> If you already own a DV camcorder and a PC with a Fire Wire port, you probably don't need to purchase any additional hardware to conduct video chats with friends and family members who have webcams installed on their computers. Today we'll show you an easy way to have one on one video chats. We'll be using the free Windows Messenger application as our video chat platform, but there are other applications you can use to meet and video chat with strangers or video chat with more than one person at a time. For instance, Mac owners can use Apple's iChat, although that application doesn't enable communicating with Windows users. In this example, we're using a two way headset for voice communications during our video chat. But you can alternatively use multimedia speakers and a microphone. Connect the two way headset's microphone plug to your PC's microphone jack and connect the headset's headphone plug to your PC's headphone jack. Now it's time to connect your DV camcorder to the PC. To enable doing so, you may need to purchase a four pin to six pin Fire Wire, IEEE1394 cable, which is sometimes referred to as a DV cable. Connect one end of the cable to your PC and connect the other end to your DV camcorder. Next, connect the AC adapter and switch your camcorder into camera mode or into the network mode if it has one. Next you may need to switch your camcorder to card. Now you're ready to run Windows Messenger. In Windows XP, click on the Windows Messenger icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen to launch the application. If you're not already a Windows Messenger user, you may instead need to click start, select all programs and then click Windows Messenger to launch the application. Next, select click here to sign in. If you don't have a username and password, click get a dot net passport and then follow the steps in the dot net passport wizard. Adjust your camcorder so it's trained on the location where you'll see seated during your video chats. You can use a tripod or perch it somewhere on your computer desk. In Windows Messenger, click tools, select audio tuning wizard and click next. Select your DV camcorder from the drop down list and click next. Referring to the wizard's video preview screen, fine tune the positioning of your camcorder and use the camcorder's zoom controls to frame yourself as desired. Now click next. Click next again and select your computer's sound card in the microphone and speakers pull down boxes. If you're using headphones or a two way head set, place a check next to I am using headphones. Click next and then click the click to test speakers button. Adjust the speaker volume slider until the test sound is at a comfortable level and then click next. Adjust the microphone volume slider to where the indicator goes into the yellow area while you speak and then click next. Follow the prompts to close the wizard. Congratulations. It's time to start a video chat. You can right click on any contact in your Windows Messenger buddy list and select start a video conversation to invite them to have a video chat with you. If your friend isn't in your contact list, click add a contact in Windows Messenger. Follow the prompts and then invite them to start a video conversation. Once your friend had accepted, the video conversation will automatically begin.