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A comment on The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by sneak on Monday August 30, 2021 @05:26AM (#28354023)
Unless I’m presenting or speaking for more than an interjection, I generally turn off the sending of video. There’s little value (IMO) in 320p/720p low bitrate “facial expressions” which are just as often compression artifacts as they are information about emotional state.

Maybe once video calls are routinely 1080p/2160p it will matter more, but 320p (the default for most systems today) at a low bitrate isn’t really doing much. You might as well shut it off unless you’re leading the meeting at that moment.

Contrariwise, when you are speaking/presenting, use an external camera (the one in your laptop/ipad/phone is optimized for thickness and thus the lens sucks) and a good soft key light.

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Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by thecoppinger on Monday August 30, 2021 @07:18AM (#28354492)
> Contrariwise, when you are speaking/presenting, use an external camera (the one in your laptop/ipad/phone is optimized for thickness and thus the lens sucks) and a good soft key light.

I recently did a fair bit of research into this exact setup and landed on a Logitech StreamCam and a Elgato Key Light.

Well worth the money if you’re interested in achieving a high consumer grade level of quality, just be sure to purchase an adapter for the StreamCam as it is (infuriatingly) wired with a USB C connector.

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Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by sneak on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @01:36AM (#28364302)
I find it infuriating when things still use old, non-reversible USB. Everything I plug my Logitech 4K camera into has USB-C ports.
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Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by thecoppinger on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @06:05PM (#28386102)
That’s fair, but for something like a 1080 webcam used by amateur streamers, USBC seems like a poor choice. Perhaps there’s a bandwidth issue I’m missing.
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Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by fistynuts on Monday August 30, 2021 @11:29AM (#28356597)
720 is the default for Google Meet and gives a decent quality picture imo. There's definitely value in seeing others at that resolution - the restricting factor is people's unreliable or narrow bandwidth internet connection.
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Re:The Fatiguing Effects of Camera Use in Virtual Meetings [... by sneak on Tuesday August 31, 2021 @01:36AM (#28364310)
AIUI, Meet defaults to 320 unless you bump the quality up manually to 720.

There is no option for 1080, much less 2160.

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