A lot of people already have iPhone headsets or AirPods (Pro).
Fair. The article assumes people are speaking and listening by voice, not by hand — since this article has run in an issue, I don’t think the TidBITS policy is to correct or expand it unless it’s a factual error, but I will keep this in mind for future writing.
You don’t have to correct but can add info that for ASL users it would need more space though.
Who said it has to cost a lot? Just about anything is better than what is built-in to a laptop. Even a pair of Apple EarPods will sound better, and a Mac’s headphone jack is wired to support its microphone element. You might even have a few of them lying around, because they used to be bundled with every iPhone and iPod sold.
If you’ve got a gamer living in the house, then you probably have a few USB headsets lying around as well.
Ditto for the camera. You can get a 1080p USB web camera for $50. Hardly a professional-only device.
Yes, very much of an over-generalization to say ”NEVER” about this, or most other user preferential behavior. (Like force quitting iOS apps.)
I don’t see where I mentioned price, David. I was just observing that what came with their computer/tablet/phone is probably satisfactory for the vast majority of consumers.
It has occurred to me reading through the article and now the comments that just using a headset or maybe even just a directional mic should be enough to cancel feedback and echo. Does anyone have knowledge of using this technique where it helped? Or didn’t? This in my mind should cause a break in the feedback/echo loop.
To me, people on speaker phones, whether a phone in that mode or hardware like this, always sound worse. They also tend to talk too loud, not always with more decibels but with a shouty tone. But the microphone in hardware like that is better than what’s in a computer.
In Zoom, if you have better hardware, you might try enabling Turn on Original Sound; if you’re wearing headphones, you shouldn’t need its echo cancellation and if you have a better microphone, Zoom’s software enhancements may make the end result sound worse.
Me too. It is 640x480 which is fine, viewers won’t benefit from seeing me in more pixels. I think about when TV transitioned from SD to HD and on-air talent had to change their makeup regimes because viewers could see much finer details. I’m using an empty drive enclosure to convert the iSight’s Firewire 400 to 800 then a FW800 to TB2 adapter to a TB2 dock; the iSight’s cable is detachable at both ends so I could replace it with a FW400 to FW800 cable, removing the need for the drive enclosure.
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It somewhat depends on what they’ll be used for but in general, I’d say start with a cheaper, simpler USB document camera, one that’s fairly portable. If it’s to be used to show printed material or live writing/editing (roughly equivalent to using an overhead projector back in the day), you don’t need a higher-end camera or optical zooming. The Lumens DC 125 Ladibug has been around for quite a while and is fairly popular, you might find something even cheaper to be adequate and more portable.
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That’s correct—we never change an article in a substantive way after it has run in the issue.
However, we consider the comment stream to be part of an article, so thanks for raising this as an issue, @ecantrell.
As long as we’re on the topic, I think it would be fair to suggest that anyone using signing should avoid virtual backgrounds, since they tend to do poorly with showing hands and fingers reliably, especially when in motion.
That is such a lovely cable hack!
Lovely only because it “works”. – esthetic disaster and prone to disconnection are more appropriate adjectives. But, desperation drives us to just “make it work.”
Anyone want a bunch of FW400 drive enclosures?
It may be worth taking it a step further in certain cases. When calls involve parties from several companies or departments it may be beneficial to also add company or department name in brackets. E.g. John Doe (ABC ltd.).
True Visage just shows what the iPhone camera sees with minimal UI, right (can it be set to have no visible UI)? How do you get that view of the iPhone’s screen into the Zoom meeting? Does it work in both portrait and landscape?
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Yes, “lovely” is not a term I would use but it doesn’t contribute that much to the cable mess because the drive enclosure is inside my desk; the FW400 cable runs in a hole in the top of the desk and the FW800 runs out. Disconnections aren’t much of a concern because it’s only for the camera, not file storage. I’m not going to be messing around with anything that could accidentally disconnect the cables while I’m in a meeting.
I just looked and saw I could get a 6-pin to 9-pin cable or an adapter for about $7 which would remove the need for the drive enclosure to perform that conversion (the iSight’s FireWire cable is detachable so the cable is an option). Part of me doesn’t want to spend even that amount in favor of getting a better webcam instead; while not as elegant as the iSight’s, plenty of webcams have a privacy shutter (including the Logitech C920s Glenn mentioned) or have a 3rd party one available.
That’s true, we would need a green screen in the background instead of without.