Testing new headset and cameras

[Birger Wathne]

I got a new headset yesterday. Logitech 960 USB. Destined to be very popular
in corporate environments as it is cheap with good quality. Also quite
compact so it can go in the laptop bag. Perfect for mass deployment. You may
want to get a somewhat more comfortable model for helpdesk operators and such.

I just plugged it in and selected it in the sound preferences. Mic worked,
sound worked... Great experience. Then I disvovered that this headset has
volume control. Volume up/down worked without any problem, but the mute
button doesn't do anything. Must be a simple thing to fix, I thought and
searched google. What I found were very complicated install procedures for
this handset for ubuntu and mandriva, so obviously Fedora comes out of this
with flying colors.

I'll make a bug report for the mute button. What would be the correct component?

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/for_business/products/webcams_headsets/devices/4125&cl=gb,en

We also got some new cameras for testing, so I went off and grabbed one of each.

First off, the Tandberg PrecisionHD. Plugged it in and ran dmesg. Promising.
Fired up cheese, and *WOW*! This is a fantastic camera! Came straight up in
1280x720 with picture quality I have never seen on a web camera. My boss
wants it back for his next LiveMeeting, so I have to unplug it again and go
look for the far cheaper MS camera we buy for mass deployment. His comment
on the Tandberg camera is that it may be too good for 1 on 1 conferencing.
The picture quality is so good you ought to wear makeup... :-D Sadly I
didn't get to test audio on this camera, but if there is interest I can
borrow it again later on.

http://www.tandberg.com/video-conferencing-telepresence-peripherals/hd-usb-camera.jsp

So.. Microsoft LifeCam Cinema, here we go. dmesg is promising for video, not
so promising for audio (alsa traceback in dmesg output). Abrt caught it as a
kernel issue but doesn't want to send it :-(
Started cheese, and camera part works ok. It would have been a very nice
camera if I didn't try the Tandberg first. Same resolution, but the Tandberg
is far more sensitive even in normal indoor light conditions. Colors are
also way better on the Tandberg. Much sharper picture with more details.
Windows users report the same differences, so it's not a driver issue. Quite
the contrary, the drivers on linux really make the Tandberg stand out as it
should.

The Microsoft camera is a good one, and I suppose the sound issues will be
resolved. It's sold quite cheap in 3-packs so I expect this one to also
become quite common in the corporate world. The financial crisis has really
made video conferencing take off.

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalcommunication/productdetails.aspx?pid=008

What's more interesting is that these are as far as I know brand new models,
and they work straight out of the box on f12. Way to go!



-- 
birger