13.3. Webcams And Video Conferencing

13.3.1. Getting Started

You heard it everywhere, but you don't have a clue how to do it with your new Mandrake Linux system: video-conferencing. Well, here we will show you how to do video (and audio) conferencing using your webcam and GnomeMeeting. We will speak about USB webcams since the parallel models are really old and do not have the image quality of USB devices.

Tip

Before buying your new webcam, it would be a good idea to see if it's supported under GNU/Linux. Refer to Linux USB and to the excellent Linux USB device overview web sites for more information on USB webcams.

Note

You need the hotplug package installed on your system in order to enjoy automatic USB devices detection under Mandrake Linux.

The hardware setup is very easy. Just plug your webcam in an empty USB slot and it will be automatically recognized and configured. You should see GnomeMeeting's icon appear on your desktop with a legend like GnomeMeeting /dev/v4l/video0 underneath it; if not, you can run it from Networking+Other->Gnomemeeting. Also, remember to connect your microphone and speakers in their proper place in your sound card.

Run GnomeMeeting and select the Edit->Preferences menu (or press Ctrl+S) to open the preferences dialog. Under the General category you can set things like your name and e-mail address, GnomeMeeting's GUI preferences, directory settings and audio and video devices settings. Under the Codec category you can enable/disable/prioritize the different audio codecs available and change the audio and video codec settings. Make sure you check the Video Transmission option in Video Codecs Settings to be able to transmit video to the remote party.

If you want to use GnomeMeeting to do video conferencing with NetMeetingTM users, you need to set up the ILS options in Directory Settings; make sure you check the Register option.

Figure 13-19. GnomeMeeting's Main Window

On the leftside of the main window you have the toolbar with six buttons. The first three are:

Table 13-1. GnomeMeeting's toolbar buttons

Opens/closes the ILS window to find and connect with friends registered on ILS.
Opens/closes the text chat window on the rightside of GnomeMeeting's main window so you can chat with the remote party. Just type the text you want in the Send Message field and press Enter.
Opens/closes the control panel at the bottom of GnomeMeeting's main window where you can see the history log and also adjust the audio and video controls.

In the control panel's audio tab you can use the sliders to set the speaker and microphone levels as shown in figure 13-20.

Figure 13-20. Setting Audio Levels For GnomeMeeting

In the control panel's video tab you can adjust the following video parameters (from top to bottom):

Figure 13-21. Setting Video Levels For GnomeMeeting

Example video settings are shown in figure 13-21. Please note that usually, these settings are automatically configured when GnomeMeeting starts up according to light conditions of the environment and your webcam.

13.3.2. Connecting With Another User

Figure 13-22. Video Conferencing With a Remote Party

To connect directly (end-to-end, no servers) to another user, you need to input the remote user's host or IP address in the pull-down list at the top of GnomeMeeting's main window and click on the button on its right (the one with the plug). If the connection can be established and the remote party accepts your call, right-click on the video window and select Remote to see only the remote party or Both, that is yourself and the remote party, as shown in figure 13-22.

13.3.3. Connecting With ILS (NetMeetingTM) Users

You can use GnomeMeeting to connect to an ILS server and do video conferencing with people using NetMeetingTM or other compatible software. Click on the directory toolbar buton (the little book, remember?) to get the ILS directory window. Then, click on Refresh to update the list of available users connected to that ILS server, as shown in figure 13-23.

Figure 13-23. Finding People on ILS Servers

Now, right-click on the person you want to call and select Call This User to initiate the call. You can change ILS servers in the ILS directory pull-down list. If you connect to more than one ILS server, multiple tabs will appear in the ILS window. Just click on them to change servers.


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