Customer Reviews
S. Barrett said:
I’m a protracted-time fan of HP products so was delighted to receive the Webcam HD-3100 for review. Here’s my tackle it.
The 720P with trueVision is a plug and play device offering clear images even in low light. It has three quick launch buttons (IM, Snapshot and Video) at the right-hand side of the camera and is derived with a pitcher lens and a handy mount. It really works with AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Fill featured software with lighting tricks enables you to choose masque designs, and a 16 x 9 widescreen range instead of the standard 4 x 3 and still-shot resolution of as much as 5.7 megapixels.
The Technical Details:
720P (1280×720) CMOS sensor; Fixed focus- range approximately 12 inches to ten feet; USB 2.0 high-speed certified; Still Picture Resolution: As much as 5.7 Megapixels.
Compatibility: AIM, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger (Note: other reviewers have said this webcam doesn’t work with Skype, but I haven’t verified that.)
Digital Zoom: Settings as much as 5X; Tilt: 60 degrees, as much as 30 degrees down and 30 degrees up; Pan: 360 degrees, as much as 180 degrees left, as much as 180 degrees right.
System Requirements: Intel Pentium 4 with 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon equivalent processor or faster & 1GB RAM, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 with SP2 (32 or 64 bit), 230 MB Free hard disk drive space for software, CD-ROM drive, USB 2.0 port.
Inside the box:
Webcam; CD with driver, software and documentation: ArcSoft Webcam Companion 3, Magic-i Visual Effects 2, ArcSoft ShowBiz; Quick set-up guide; Limited Warranty document.
Setup: A breeze, even without the included Quick Start Guide. Activate the pc, insert the HP HD Webcam CD into the drive, connect the USB cable to a usable USB port to your computer, then let the plug and play guide you thru the super simple setup. My webcam was able to use in lower than five minutes. i’ve Windows Live Messenger and was capable of hook up with my son and my husband (whose computer is upstairs and networked to mine.) Both volume and movie clarity were good.
The only disappointment within the setup is that my Dell 5150 flatscreen monitor has a curved back which makes it impossible to mount the webcam to the monitor. I needed to accept setting it on a shelf. Otherwise, it’s all good and at an inexpensive price.
Mr. Fred said:
I’ll cut right to the chase: this can be a great little HD webcam, which fits rather well under low light conditions, but has a shocking problem with focus.
The cam worked plug-and-play right out of the box on both a Windows XP system and an Ubuntu Linux system. There has been little need to do anything with the supplied software and driver CD, and indeed I never used it (so I’ll not review the bundled apps, that are really not needed). The cam was recognized instantaneously by the Skype client and all other cam-aware apps that I had installed on both XP and Linux. Kudos to HP for his or her adherence to standards and the acute ease of use of the cam.
Picture quality: it’s the correct cam I’ve used up to now under low light conditions, easily beating my “crystal eye” Acer laptop cam which claims to be optimized for low light. However the focusing of the HP unit was really not so good. In comparison to the “crystal eye” the image is poorly focused, somewhat negating the price of getting 720p definition. It’s quite a disappointment. I won’t in any respect say the image quality is bad; as a matter of fact, it’s good, or not less than adequate, however must have been better, certainly better than an affordable built-in laptop cam.
The other issue is mounting and positioning. The cam is small (that’s good), however the mount movement is restricted and has axis dependency. What I mean is that this: in case you move it side to side, this may also move up and down, at the least a bit. And while there’s a separate up and down motion, it’s very limited.
The cam attaches with a enormous, clip-like jaw, with a spring that’s not quite strong enough to carry it in place (if, as an example, clipped to the head of a flat screen monitor as shown inside the skimpy printed instructions). This makes the cam *very* hard to place satisfactorily, orient for an excellent picture, and make stay in place.
Do i like to recommend this cam? i love it well enough and will and may discover ways to work with it, but nevertheless, I got it free on Amazon’s reviewer program. I don’t think i’d exit and purchase it alone, though.
Product Details
- 720P (1280×720) CMOS sensor; Fixed focus- range approximately 12 inches to ten feet; USB 2.0 high-speed certified; Still Picture Resolution: As much as 5.7 Megapixels
- Compatibility: AIM, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messanger
- Digital Zoom: Settings as much as 5X; Tilt: 60 degrees, as much as 30 degrees down and 30 degrees up; Pan: 360 degrees, as much as 180 degrees left, as much as 180 degrees right
- System Requirements: Intel Pentium 4 with 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon equivalent processor or faster & 1GB RAM, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 with SP2 (32 or 64 bit), 230 MB Free hard disk space for software, CD-ROM drive, USB 2.0 port
- What’s within the Box: Webcam; CD with driver, software and documentation: ArcSoft Webcam Companion 3, Magic-i Visual Effects 2, ArcSoft ShowBiz; Quick set-up guide; Limited Warranty document
Do more with a high-definition webcam. The HP Webcam HD-3100 is excellent for video chatting, capturing photos and recording videos. Anticipate TrueVision for improved video quality in low-light conditions and use built-in adaptive lighting to automatically comply with changing light. Plus, view accurate, true-to-life color due to automatic white balance. With this widescreen webcam, it’s also possible to fit multiple people on your picture or video concurrently. Face-tracking helps just remember to stay within the center of each frame.
Related Troubleshoot Cameras Products
HP Webcam HD-3100 – 720P Widescreen Webcam with TrueVision… ($29)
The audio works, but from the day I purchased it (about a month ago) to now, the video doesn’t work.
I have followed every single troubleshooting step recommended by HP and by Skype – no dice. I have discovered from the Skype forums that this is a problem for everyone who owns this particular webcam with the latest version of Skype.
I contacted both HP and Skype, and have had lengthly emails back and forth, all to no avail. The most recent one was from Skype, who now say that they are ‘aware of the problem’ and are ‘working on a solution’. That was a week ago. Still no news.
If you are planning to buy a webcam to use with Skype, I recommend doing what I SHOULD have done first: Check the Skype forums first to find out if there are problems with webcam you are looking at.
HP Webcam HD-3110 – 720P Autofocus Widescreen Webcam with TrueVision… ($32)
The only reason I’m not giving it 5 stars, is because I have not been able to get it to work with a couple of programs, and most especially with Yahoo Instant Messenger. HP seems to be aware of this as it is referenced vaguely on the HP support website, but without a solution that works/makes sense. I’m not sure what the issue is exactly. Fortunately I bought this to work with a specific program with which it works fine (called “ICU2″). Maybe Yahoo doesn’t accommodate higher resolution cameras — I don’t know. Haven’t tried it yet with Skype.
Lenovo Y550P 324156U 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)… ($699)
Pros:
*i7 quad-core laptop for 9.99
*i7 quad-core = very, very fast
*1GB discrete graphics will satisfy every need except only the highest of professional/gaming graphics processing needs.
*looks very nice and seems well-built
*4GB of ram is enough for now and the option to expand to 8GB later is great
*ExpressCard 34, eSATA and SD card slots are most welcome
Cons:
*fan is audible a good bit of the time, and most of the time during even moderate application usage. I was aware of this issue with quad-core laptops prior to purchase so it did not come as a surprise, but at the same time I do think it belongs on the con list
*terrible sound output quality and volume from the built-in speakers
*terrible sound output quality and volume as well as crackling/popping while using external speakers, so terrible that I had to buy a Creative XFI Expresscard Sound Card (which did, incidentally, fix all of the audio issues)
*audio out jack located on the front of the laptop (I know this is all too common on today’s laptops but it is annoying nonetheless; the Creative XFI card also solved this issue)
*occasional high pitch whine (the source of which is still under investigation) which can be quite annoying
*location of the cooling fan inlet vent means that you will not be able to use this on your lap or on top of a bedspread unless you first put a hard flat object under the laptop first; the laptop essentially is designed to only be placed on hard flat surfaces
*no DVI, mini-DVI or mini-DisplayPort ports; HDMI and VGA (VGA?!?!?!?!) are the only video ports
*the built-in trackpad experience is truly atrocious: the trackpad has a raised grid surface (instead of a flat smooth surface like 99% of the laptops made) which makes navigation uncomfortable and imprecise. In addition, the scrolling bar is laughably unusable. It is made for hands with fingers the size of baby’s fingers and using it requires tapping down once first to turn it on; one can not simply move their fingers over it to scroll
*battery life is terrible, but I knew this going in because all quad-core laptops have terrible battery life as a result of their power-hungry processors. You will not get the 4.5 hours of battery life as advertised, trust me. I don’t know how they were able to achieve that number but virtually everything must have been disabled and/or turned all the way down.\
*a moderate amount of bloatware which I am still deleting/tinkering with after a week of ownership
*built-in LCD not particularly stunning but I find nothing objectionable about it either
*would have liked to get Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate considering this is a high-end laptop but I did know prior to purchase of course that I was only getting Windows 7 Home
*hard drive came partitioned into 4 parts which is very, very annoying. In addition a few of them took up massive amounts of hard drive space for no apparent reason. It took me a few days of messing around with various freeware utilities to get all (but the essential) of them deleted. (hint: check out the free “Ultimate Boot CD” it is what finally got rid of the pesky partitions that Windows disk utility wouldn’t let me touch)
In my opinion, this is your basic garden-variety “desktop replacement” laptop. With an external keyboard, mouse and monitor this makes a great desktop that can sometimes be carried out of the home when need be. I find the “laptop only” experience to be sub-par. This is perfectly suitable for someone like me since my laptops have always spent over 95% of their time at home plugged into external I/O devices. If you are someone who is just the opposite, however, I can not recommended this unit because of the issues described above. Overall, I am satisfied with the unit primarily due to the performance specs and the price. There is just no arguing with the value of an i7 laptop with 1GB discrete graphics for 9.99. The length of the con list, however, was sufficient to cause me to drop the rating to 4/5.
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