Webcam

[Kelvin742]

Do I need a microphone with a webcam to record videos and have sound, or do I need just a webcam?

[Jale]

The question is, what do you want to record? A game? Yourself?

[Kelvin742]

I want to record myself.

[Jale]

You don't necessarily need a webcam to record yourself, but it's the cheapest way. Many digicams and other devices allow video recording with or without sound.

Some webcams have in-built microphone, but if yours doesn't have one, you can use a regular PC microphone.

To record yourself, use the video capture feature of VirtualDub or any other progam you like (even the one bundled with your webcam if there's one), but I suggest you to use VirtualDub because of it's ease of use. Select your webcam as the capture device and record yourself.

And finally, you need to compress your video for web publication. The most recommended formats are .AVI (DivX/XviD), .MPG, .WMV and .MOV.

An easier format is the .WMV one, since you can do it with Windows Movie Maker (it comes with Windows XP).

[Zach]

Unless your camera has a power cord, or exceptional battery life I would not suggest using a regular digicam for that purpose.. Unless you are interested in extremely short clips and not conferencing, etc.

My camera EATS batteries like the fucking plague.