Video / Display

[R_Rodgers]

So, I had a Sony VAIO and something happened to it, and henceforth it became unusable.

Therefore I had to buy a new computer, and chose this Satellite A305-S6916 "Special Edition" (whatever that means). This computer was about $600 less expensive than the one I'd bought about 1 1/2 years before, but the specs are much much better. The keyboard on the other laptop was pretty great, but that's not so significant. In general, a very good computer thus far.

But one thing that bugs me is... why is the camera on this laptop so awful? It's grainy, you can't increase it beyond 30 fps, you can increase the picture size from it's default 320x240 to 640x480, but that's completely pointless because the picture gets bigger, indeed, but it's just a much blurrier version of what you were looking at before. 640x480 isn't even big, so there's technically no hope if you wanted to have a fullscreen video call with someone. The color adjustments aren't very good. It's not like I use it constantly, but it still bothers me. The only contrasting upside is that while the camera on my other computer looked really great, for some reason when I made video recordings the video sound would speed up after a short period and then stop prematurely. I haven't seen whether it does that on this computer, but I'm going to go with the benefit of the doubt and say it probably doesn't.

So anyway, what's the deal? Why is the camera so subpar?

[Techman]

Cameras need light, the more light the better the image.  So try turning on more lights.  Also, have you tried making any adjustments in the camera software for color, contrast, turning on nightmode, etc?  Did night mode help?

And most webcams only do 640x480 or at most 800x600.  And 30fps is the same frame rate as your TV...  which is standard.

[Techman]

Also, make sure you have removed the protective plastic that might be over the webcam.

[R_Rodgers]

Because of the portability of the laptop, I've taken it to different places outside of my (dim) apartment. The lighting is indeed better, but that's not really the main issue since I used the old laptop camera in the same room. The modes are ok, but don't really help my main complaint.

I guess it was stupid of me to complain about the frame rate--I just figured that contributed to the fuzziness. But I wasn't really complaining as much about the fact that it only goes to 640x480--in fact I'm not really sure what my other camera went up to at best. The complaint was really more that at 640x480 it's pretty grainy, so it wouldn't look very good at full screen. Mostly, I just wish the image were a little crisper.

Anyway, I've tried different settings. I'm not so much looking for advice, I suppose, but I would like to suggest that maybe Toshiba work on incorporating slightly better cameras in the future. Indeed, this is only the second laptop I've personally owned so far, so maybe the last one I had just had an unusually good camera.

Otherwise, like I said, it's been a very nice computer.

[R_Rodgers]

I guess it was stupid of me to complain about the frame rate--I just figured that contributed to the fuzziness. But I wasn't really complaining as much about the fact that it only goes to 640x480--in fact I'm not really sure what my other camera went up to at best. The complaint was really more that at 640x480 it's pretty grainy, so it wouldn't look very good at full screen. Mostly, I just wish the image were a little crisper.

Anyway, I've tried different settings. I'm not so much looking for advice, I suppose, but I would like to suggest that maybe Toshiba work on incorporating slightly better cameras in the future. Indeed, this is only the second laptop I've personally owned so far, so maybe the last one I had just had an unusually good camera.

Otherwise, like I said, it's been a very nice computer.