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> while a super-HD 1080p one uses 3.8 Mbps up. (And virtually nobody videoconferences from home in 1080p anyways, who wants coworkers to see your skin blemishes

> while a super-HD 1080p one uses 3.8 Mbps up. (And virtually nobody videoconferences from home in 1080p anyways, who wants coworkers to see your skin blemishes in maximum detail?!) I posit the real reason is because no-one makes a decent webcam for desktops and laptops, not even Apple.

crazygringo 5y ago
Huh? The Logitech 920 has been around for years, and produces a crystal-clear 1080p image in regular office lighting conditions. Apple uses a lower-quality webcam in laptops because of the thinness of the lid.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  I have a 920. It’s awful when compared to my 12 year-old DSLR’s video-out or my 6 (7?) year-old iPhone 6. Logitech needs to stop using cheap plastic lenses and excessively compressing video. USB3 has sufficient bandwidth.
  - crazygringo 5y ago
    That's not my experience at all. Crystal-clear and virtually zero sensor noise in regular light conditions. Maybe you got a bad one...? Also it's just compressing to MJPEG, which is far higher quality than any subsequent h.264 compression your CPU would ever do. The Logitech Brio transmits raw data over USB3 like you're asking, but the resulting image quality is identical -- I've tested them side-by-side. (Ancient 920's performed on-camera h.264 compression which was later removed -- if you have one of those, be sure to select the MJPEG stream instead.)
  - reassembled 5y ago
    I used to work on a commercial live streaming software app and we routinely had C920s fail from the actual USB wire shorting out. The Brio is overall a much better camera, particularly with the detachable USB-C cable.
- sneak 5y ago
  The hardware is there. Google Meet maxes out at 720p.
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/ https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/ is a good article analysing webcams and phone cameras in various ways. The C920 looks pretty bad there. (HN discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25869460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25869460.)
  - crazygringo 5y ago
    That is a great article, but literally everything he complains about the C920 is with regards to the "auto" settings. You absolutely do need to manually set and lock exposure, focus, white balance, and ensure you have proper lighting. Once you do that, it works like a charm. And this advice is what pretty much every streaming tutorial on YouTube advises. The softness issue is particular to the Logitech Brio, which he notes, and which matches my own testing. The C920 doesn't suffer from that. Yes I wish the software for the camera settings was more intelligent. But ultimately that's a software issue that's fixable with manual settings. The hardware is solid, provided normal lighting conditions.
    - IshKebab 5y ago
      "Once you work around the problems they aren't problems at all!"
topranks 5y ago
Nah. Mostly that comes down to thinks like optics, large sensors etc. The bandwidth needed for a high quality 1080p stream isn’t gonna be much more than one from a shitty 1080p camera. The better image would benefit from less compression / more bits, but it’s not an orders of magnitude difference.
nicoburns 5y ago
I'd posit it's because most people don't have the upload bandwidth.

crazygringo 5y ago

Huh? The Logitech 920 has been around for years, and produces a crystal-clear 1080p image in regular office lighting conditions. Apple uses a lower-quality webcam in laptops because of the thinness of the lid.

DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
I have a 920. It’s awful when compared to my 12 year-old DSLR’s video-out or my 6 (7?) year-old iPhone 6. Logitech needs to stop using cheap plastic lenses and excessively compressing video. USB3 has sufficient bandwidth.
- crazygringo 5y ago
  That's not my experience at all. Crystal-clear and virtually zero sensor noise in regular light conditions. Maybe you got a bad one...? Also it's just compressing to MJPEG, which is far higher quality than any subsequent h.264 compression your CPU would ever do. The Logitech Brio transmits raw data over USB3 like you're asking, but the resulting image quality is identical -- I've tested them side-by-side. (Ancient 920's performed on-camera h.264 compression which was later removed -- if you have one of those, be sure to select the MJPEG stream instead.)
- reassembled 5y ago
  I used to work on a commercial live streaming software app and we routinely had C920s fail from the actual USB wire shorting out. The Brio is overall a much better camera, particularly with the detachable USB-C cable.
sneak 5y ago
The hardware is there. Google Meet maxes out at 720p.
chrismorgan 5y ago
https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/ https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/ is a good article analysing webcams and phone cameras in various ways. The C920 looks pretty bad there. (HN discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25869460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25869460.)
- crazygringo 5y ago
  That is a great article, but literally everything he complains about the C920 is with regards to the "auto" settings. You absolutely do need to manually set and lock exposure, focus, white balance, and ensure you have proper lighting. Once you do that, it works like a charm. And this advice is what pretty much every streaming tutorial on YouTube advises. The softness issue is particular to the Logitech Brio, which he notes, and which matches my own testing. The C920 doesn't suffer from that. Yes I wish the software for the camera settings was more intelligent. But ultimately that's a software issue that's fixable with manual settings. The hardware is solid, provided normal lighting conditions.
  - IshKebab 5y ago
    "Once you work around the problems they aren't problems at all!"

topranks 5y ago

Nah. Mostly that comes down to thinks like optics, large sensors etc. The bandwidth needed for a high quality 1080p stream isn’t gonna be much more than one from a shitty 1080p camera. The better image would benefit from less compression / more bits, but it’s not an orders of magnitude difference.

nicoburns 5y ago

I'd posit it's because most people don't have the upload bandwidth.