From...

by Cameron Crouch

August 26, 1999
Web posted at: 12:14 p.m. EDT (1614 GMT)

INTERACTIVE Will film eventually be phased out by digital cameras? Yes No View Results

(IDG) -- PC cameras are down in price and up in quality, but their bandwidth demands still hold back some would-be digital photographers.

Still, some camera makers are planning for the high bandwidth of the future while providing useful features for today. On Monday, Intel announced its Intel PC Camera Pro Pack. Available in September priced at $129 -- or $99 after a manufacturer's rebate -- the PC Camera Pro Pack enhances the currently-available PC Camera Pack ($79 without rebate) with new features, such as a video-capture plug to integrate VCR tapes.

Like the PC Camera Pack, the Pro Pack comes in a Universal Serial Bus version and includes a video graphics array PC Camera, plus Intel software for video e-mail postcards and video phone calls. Though these features may live in the realm of the future for most people's bandwidth capabilities, the new PC Camera Pro Pack offers several bandwidth-independent features.

For example, the Pro Pack camera's built-in video capture plug lets you import video from a camcorder or VCR, and then edit it with the PC Camera Pack's software tools. You can add titles and transitions using the Intel Movie Builder software. Another new feature, the Intel Auto Snapshot, lets you set the camera to capture images unattended. You can set it to take pictures when it detects motion, or snap the digital shutter at preset intervals, says Jeff Abbate, product line manager for PC camera products at Intel's Connected Products Division.

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"You can either store [the snapshots] with date and time in an album on your PC or set it up to automatically e-mail you or to update your Web page," Abbate says.

Intel's PC Camera Packs require a Pentium processor with MMX technology at 166 MHz or greater, Windows 98 or Windows 95 OSR2 and 32MB of memory.

The whole concept of video sharing with friends and business still has the bandwidth issue, says Ron Glaz, senior analyst at International Data Corporation. While he finds video conferencing and video mail to be great features, Glaz doesn't "see the bandwidth there for consumer market," or the corporate world, where mass adoption could even "bring a network to a halt."

Putting aside the bandwidth requirements of video mail and video phone, Glaz sees interactive games and Web site posting as applications that can "take advantage of these cameras." Intel's PC Camera Pro Pack includes PC Camera games that Abbate calls "the solitaire for cameras." These show a contestant interacting with virtual objects, such as basketballs or bubbles. Also included is Intel Home Page Builder software, which can be used to create Web pages with your video.

Intel points to the growth in Digital Subscriber Lines and cable modems and the near-universal adoption of 56K modems as support for the growth in PC cameras. While Glaz applauds video communications technology like the PC camera, he sees a lack of an available infrastructure to enjoy them.

"DSL and cable modems are a move in the right direction... but you still run into issues," Glaz says. "A video download that takes ten minutes now may take two minutes then, but it's still not the solution." But for $99, the Intel PC Camera Pro Pack might be worth it just for the games and Web site posting tools.