Good evening gents. I have a somewhat unusual situation with my webcam setup. I am using an old Sony 8mm analogue camcorder connected to the pc through a Dazzle video creator plus HD. Boy is that a mouth full. It actually works okay. Sor of. It is one of these usb devises that has to have the included software installed to use it. The software is Pinnacle Studio 14. The install went okay, it recognised the Dazzle, and I can see images from the cam in the Studio software just fine. This device is actually for digitising analogue a/v sources like your old VHS or 8mm camcorder tapes. I have not used it for that purpose yet but I think it will be okay. However, there is a "but" situation here. I will detail how the cam is attached to the Dazzle and how it behaves when you use something like Windows Live Messenger.

The cam has one yellow video out RCA jack and one black mono audio out RCA jack. These are attached to the video and audio "in" RCA jacks in the Dazzle device. The Dazzle then goes to the pc via usb connections. Everything so far is pretty pedestrian and straightforward. If you fire up the Pinnacle Studio and select the Dazzle for input it shows up straight away. As mentioned I have not done video transfers yet so cannot speak to that function. What I am doing is using this as a webcam setup. To be honest, these camcorders blow the doors of any webcam I have ever seen. Even the $100 types. It has autofocus, zoom, etc. Optics are CLEAR and crisp. This was a twofold device for me. Webcam/video capture. Now the issues.

When I launch Messenger and go to tools>audio/video setup, the Dazzle device is recognised and I can select it. I can see the image being captured by the Dazzle just fine. HOWEVER, I cannot get a clear image in Messenger once I try to start a video call. It has these angled, broken brown and white lines across the screen. This problem had no solution but I did find a patch. It is called Super Webcam. I don't know exactly what it does and I was hesitant to download an app that I found mentioned on a website somewhere. But it seems to work. It actually shows up in Messenger's menu as a device to select for a webcam. When I select it AND start Pinnacle Studio and just minimise them, then I get a clear image to Messenger. Strange I thought, since I did nothing to any settings or otpions in ANY of the programs with the exception of selecting Super Webcam in Messenger. What gives with the garbled picture?

Second issue. Sound. Even though I have the audio out connected to the Dazzle, I cannot get sound through the Dazzle to the pc. Or at least I assume so since the only way the wife can hear me in Messenger video call is through a mic connected directly to the mic jack on the pc. So back to a/v settings in Messenger and sure enough, there is a "custom" selection in the setup. I used that option which enables a drop down menu and there was the Dazzle so I selected it. No dice. I was hoping to use the mic in the camcorder since it is very sensitive and is HEAPS better than the junky mic I have for the pc. Does anyone know if the cam only outputs recorded video through RCA or will it pass the audio from the mic in camera mode? If it does and I cannot get the Dazzle to pass it to the pc, could I use an RCA to 3.5mm cable and just input it directly to the mic "in" jack on the pc or will it handle the low power of the line level output of the RCA jack?

Sorry for the oddball questions but I figure someone here will either know or can point me somewhere for information. I really don't like having to use two software apps to get an image to Messenger. It just seems clunky to do so. And the audio issue is a bad joke. Thanks chaps.

Regards, Todd