TOPIC: We Need Your Tech Help!

Geeks Assemble!

Regarding Virtual True Dungeon...we use i-Phones and the Zoom mobile app for the Golem cams. This gives us the ability to have the players hear an NPC -- and for the Golem to hear the party's instructions. This all works great, but we wish we could get better resolution for the Golem cam. The i-Phones are pushing 1080p, but the Zoom app downgrades it.

We could use i-Pads for the Golem cam since the Zoom app does NOT downgrade the signal. However, the i-Pad's auto-focus feature cannot be turned off so the camera is constantly going in and out of focus in dark conditions.

We could try an android based tablet, but the Zoom app is very buggy and it crashes often.

So...we are looking for suggestions and links to tech we could use to somehow get the i-Pads to another attached camera that will not auto-focus - OR - we need to explore the idea of doing some kind of wireless (two-say) webcam that is linked to a cheaper PC less than 50 ft away.

Any tech suggestions would be appreciated. I wish the Zoom app did not downgrade the i-Phone video, but it appears this won't be changed any time soon.

Just to check, what Android tablet and what version of Android was it running?

I ask, because I've experienced no Zoom crashes on my Pixel 5 with Android 11. But I admit I don't run it 8 hours without a break either.

You may already have this covered (but I wasn't seeing much online regarding this issue), are you using both the Pro version of Zoom with HD enabled and ensuring you meet the bandwidth requirements to allow the iPhones to use their full 1080 resolution? There is an article over on support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002595343 that talks through the necessary settings.

www.cnet.com/how-to/use-your-gopro-as-an-upgraded-web-cam-since-zoom-meetings-are-here-to-stay/

Has this been tried? Also for price, you could buy a gopro knockoff...(just search amazon for cameras like GoPro because they didn't patent anything).

Jamie Campbell wrote: www.cnet.com/how-to/use-your-gopro-as-an-upgraded-web-cam-since-zoom-meetings-are-here-to-stay/

Has this been tried? Also for price, you could buy a gopro knockoff...(just search amazon for cameras like GoPro because they didn't patent anything).

Do GoPro's have a speaker? Whatever we use has to have a speaker so the Golem can hear the party.

Maybe one of the Surface tablets would work since they run Windows?

IPad Air doesn’t have the multi camera features of the pro, and has 4K. Have you tried that with zoom?

macxdmg wrote: IPad Air doesn’t have the multi camera features of the pro, and has 4K. Have you tried that with zoom?

Yep...it still has the auto-focus issue.

Something else to maybe consider... You don't necessarily need to have the golem camera device connected to Zoom, you just need to make sure the golem audio/video feed gets to the DM, and the player audio gets to the golem. It might be feasible to set up the golem camera as an IP security camera, feed that into the DMs OBS, and then pipe the audio from the DMs side back to the golem. Slightly more convoluted than just having the golem join Zoom, but you also would avoid take out the issue of Zoom compressing the golem's video on the way to the DM.

I think Fiddy has the right idea there.

The Golem just needs audio for Zoom. It looks like there's GoPros with wifi that can stream to a PC via it.

Then you can stream from the PC via OBS or Zoom, if the DM is local, but should reduce the Zoom app interference.

You probably know someone local with a Gopro to try out the setup and see how it works.

www.wikihow.com/Stream-Your-GoPro-to-Your-PC-Using-VLC-Media-Player

Going back to the iPhone, is it the zoom app that is compressing the video or is it the camera app? do you have your camera setup as record video 4k?

I sometimes miss things ... can you reach out to ZOOM to be a special use case?

support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002595343-Video-enhancements#h_01EEEKV59SWW2N4CNW2CM7YBX8

is this something that mlutz could help with.