Webcam Support

Portsdown software version 201803060 introduces proper support for some Logitech Webcams. The only versions tested so far are the Logitech C170 (a very old basic 640x480 device) and the Logitech C920 (full HD with internal H264 encoding).

Normal Webcam Modes

In the normal webcam modes, the webcam acts just the same as any video source and can be encoded in MPEG-2 (with audio) or H264 (without audio).

The normal Webcam modes have been tested with The Logitech C170 and the Logitech C920. They should work with the Logitech C270 and the Logitech C525. If you have another Logitech webcam that you would like included please report it on the BATC Forum and we will try to modify the software for compatibility.

Selecting Webcam as the source from the source menu will take the video input from the Webcam and output it at close to the selected resolution. Many Webcams are limited to set resolutions and you may find that the image size produced in 4:3 mode is 640x480 rather than 720x576. The mono audio from older webcams is reproduced as a single channel and the stereo audio from the C920 is reproduced as stereo (in MPEG-2 modes).

C920 H264 Webcam Mode

The Logitech C920 can output H264 encoded video with audio at a fixed bit rate. The Portsdown software has been modified to accept this stream and transmit it. Just select C920 as the video source, H264 encoding and then select the resolution that you want. As the stream is at a fixed bit rate of 3.4 MBit/s (for all resolutions), the Portsdown needs to be set up to transmit at 2MS, 7/8 FEC. TRANSMISSIONS AT OTHER SRs and FECs ARE UNLIKELY TO WORK.