Can you use the HV20 as a webcam? and if so what type of hookup is it? USB firewire, etc?

Thanks.. looking for a high quality webcam for video conferencing.

I use mine all the time for my webcam. You connect it to your computer via FireWire. You can use it in pretty much any chat application or web based flash webcam application. Just make sure you set the HV20 as your video source. I prefer to use a headset so I'll usually set the headset microphone as my audio source and the HV20 as my video source.

I use willing webcam software, it is great. It supports 720x480, so that's the highest res you can go.

When using the HV20, I used 360x240, because the interlacing wasn't as obvious as it was at 720x480.

Eventually I busted out my old JVC GR-DVL9000U. It has true 30p mode and there was zero interlacing. It has developed tons of hot pixels on the CCD though over the years.

We do holiday webcams at our house. The kids (and I) think it's fun. Here's the link:
http://www.sonnet.com/bob/xmas/
Not much to look at right now, but I'll fire the outdoor cam back up. The indoor cam is using the built in webcam in our imac, and evocam software.

Bob C

I've wondered about this for quite a while.

I have no luck- when connecting the camera via firewire and setting it to regular DV it asks me for the driver.

I have no driver, and thusly it doesn't install and won't show up as an available video device.

Is this driver available for download somewhere, or on the CD?

The willing software I mentioned either includes the driver, or uses directx.

It just worked.
Give it a try, it has a free trial period... and, somehow it mirrors the device, so you can use the same webcam image/device in two applications... so you could have willing webcam ftp'ing a webcam image to a website, and you could also be videoconferencing with a buddy in aim/skype/msn/yahoo messengers.
Bob C

I've been thinking of getting this camera too for high deffinition web usage, any chance you could update us on your useage of it? Personally I want to use it with www.snapstrip.com to get high resolution stills, any chance you could test it out for me?