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Today I noticed the Xbox Live Vision Camera at a TRU (Kennesaw, GA) earlier in the day. I consider picking it up and was surprise to see it, since I thought it wasn't hitting until the end of Sept. After confirming it wasn't hitting until later this month from shipwreck plus other cagers, I went back and picked it up. Came out to be $42.39 with tax. I will post a picture with receipt in the near future...
Edit: Added the picture. Warning if you are on dial up (Your joking right), don't click on the picture. The package just says includes Xbox 360 headset, vision camera, 1 month Xbox live Gold, and Xbox Live Arcade Game (See Side panel for details). Of course the side panel does not list the name of the game and refers to it as Xbox Live Arcade Game as well. The back of the box has a picture of texas holdem on it though. I will try and update later when I have some time to break it open...
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Edit 2: Here are 2 more pictures after I busted it open.
As you can see in the picture below the package had the headset, camera, manual, and a fold out insert. The insert has the xbox live 1 month code and Uno code inside. So this ends the Totemball theory floating around. It would have been nice if they included marketplace points instead of Uno since a large number of people have it already.
The manual is very light on content and just covers the basics: setting up you live vision camera for the 360 console, troubleshooting, cleaning the camera, and setting the camera up to use with Windows PC. To use the camera with Windows you just have to plug the usb cable in, let Windows XP find the Xbox Live Vision Driver, and your ready to go.
Took the other picture below since I noticed it mentioned games yet to be release for Xbox Live. The picture came from inside the Xbox Live Vision insert. The picture shows Chess and how the camera will show the players above the gameboard. It also states play checkers, chess, reversi, and mancala face to face with the Vision Camera. The games are going to be sold seperately, but it would have been a nice addition in the package.
I will try to add a full review Sunday Night...
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Edit 3: Time for a review.
To Everyone - I am sure there are grammer errors or misspellings, so deal with it.
To Mods - Considered putting the review in a new thread, but wasn't sure there was a need to. Feel free to move it...
Review
Okay I spent some time testing out the camera, except for hooking it to a PC. Overall I am impressed with the quality of the camera. As a previous eyetoy owner I find the way the vision handles lighting leaps ahead of the eyetoy.
Setup - Basically plug an play with no effort and if needed turn the lens on the camera to focus. After starting up the 360 you will notice a new option vision camera, when you go to the system dashboard. There are 2 settings you can change here Room and Lighting. By default both are set to Auto and I didn't have to make any changes. However there are a few options for each. Room: Dark Wall, Light Wall, Auto. Lighting: Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorscent, Auto.
Functionality - Without any interactive games (Come on where's totemball) there are 4 main ways use the camera right now: Video Chat, Custom personal picture, add pictures to messages, and Video display in game. All functionality is completely active right now. There really is no documentation with the camera at all on any of these functions, but it doesn't take long to figure it out.
Pictures in Messages - When you create messages you now have the option to take a picture to add to the message. When you are snapping a picture your only option is to zoom in/out, but don't worry you can add effects later on. After taking the picture you have the chance to review the picture before adding it to the message. At this time you have 20 effects to choose from to change the image including: night vision, black & white, pixel, distorted, and numerous others which are just hard to describe. If you don't want to accept the picture you can snap it again or just cancel out.
If you send a picture to a friend the automatically receive it, which could lead to some disturbing images. Pictures are handled differently when sent to individuals not on your friends list. If you receive a message from someone you do not know you have the option to accept/decline the image before seeing it.
Video Chat - When you launch a private chat you have the option of choosing video chat. On the screen 2 windows open up one for you and one for the person you are chatting with. Below the windows when you launch a chat you have 4 buttons: Invite, Zoom In/Out, Pause Video, and Volume. The pause video button (Y button does the same as scrolling to pause video) actually stops the video stream and changes your video to a black screen, it does not pause on the current image. The volume button brings up a new lsit of options including mute microphone, volume setting, and play through speakers, headset, both. They also added the x button as a direct link to the Vision camera system settings, just in case you need to adjust your room & lighting settings. Finally using the top left/right buttons you can filter through effects.
I still need to test drive the video chat feature more to have strong opinion. So far the overall quality of the chat feature is good, even compared to some of the voice conferencing systems I have used in the past. However not everyone will have alot of use for this feature. The biggest thing I don't understand is they only allow you to choose from 7 effects compared to the 20 effects in the adding pictures to messages. One interesting or disturbing item to note is you can vibrate the other individual's controller with the trigger buttons. Use your imagination...
In game play - Really speaks for itself. It changes you gamer picture to the current live stream for the camera. Right now Uno is the main one taking advantage of it, but texas holdem could be interesting. The list Chess, Checkers, Mancala, and Reversi as future games to take advantage of this in the insert include in the box (picture can be found above in edit 2).
Custom personal picture - By going into you profile you can take a custom picture for individuals on your friendslist to see. It does not replace you gamer picture. Its a seperate picture below you gamer picture in your profile. Anyone not on your friends list still sees your gamer picture.
When you are taking a custom personal picture you might have a hard time compared to every other use for the camera. You can really notice the difference when you take a picture of a object with add picture to message and then custom personal picture. It seems like the camera is set to automatically zoom in when taking a custom personal picture. After spending some time moving the camera around and the item/person you are taking a picture of, you can get what you are looking for. You also have the choose to add one of the 16 effects available to the picture before you save it.
One item I did notice about the custom personal picture is it does not show up on xbox.com at this time. Maybe they will add this feature in the near future, but even you can not see your own personal picture online.
Overall - After spending some time with the camera for the past day I am impressed with it overall. I was surprised by the image quality considering all the problems I had in the same room with the eyetoy. The in game play video could be interesting with Texas Holdem and I look forward to giving it a shot this week. PM me if you have a camera and would like to get in on some texas holdem. By far the Video Chat was the most impressive feature, but I personally don't have a real use for it.
The asking price of $39.99 is reasonable with the functionality of the camera out of the box. However until there are some interactive games I am not sure its for everybody. Packaging it without a interactive game seems like it could hurt them initially and I wouldn't be surprise to see a new bundle in a few months. Maybe they will give away a free interactive game on xbox live when there is one released. Truthfully my biggest complaint besides lack of interactive games is it came with UNO. What about all of us out there who already have Uno? I would have rather them just thrown in the 400 marketplace points.
For $40 it seems like it will be worth it in the long run. Right now I woudl recommend it for anyone who looking at using the video chat or possibly a texas holdem fan with the upcoming potential. Otherwise hold out until we find out more about interactive games and how its used in splinter cell. To the people bidding them up to $100 on ebay, please give the money to someone who needs it more.
Edit 4: Update after playing Texas Hold'em. Even though camera support has been reported in Texas Hold'em for sometime, there is currently no camera support. Maybe they will add it later...
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Updated Full Review. TRU breaks street date. Just bought Xbox Live Vision Camera
