@ hajj3 A fast PC wont solve the problem that you are trying to get HD video over USB2.0, which is (in reality) limited to about 200Mbps (you can't reach/sustain the 480Mbps theoretical limit due to protocol overheads).
1280x720 image x 30fps x 16bits/pixel = ~440Mbps
...that is why you need in-camera compression to get to 30fps at HD resolution.
Of course once you get the video over to the PC then your processor is the next limiting factor (along with your ISP :-) H.264 encoding is still very, very heavy lifting for most PCs and you probably need a quad core processor to handle that plus all the heavy duty audio processing and encryption that Skype uses (if you want 30fps).
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@ hajj3
A fast PC wont solve the problem that you are trying to get HD video over USB2.0, which is (in reality) limited to about 200Mbps (you can't reach/sustain the 480Mbps theoretical limit due to protocol overheads).
1280x720 image x 30fps x 16bits/pixel = ~440Mbps
...that is why you need in-camera compression to get to 30fps at HD resolution.
Of course once you get the video over to the PC then your processor is the next limiting factor (along with your ISP :-) H.264 encoding is still very, very heavy lifting for most PCs and you probably need a quad core processor to handle that plus all the heavy duty audio processing and encryption that Skype uses (if you want 30fps).
@knightofni
Your math is off. It's not 16 bits/pixel. It's 16 (or 8) bits per channel (RGB) for a total of 24 or 48 bits per pixel.
@epwnym Video only uses half resolution in color channel.