Help:: Performance and Usage Tips & Tricks

If you're having trouble using Eyejot with your webcam and computer we'd like to suggest a few tips and tricks that, hopefully, will help you to use our product successfully. We'll do so by identifying a few common problems that some users have experienced.

Camera preview displays a solid black rectangle
This is most often caused by your webcam being in use prior to your trying to record a new message with Eyejot. When you installed your webcam it's possible (and likely) that some additional software from that vendor was installed. Is it still running? If it is, it's probably connected to your webcam. Typically, webcams can be used by only a single program (or client) at a time. If you turn off this program you'll likely be able to use your webcam with Eyejot.

After pressing record my image remains opaque
When you first start recording a new video message Eyejot will attempt to connect to our streaming media servers. This process usually takes just a second or two. During this phase your image is covered with a slightly opaque effect. If it remains on for many seconds it's possible there was a problem with Eyejot connecting to our servers. Possible causes may include:

bandwidth starvation (your Internet connection isn't fast enough)
firewall issues
networking issues

To help identify the exact cause of the problem we suggest performing a few self-diagnosis steps.

Bandwidth Test Run one of the following speed tests to determine how fast your connection to the Internet is. The most important number, from Eyejot's perspective regarding recording, is your upstream speed - the rate at which your computer can send information through your ISP to Eyejot. Eyejot performs best when it has approximately 200Kb/s (200,000 bits per second) upstream capacity. This is also, approximately, 20KB/s (20,000 Bytes per second). To learn more about bits and bytes go here.

   Speedtest.net
   Speakeasy Speedtest
   QWest Broadband Test

Even if you discover you have enough upstream bandwidth be sure that there aren't other programs running at the same time Eyejot is trying to record that might be using those resources. Examples of this might be other file uploads, software and system upgrades taking place, etc.

One interesting aspect of Flash video recording through your browser is that video quality (frame rate) will be sacrificed in order to preserve as much audio quality as possible.

Adobe Flash Connectivity Test It's entirely possible that, for whatever reason, Adobe Flash, isn't able to connect to our servers. We recommend that you run their network and port test program and then email us the results. Go to our contact page for our email address.

Flash Communication Test

Audio cuts in and out
If you discover that your audio cuts out during your messages we recommend that you disable the settings on your computer and in Flash related to echo cancellation or noise supression. While these settings are useful in some situations, we've found that they can sometimes cause Flash or your computer to drop audio.

On a Windows computer, go to your Control Panel and then examine your audio settings. If you see a setting for noise or echo cancellation, try turning that feature off. On a Mac, go to System Preferences and then select Sound. The checkbox there is typically labeled use ambient noise reduction.

We also recommend you turn off Flash's Reduce Echo feature. To do that, go to any Flash control (such as your video message inbox) and press the right mouse button to reveal a floating menu. On a Mac you can reach this with Control-click. Select Settings... and then press the tiny icon tab that looks like a microphone. There you'll see the check for reducing echo, which you can uncheck if enabled. There's more information here.

Video is jerky or frame rate appears low
If your video messages appear jerky or the frame rate doesn't seem natural then it's possible one or more of the following problems could exist:

bandwidth starvation (see section above)
your webcam's driver is outdated
your display drivers are out of date
you may have an out-of-date version of Flash running
your computer is doing too much or running something else very CPU intense
your computer is too small or underpowered for real-time video recording

We recommend you check each of these potential issues, one at a time. Also, since you can use your Eyejot login credentials anywhere, we recommend you trying using Eyejot on another computer - perhaps a second one at home or work, or a friend or colleagues. Just be sure to logoff when you're done!

My video messages aren't reaching their destinations
Eyejot uses regular email to send out notification alerts. It's possible that some of your recipients aren't receiving these messages. Again, there are numerous potential reasons for this. They include:

invalid or incorrect email addresses (check your address book to make sure the address or addresses you used are correct
your recipient's mailbox is full
your recipient's ISP or mail host is treating our notification messages as spam and placing them into a bulk folder
your recipient's mail settings are rejecting messages with images or too many graphics
you are sending video messages to people that don't want to receive them and they're being flagged as spam

Just so it's clear - Eyejot does not allow its service to be used to send unsolicited commercial email. Please don't use this platform to send to people that you don't know or don't have a business relationship with. To help combat incorrect spam or bulk filtering, encourage your recipients to add notify@eyejot.com to their address books.

After I delete my messages my recipients can still see them
When you send an Eyejot video message to someone we're creating a copy of your message and delivering it to their video mailbox. Even if you delete the message from your sent folder, your recipient still has a copy and can continue to watch it.