What determines webcam video quality?

[Shaz]

I am looking for a webcam that will enable me to see and be seen by the other party in quality pictures like on TV rather than the stop...stop...stop.. quality (if u know what I mean). What determines this? Is it the no. of frames per second, the software speed of broadband???

 

[ClubMan]

Both will influence the smoothness of the video link. Cheaper webcams only do about 30fps at low resolution. I'm not sure what the highest resolution and fps spec would be for a more expensive camera. Once you are sending more data then the (end to end!) bandwidth of the broadband connection may become an issue. You can estimate the raw data throughput in bits per second required using the following (ignoring any compression that might take place):

fps x width x height x bits per pixel