I am going to tell you about one of the most cool webcam utilities EVER MADE! (IMHO of course!)
The name of this cool utility is "Webcam Max", if you use a webcam at all then you will definitely want to check out this program, which will make your webcam or broadcasts 10x more fun than they already are!
You might say ok you got my attention but what is the magical Webcam Max you speak of? Well read on cause in this review I will tell you all about the cool features and uses of Webcam Max and what I use it for.
The tagline can always help and that is: "WebcamMax-Add videos, pictures and effects to virtual/real Webcam and broadcast on messengers"
There are so many cool features and uses for this program that had me sitting at my computer for hours just playing around with all the cool features and uses, so it is hard for me to pick which feature I want to talk about first cause most of them I use all the time. But I have to pick something to be covered first so these are in no specific order cause they all have the same level of awesomeness!
Click read more!!!
Before I tell you all of this it would be a cool time to tell you what messengers and what not this program is compatible with..... oh wait ALL OF THEM! Thats right you name it and Webcam Max works on it, the major ones I use it on are Yahoo Instant messenger, stickam and Ustream.tv. But why stop there you can use it on anything you like: MSN, CamFrog, YouTube, ICQ, AIM, Skype, PalTalk, AnyWebCam and many many more sites that allow cams!
Adding Effects:
Yea this is a really cool feature right here. There is a Transform option here which distorts your video as well as adding stuff like fire or water to your video live. The mask option allows you to add things on your face such as sunglasses, hat and hair as well as changing your face such as turning yourself into Garfield or Harry Potter. The background option is one of my favorites of the effects, basically you can any picture and make it your background! Throw up a background pic of Hawaii to hide a messy room that would otherwise be the background. Next up we have the frame option add a cool frame or border to your video or chat. Also allowing you to put up any pictures as well, even Picture in Picture (PiP.)
The emoticons option is the one I use least, but for the right occasion it would have its uses, this options adds an emoticon to you video to let everyone know how you are feeling. The text option is a really cool one, add any text to the bottom or anywhere on your video/cam. Choose the font size and color and move it around to any portion of the screen you want! Lets you get your message across to anyone who might be viewing you.
Webcam Max comes loaded with 1,000's of backgrounds, masks and frames for you to enjoy but you can add your own or even get lots more from the internet (without even leaving the Webcam Max interface).
Not only can you use Webcam Max as a webcam utility, but you can also use it to record videos straight to your hard drive! I make videos for YouTube, I do movie reviews let me take you through 2 processes they way I used to do it and they way I would do it with Webcam Max and you can see why I like the program so much.
Old Way: Record the video (a movie review), open the video up in an editing program, go through find the place I would like to add the movie cover or a screen cap from the movie and edit them in, then save the output file and wait 10-20 mins for it to encode, after that I upload it.
New Way: With Webcam Max I can start recording the video and when it comes time to show that cover or screen cap select Picture in Picture (PiP) and blam that pic shows up immediately and in real time! Once I am done talking hitting the stop button automatically saves the video pictures and all to my hard drive. Then I simply upload it, no editing involved at all or encoding.
Which I cant express how cool that is, one note though there are 2 ouput formats No-Loss AVI file and ASF file. I need to warn you that if you choose No-Loss AVI file, then make sure you have the required hard drive space cause a 2 minute video could be in the upwards of 250-300 megabytes. Also you can snap a screenshot as well of whatever is on your video, which has come in handy when I wanted to do a preview picture for a video.
Virtual WebCam:
This is by far my favorite feature of Webcam Max, this option allows you to put any video in place of your webcam or video feed! You can play movies, other peoples videos... the possibilities are endless! This really comes in handy for me cause I do streams on Ustream.tv and like to show my viewers funny videos that I have found on the internet, this option allows me to share those videos live with everyone watching. The best part is the ammount of file types it accepts, I have been able to show Divx and evern FLV files without any problems what so ever. You can even do video files with huge file sizes I showed one the other day that was 700 megabytes!
Picture in Picture:
You have heard me talk of this a little earlier, but like I said in the movie review scenario it has saved me alot of time making my YouTube Reviews, it also allows you to show any picture on your hard drive to your viewers, it also has where you can add a whole folder of photos and it will do a slide show of them, really cool!
Doodling:
Or what I have deemed DUDEling (my love for The Big Lebowski shows here), is a very fun feature. It allows you to draw on yourself or anything you are broadcasting! I have used this a bunch when showing pictures with alot of stuff in them, I use it as a way to circle what I am talking about in the picture, sort of like a football repaly where they cirlce specifics on the screen. As you could tell this feature has unlimited possibilities!
Bottom Line:
This could turn a boring cam chat with your friend into a really fun expierience, can change a slow-paced ustream show into an interactive one where you can show people what you are talking about... that will have your friends or viewers asking how you did that and where can they get this Webcam Max for themselves!
Other Info:
Sounds like something you would want to try? Well you are in luck head over to the official website and you can download the 30 day trial for free there are very little restrictions on the trail except for the Webcam Max banner that will be on the top of all you videos/chats, other than that you can check out and use every feature it has to offer!
Now you are saying to yourself, "Ok with a 30 day trail it must cost something, and with all those features it must cost hella-money!". In which case I would say for all the things you get it is on the cheap side!
It does cost money to un-trial yourself but is well worth it in my opinion, the site even offers payment on monthly terms if you would not like to pay right out for it, the prices are as follows:
6 month License - $19.95 ($3.33 a month)
1 year License - $29.95 ($2.50 a month)
2 Year License - $39.95 ($1.66 a month)
Lifetime License - $49.95 (Get the program FOREVER)
Now I would go with the Lifetime as I personally think it is the best deal, but it is nice to have those other offers in case you are tight on cash.
So hopefully some of you will go out and try the trial, to get a feel for what I have been talking about! I have opted out of screenshots for this review as I thought you guys would like to see Webcam Max in action showing off some of its cool features!
So I made 2 videos! The first one is showing the interface a little bit and all the cool options! The second video is my webcam actually implementing the cool effects and different things you can do, so I hope you enjoyed this review!
Videos:
Check out the interface!
Check out my webcam implementing the different features!
News 
