Sony CMU-BR100 Camera and Microphone for Skype

Awesome product, talking on the television is a great feature, the camera works great, it has good sound and quality image, highly recommended.

This is your only choice for a webcam, for Skype, for your Sony Internet TV (check compatibility before ordering). It can also be used as a regular webcam on a computer. This small cam/mic is about 6 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. The mounting instructions are pretty much incomprehensible. Once I ignored the helpful little pictures, I was able to get it stuck to the top of my TV. A product at this price point might be expected to have a better mounting system, e.g. a matching peg system that better mates the webcam to the TV. Once you have it stuck to the TV, plug it into the USB port on the TV and you're good to go. Just fire up the Skype app, found under "Internet Video" on your Sony TV remote. You will not be able to text message nor will you be able to send files using the internal TV app, but you may not need to do either. In a typical family room/entertainment room setup, you won't. If you are using the TV as a computer monitor, as I am, you can plug the Sony webcam into a USB slot on your computer and use the regular Skype app in Windows or iOS (where you are able to select the microphone array under Tools/Options/Audio Settings). This is a good product for its intended use, and I see that it is approaching a reasonable price after a number of price reductions. If you are looking to maintain the look and feel of your TV, it does the trick. Picture quality and the microphone array are very good, although I would wish for a less wide-angle view. It's great to have Skype video on the "big screen." I sit about 4 feet from the screen and I find myself to appear on the smallish side due to the wide angle lens. If you were 15 feet away, I fear you might be a mere speck, but that is not my setup and you should look to other reviews on this point. It would do a good job of getting the whole family into the picture, and I guess that is the trade-off. I use my Sony 32" Bravia Internet TV as a computer monitor, and I use this Sony webcam as a computer webcam (i.e. plugged into the computer's USB port, not the port on the TV). That is pretty much plug and play as well - you just have to go into Tools/Options/Audio in Skype to set the microphone to the microphone array in the Webcam if you wish to use that (mic quality is excellent). If you decide, as I did, that you don't need to actually plug the webcam into your TV, your choices widen considerably and the price point falls. Here is a 4 1/2 star Logitech 720p webcam sold on Amazon that sells for $40 and uses Zeiss glass. It appears that product would be easy to mount with Velcro to the back of your TV/monitor, but it must be plugged into a computer, NOT the back of a Sony Internet TV: [..] Summary: This is a snazzy webcam with a crisp picture and a great mic (a 4-mic array) that you can plug into certain Sony internet TV's. It's a bit pricey and the wide angle view may not be ideal for all settings. You can also plug it into your computer and use it like any other webcam, in which case there are other, less expensive choices. It's your only choice if you want to run Skype video on your Sony Internet TV using the built in USB connector and Skype application. That built-in Skype app is easy to use. You may find the process of attaching it to the top (or bottom) of your TV to be annoying, as the visual instructions are unclear.

This unit was mounted on the top of a Bravia XBR 55HX929 TV, and tested in about five minutes flat. While no actual SKYPE call was made there is an echo feature that shows video and sound. Coverage area was just as desired, and the jumping around and sound of an energetic 5-yr old played back perfectly, without any motion jags detected. Great unit well priced.

This is a nice little camera that makes your Sony web-enabled TV work with Skype. It has pretty good resolution and a wide field of view. It's plug'n'play and sits nicely on top of your TV. It's nice to be able to Skype directly from the TV without having to jump up and go to the computer. My only two caveats are: 1. I'm not really sure how much Skyping I want to do from the bedroom (that's where I installed my newest Sony TV), and 2. It's pretty pricy for a web-cam. Unfortunately Sony didn't enable their TV to use any off-the-shelf webcam. You have to buy theirs.

I purchased this to use with the Skype app on my Sony Blu-ray Player, where it (apparently) doesn't/won't work. When I try to use the Sony CMU-BR100 webcam with my Sony Blu-ray player, the Skype app detects there is a camera attached, but video calls fail, the video preview screen comes up entirely black, and the Blu-ray player will freeze until you unplug the webcam. It's not the webcam itself -- which works just fine with my PC -- but the combination of this webcam with the Sony Blu-ray player that seems problematic. And, by contrast, Microsoft's LifeCam Studio 1080p HD Webcam (Q2F-00001) works just great with my Sony Blu-ray player (and is half the price). So, if you're thinking about using this with a Sony Blu-ray player, I'd strongly suggest getting the LifeCam Studio webcam instead, since it actually works whereas this Sony webcam does not. (And, this drives me a little bit nuts, because the thing I thought I was "over-paying" for in buying this otherwise-way-too-expensive Sony webcam was for Sony-to-Sony compatibility.)

Very good vidcam. Looks great on top of my Sony Bravia TV, Great sound and video quality and is really cool being able to Vidcall on a 55" TV. Super easy set-up TV is integrated for the camera (my 16yr old daughter did it all by herself without directions). It might be a little expensive but I believe it was a great investment. The only thing I think is missing is a lighting system. But it might be very annoying to stare into a bright light, I don't know the distance to the TV is much greater than when sitting at your laptop. Highly recommended !

This is what you'd expect. It's a webcam. It works fine with my Bravia TV. The downside is that with Skype the image quality isnt super great in general. This uses a wide fov camera to capture the room since it doesnt know where your face is. So unlike with a laptop webcam where your face is really big fillign up the screen with this you appear really small in it. Could be good if a crowd wants to skype, but not so good if it's a single person to a single person. It is fun to be able to see the other person on the big TV though. What it really needs is some kind of zoom/tracking option but that would be more expensive...

We have a Sony smart TV so it was very easy to install ...direction well written. diagrams were not clear at first. But made sense later. Worked instantly!

Good