Please help with skype video calls...I can see GPs, but they cannot see us

[spamm]

I am a newbie on Skype. I have a webcam that works great, and I have figured everything out except the fact that my parents cannot see us when we are online. I have a perfect view of them, and my profile says that our video has started, but they cannot see us in the little black box. Do you have any suggestions? I want to show them my new haircut .

And of course their darling grandson. Much more important .

With mine, once I start talking, there is a tab on the left of the screen that says " Start My Video". I click this and I pop up on the screen!
My Mum's starts automatically. No idea why the difference!?

No - I can see myself in the webcam software window, but not in the little black window on skype.

I think it is XP - how do I check. I am not thick (well, only a little) but is dh's laptop.

Bubba - it says video started and has the clock running beside it, but no video. It did work last weekend on 1 call, but I don't know what was different.

OK Lapin - it is definitely XP then. Any ideas on what I need to do to get skype to read from my webcam. I know it will work, as it has once, but what did I do that was right that time....

OK, have checked that and I did do it originally. It looks right - video enabled, etc... but no pic of me. I wonder what happens if I close my other webcam window down...hmmm. I will just try that.

OK - not sure what I did, but after I said take a video snapshot, it started working again. Not a genius like you Lapin, but that does not seem logical. But it is working now.

Thank you for holding my hand. Grandpa in virginia will be very grateful

By the way Lapin - your dh is in Iraq right? Can he use skype out there on the MOD workstations?