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Webcam support limited by Apple's UVC driver. [PARTIALLY SOLVED]

00diabolic

By 00diabolic,
in Other Peripheral Devices

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  • 2 weeks later...
Annethis
Annethis
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My nieghbour has a ACER aspire 5630 running OS X under what I believe is Darwin X (it was set up by a mutual aquaintance) and he wishes to use its integrated webcam. I've found Many windows based drivers (cited here http://www.laptopdrivers.net/drivers/acer/...era_drivers.htm) but it's probable none of them work. (given mac OS compatability issues) As for which of the three varients is installed, we've not a clue. If someone could look into the issue, say reformat the drivers or redirect me to an applicable local, we'd be very grateful.

 

Much Obliged in advance - Neth

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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@diabolic

 

in two weeks I´ll have much more time and I´m willin to help - hope it´s not too late :huh:

 

I think I have something finally on the cam support issue.. My problem has always been the camera vdc plugin forcing a larger res then my cam can support im sure of it.

 

Here is what I've discovered. First I downloaded all of the cam apps mentioned in this forum dating back over the last 2 yrs. camtwist, maccam etc but none worked.. There is one that no one mentioned though. Its called manycam. And guess what it fixes my res issue.

 

http://www.manycam.com/

 

This app works great but only fixes the issue in 32bit boot. No fix for 64bit. All you do is start the app and then start photobooth and then you can close manycam and it still works in photobooth until you close it.

 

Hope it helps all of you.. Curious about the feedback. Id love to investigate why this app fixes the issue but at this point I'm glad it fixes it. Still to test with other apps but I would bet the same procedure will fix the issue with other mac apps.

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peach-os
peach-os
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cool - I will try it

 

I promised anyway too much - work is still killing me :D

 

 

 

EDIT: it doesn´t work on my acer ;)

 

diabolik - if it works on your machine I guess you will try to find out what it actually does change on your system

I´m really excited and looking forward to your first results

 

starting from there I could try to manage it for my webcam

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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cool - I will try it

 

I promised anyway too much - work is still killing me :)

 

 

 

EDIT: it doesn´t work on my acer -_-

 

diabolik - if it works on your machine I guess you will try to find out what it actually does change on your system

I´m really excited and looking forward to your first results

 

starting from there I could try to manage it for my webcam

 

Im still looking into this. I have not had good internet recently and seem to lose it at any time. Working on that is my primary concern. So far I think this is a UVC driver issue. If you look at the UVC driver thats built into OSX youl uncover the whole problem. Also it should be noted that my signal from the camera is not nearly as good as it is in windows. That is because of the UVC driver also. The picture is grainy and kinda unclear.

 

I also noticed some interesting differences between running 32bit mode and 64bit. First sonix web cam monitor the old version will turn the cam on in 64bit mode but not in 32bit, unless manycam is running. Manycam will not allow the monitor to work at all after its closed like it does with apple apps. Manycam will work in both 32bit and 64bit but will only allow other apps to work in 32bit after its closed. This i suppose is because manycam is a 32bit app. Once its 64 it will prob help in both 64 and 32 the same. The new sonix webcam monitor will not work for me in either 32 or 64 bit mode.

 

I included a list of open items that photobooth runs in OSX 10.5.2. This is after I deleted the vdc.plugin which made photobooth work in 10.5.2. I will also be including a none working list of open items in photobooth 10.6.2 to see if there is anything interesting we can see between them. They are both taken from 32bit mode to maintain standard test base. In 10.5.2 I noticed maccam is opened by photobooth 10.5.2 but it does not seem to work for me in any other way. I'm not sure if 10.5.2 photobooth is using maccam or not. If it is why does maccam itself not work for me to this day.

 

Hope others can provide feedback on this. Maybe we can figure out why certain apps work for some and some dont and maybe come up with something better.

photobooth_10.5.2.rtf

photobooth_10.6.2.rtf

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Chiddy22
Chiddy22
Posted
Posted

I have an xbox 360 camera, a search found a bunch of people saying it just worked out of the box, not so for me. It's recognized in system profiler, and if I disconnect it while photobooth is open, it says "no device connected" but when Ir reconnect, all I get is a black screen.

 

Anyone ideas?

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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hi im using hp dv1301tx , my webcam cant work with photobooth!!

is there a way? i tried maccam ,camtwist but it does not work!!

 

thanks!

 

Did you try manycam? AM I the only one manycam has worked for?

 

Seems astonishing. Well I dont have much to add to this. I am not a programmer and the solution we need would have to come from someone who can program a app that can force up and down the res to make it work in OSX. Thats basicly what manycam does for my camera.

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lachesis:)
lachesis:)
Posted
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Did you try manycam? AM I the only one manycam has worked for?

 

Seems astonishing. Well I dont have much to add to this. I am not a programmer and the solution we need would have to come from someone who can program a app that can force up and down the res to make it work in OSX. Thats basicly what manycam does for my camera.

 

hi

yes i have tried , it detects my webcam , the white led light is activated but it does not give a visual of me.

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peach-os
peach-os
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I tried all the cam solutions here - none of them worked for my acer crystal eye (which is a Suyin).

tonite I tested the IOUSBFamily.kext provided in this topic http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=215338

 

et voilà - webcam working with all apps - no more patchin needed :D

 

never thought about an USB solution for that problem...... crazy

 

EDIT: it was not a real solution - the IOUSBFamily.kext made the camera work but slowed down to USB 1.0 with 12 Mb/s :)

 

that means USB 2.0 480 Mb/s not working

with USB 1.0 with 12 Mb/s it works

 

that could be a hint to the right solution. is the slower rate affecting resolution?

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  • 2 weeks later...
Zythyr
Zythyr
Posted
Posted

I have a MSI Wind U123 netbook with a built in webcam: BisonCam, NB Pro. Photobooth, Skype, Facebook webcam doesn't work for me, but iChat, Gmail Video chat works fine.

 

I went to System Profiler, and my webcam is detected and the following info shows:

 

BisonCam, NB Pro:

Product ID: 0x0203

Vendor ID: 0x5986

Version: 3.08

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacture: Bison Electronics Inc.

Location id: 0xfd500000

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA) 500

 

I tried maccam, manycam but they didn't work.

 

I was reading through this topic and noticed that linux has support but is there any way to port that into OS X?

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  • 4 weeks later...
smartie77
smartie77
Posted
Posted

The problem depends on the graphic drivers, people :

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite L500-120 ( german/european ) model with built-in Chiconey 1.3 MP cam.

 

Nothing webcamwise so far works, no matter if under 10.6.x or 10.5.8.

 

Because I have a unsupported Ati HD46xx gpu I must use dong's great Framebuffer driver RadeonHD.kext for full resolution on my Laptop ( works fine ) . This driver gives 2D basics, but no QE/CI, in other words no OpenGL/3D.

 

I fear that this is a factor to consider why some of us can get webcams to work and others not. Many of the built-in Apple applications like Photobooth wont work without OpenGL ( QE/CI ), they use it for the "Quartz composer" effects which a 2D driver simply can not deliver ( or only via software rendering, but that seems to be blocked by the apps ).

 

So we need to dig a bit deeper into webcam support and how it depends on 3D. I guess in Leopard 10.5.x its a bit easier as in Snow 10.6.x, because Snow has OpenGl now even in everyday apps like preview.app and grab.app ( which I can not use with the RadeonHD.kext - therefore 10.5.8 is better for me ) -

 

As someone said that Tiger 10.4.x had support for more cams I can think that this is true also. Tiger had no need for QE/CI, it could run on any graphics card. ( I had it running on a imac G3 333Mhz with a crappy 16mb ati card and Tiger ran beautiful on that old mac. That hardware windows-like would not even allow xp in its full glory )

 

Apple slowly adjusts OSX to be totally 3d aware - started in Tiger as an option, in LEopard a bit more and in Snow it is essential. Ichat in 10.6.x makes also use of same effects that photobooth uses..

 

This needs to be thought of. :censored2:

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  • 4 weeks later...
hafif
hafif
Posted
Posted

hi there..

 

my USB camera doesn't work. When i open wit Skype, it says that my camera is running in other application, but there's no other application running my camera. then, when i try to open it with photobooth, it detected as a camera, but there's only a blank screen, it showed nothing.

could you all guys in this forum help me find a way ?

 

this is what i got from system profiler

 

USB2.0 PC CAMERA:

 

Product ID: 0x3288

Vendor ID: 0x18ec

Version: 1.00

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: ARKMICRO

Location ID: 0x1d100000

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 500

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  • 1 month later...
candykane
candykane
Posted
Posted
hi there..

 

my USB camera doesn't work. When i open wit Skype, it says that my camera is running in other application, but there's no other application running my camera. then, when i try to open it with photobooth, it detected as a camera, but there's only a blank screen, it showed nothing.

could you all guys in this forum help me find a way ?

 

this is what i got from system profiler

 

USB2.0 PC CAMERA:

 

Product ID: 0x3288

Vendor ID: 0x18ec

Version: 1.00

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: ARKMICRO

Location ID: 0x1d100000

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 500

 

Did you try many cam it worked for me on my samsung R730

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  • 3 weeks later...
xxgg
xxgg
Posted
Posted

I have a Logitech C910 HD webcam.

 

It is detected, microphone is working, but screen on any video capture program is black.

 

It does work with QuickTime to capture video on Medium picture setting but it is totally unusably. (worse than a slide show).

 

I haven't tested on many apps but it does work PERFECTLY! with Apple's Facetime beta. But what I did notice when using with Facetime is that... it must be GPU accelerated as I can hear the fan spin up when using Facetime.(beta)

 

So what is special about Facetime that it works? Maybe it is program based ?

 

Latest Skype 5.0 beta does not work either.

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  • 1 month later...
00diabolic
00diabolic
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The problem depends on the graphic drivers, people :

 

I have a Toshiba Satellite L500-120 ( german/european ) model with built-in Chiconey 1.3 MP cam.

 

Nothing webcamwise so far works, no matter if under 10.6.x or 10.5.8.

 

Because I have a unsupported Ati HD46xx gpu I must use dong's great Framebuffer driver RadeonHD.kext for full resolution on my Laptop ( works fine ) . This driver gives 2D basics, but no QE/CI, in other words no OpenGL/3D.

 

I fear that this is a factor to consider why some of us can get webcams to work and others not. Many of the built-in Apple applications like Photobooth wont work without OpenGL ( QE/CI ), they use it for the "Quartz composer" effects which a 2D driver simply can not deliver ( or only via software rendering, but that seems to be blocked by the apps ).

 

So we need to dig a bit deeper into webcam support and how it depends on 3D. I guess in Leopard 10.5.x its a bit easier as in Snow 10.6.x, because Snow has OpenGl now even in everyday apps like preview.app and grab.app ( which I can not use with the RadeonHD.kext - therefore 10.5.8 is better for me ) -

 

As someone said that Tiger 10.4.x had support for more cams I can think that this is true also. Tiger had no need for QE/CI, it could run on any graphics card. ( I had it running on a imac G3 333Mhz with a crappy 16mb ati card and Tiger ran beautiful on that old mac. That hardware windows-like would not even allow xp in its full glory )

 

Apple slowly adjusts OSX to be totally 3d aware - started in Tiger as an option, in LEopard a bit more and in Snow it is essential. Ichat in 10.6.x makes also use of same effects that photobooth uses..

 

This needs to be thought of. :)

 

Interesting.. It makes sense but in 10.5 I was using a hacked framebuffer for my x3100 to make the mac x3100 kext work (full QE/CI) and then I deleted the UVC driver and got full use of my cam as if it was a mac cam, no restrictions.

 

In 10.6 it did all change but I am completely vanilla in 10.6 with all apple x3100 (full QE/CI) support via DSDT. When I deleted the UVC driver or make alterations it just makes my cam not start at all. Then I found manycam and it seems to correct the problem. I think some people might have cam problems related to video kext but its not my problem.

 

Interesting thoughts though.. Id still love to find a UVC edit for 10.6 to make that driver support my cam fully without manycam. I know thats gotta be possible as that driver is the main thing that starts your cam.

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  • 1 year later...
CoBrA2168
CoBrA2168
Posted
Posted (edited)

Sorry to bring back a very old topic - but I'm wondering if anyone has a solution to my webcam problem.

 

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 running Lion 10.7.5 with a Lenovo branded (showing as Chicony) webcam. If I launch an app that uses the webcam, all i see is a black/blank screen. For example, the Facetime app doesn't load at all.

 

I've read all 9 pages of this thread and all the early solutions didn't work for me (kexts, CamTwist, etc.). Finally, one of the last solutions recommended by a member here worked for me: Manycam. When I run Manycam, the app is able to initiate the camera successfully. Then, if I open up a native OSX app (Photobooth, Facetime) it works! It's as if it needs Manycam to "initiate" the video, and then it is able to pick it up in the other apps. Note that this workaround didn't work for Skype unfortunately.

 

Does anyone have a real, native solution to this problem of mine? This is the last thing I need to get my hackbook working 100%. For now, I'm just going to use this workaround, but I was wondering if anyone out there had the same problem as what I described and found a working solution.

 

Thanks.

Edited by CoBrA2168
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