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

00diabolic

By 00diabolic,
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00diabolic
00diabolic
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Ok since there is no thread about webcams that are detected but dont work I figured I would share my experience with my cam that is completely detected but does not work in OSX and see if anyone else has the same results.

 

1st. like many of you with Sonix cams you probably have used the Sonix SN9C201 driver which gives you a webcam monitor app which will show you the picture from the cam but does nothing else. There is also video viewer which does the exact same thing. Google that and try it with your cam.

 

You can get the sonix webcam monitor from here:

http://agent.liquiddigital.com.au/installation.htm

 

2nd. During install of 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 but not 10.5.0 I actually can use my cam to take a picture for use as a login pic. Also later under accounts in system preferences. See if your cam works there also.

 

3rd. If you use adium x you can once again access the same exact app (apple UVC plugin I believe) used above to once again take a picture for use as your aviator in adium x.

 

 

ichat, photobooth & other mac apps can not use the cam however they do turn it on and attempt to. All you get though is a green or black screen from them.

 

So my questions is why do some of these apps work and others dont? Why does OSX system see the cam during account setup and allow you to use it but then refuses to use it with photobooth. The interface of that is exactly the same as photobooth. VERY FRUSTRATING.. I would love to figure this out and get this cam working.

 

 

ANYONE else have similar experiences?

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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run iChat/skype/whatever through rosetta. it will work

ithink that you must use IUSB Chat or some proggie like that with apple apps (ichat, photobooth)

 

Isn't rossetta for old mac apps, like pre OSX apps? Am I right there or wrong? How can I use Ichat through rosetta?

 

I used IUSB chat and got nothing with that. I can get the cam to work in photobooth but only to take a pic for use as a avatar in the accounts screen in preferences. Which is sooo weird.. How can it work there and not work in the full app?

 

Anyone else have a suggestion to get my sonix cam to work?

 

THANKS ALL

 

EDIT: VDCAssistant is what is loaded when user accounts takes a picture of you. Apparently Photobooth uses something else. But why is VDCAssistant able to use my cam and photobooth not.

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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Finally figured out the rosetta trick. Does not work though. Same results as regular opening of it. There has to be a way to get some of these apple apps to work.

 

The darn thing works in System preferences/Accounts when you go to change your user login picture under edit you can use the cam to take a picture. Works there looks just like photobooth but open the full photobooth and NOTHING.. The process that loads when using accounts is called VDCAssistant. SO why is VDCAssistant able to do what photobooth can not?

 

I hope someone can give me some advice or shed some light on this most annoying problem.

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osx psychodude
osx psychodude
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hey 00diabolic

i took your suggestion and my cam doesnt work

i have lenovo y300

but here is something wierd

when i open my system profiler

and look under the usb section

it says usb 2.0 cam plugged in

USB2.0 Camera:

 

Version: 1.00

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Product ID: 0x5602

Vendor ID: 0x0402

 

do you have any idea what is happening??

since i dont

but it doesnt work in pip, macam or sonix

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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hey 00diabolic

i took your suggestion and my cam doesnt work

i have lenovo y300

but here is something wierd

when i open my system profiler

and look under the usb section

it says usb 2.0 cam plugged in

USB2.0 Camera:

 

Version: 1.00

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Product ID: 0x5602

Vendor ID: 0x0402

 

do you have any idea what is happening??

since i dont

but it doesnt work in pip, macam or sonix

 

 

Is your camera a sonix camera? What brand do you have? It will only work with sonix monitor if you have a sonix cam.

 

My cam shows up like this:

USB 2.0 Camera:

 

Version: 3.21

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Sonix Technology Co., Ltd.

Product ID: 0xb013

Serial Number: SN0001

Vendor ID: 0x04f2

 

Sonix cams seems to have partial native support in OSX but its not complete. In order to get full support we will have to modify something or one of the hard core Unix/OSX experts would have to take up this cause & help.

 

If anyone with the caliber of knowledge would like to help 51% of the population of OSX users with built in laptop cams work with all the other OSX apps. Please post a response and we will be glad to aid you and help beta test your ideas.

 

THANK YOU

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osx psychodude
osx psychodude
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i dont think my camera is sonix

its just the integrated camera of my laptop

but the interesting thing is that it shows up in the sys profiler

AS A USB DEVICE

that means leo recognises it as a device but fails to load the driver

so what do you think we should do??

kext editing?

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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hey 00diabolic

check this out

sonix is supported here

http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/

 

Wow yeah and Chicony cameras to. Which is made by sonix and redistributed. Sonix has like 51% of the market so that is why there on so many laptops. Damn linux support if that could be ported over to OSX we would be in business. Anyone care to try? I wish I had the skills but I dont know coding so well.

 

Thanks for finding that though. That is the first time i have seen sonix supported in unix and UVC to boot which I knew it had to be since it partially works in OSX as is.

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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Look at this: http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=82736

 

That guy is right. The UVC driver in OSX forces the cam into to high a res for mine and others 1.3MP cam to handle. That is why photo booth does not work and same with ichat. With a better UVC cam driver we can get the support without it were stuck with partial support.

 

Also take a look at this site:

 

http://ronald.bitfreak.net/isight.php

 

That guy made a driver for linux for a mac's built in isight because apparently the mac driver (which can be used in linux) does not follow the UVC standard very well.

 

We need either someone to come along and help here or hope that apple can fix the UVC driver to support lower res cams.

 

If I knew what the UVC driver was called in OSX id take a look at it and see if it can be manually edited. However I doubt it.

 

EDIT: Found the UVC driver. See here: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-376625.html

 

IOUSBFamily is the kext that needs to be edited. In particular the AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext is the plugin.

 

Supposedly the version of AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext from 10.4.9 is the best version for working with the most amount of cams out there. I have been unable to find this kext online anywhere but when I find it I plan to try this in leopard.

 

Now that I know what its call I also think I found the solution to the problem with photo booth & hopefully the problem with ichat but who knows. Gotta test a few things out.

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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After Extensive research on this problem I have a partial fix. The built in UVC driver is the problem sorta well rather it one of its components that is my problem with photo booth. The driver it self also has issues that need to be addressed.

 

By deleting /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CoreMediaIOServicesPrivate.framework/Versions/A/Resources/VDC.plugin

 

I was able to get photo booth to work with my sonix cam for the first time ever. This is because the {censored} as UVC VDC.plugin in OSX forces my cam to work at higher res's then it is capable of doing. By deleting that plugin the cam defaults to a res it can handle and thus works. I still do not have ichat support but that i should be able to figure out soon. Some other edits to the UVC driver should fix that next.

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osx psychodude
osx psychodude
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hey thanks for that tip

but do you know what actually makes the cam work??

coz yours is working because of the sonix monitor

mine doesnt

and came to know its a bisonCam which is run by the ali m560x driver

now in macam's source code there is this driver

i asked the macam people

but havent received any reply

do you know how to edit the uvc driver or the macam source code (i'm a noob at this stuff)

can you please help me??

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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hey thanks for that tip

but do you know what actually makes the cam work??

coz yours is working because of the sonix monitor

mine doesnt

and came to know its a bisonCam which is run by the ali m560x driver

now in macam's source code there is this driver

i asked the macam people

but havent received any reply

do you know how to edit the uvc driver or the macam source code (i'm a noob at this stuff)

can you please help me??

 

Mine does not work because of the sonix package which is actually a component for quicktime. The package only installs the component if you need it. On my machine because the UVC component driver sees my cam it does not need the extra Sonix SN9C201 component but it only partially works, which is my problem. I dont know exactly how to edit these component drivers yet or if they can simply be edited without a lot of knowledge about coding. macam is also a component for quicktime. I'm not really a coder but I do mod a lot of things and to do that you have to know all of the parts that make up the cam working.

 

Those parts are the following:

 

IOUSBFamily.kext which holds AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext which is the main driver for detection of any camera. If you go under about this mac and look under your USB devices and see your camera with details like this:

 

USB 2.0 Camera:

 

Version: 3.21

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: bla bla manufacturer

Product ID: 0xb013

Serial Number: SN0001

Vendor ID: 0x04f2

 

Then your in luck. If you dont see your camera under there then you need to focus on a new AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext which will make your camera show up in there. Without detection of your camera you are SOL. ^_^

 

The next part of the puzzle are the quicktime components. QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component, & QuickTimeIIDCDigitizer.component are the main two that you need to worry about. Those MUST be installed for any cam to work. Now there are a few other things that like to mess with those working. Those two things are: VDC.plugin & I believe RawCamera.bundle.

 

VDC is what stops photo booth from working and since I removed it I can use photo booth. Ichat does not ever load VDC.plugin however it loads RawCamera.bundle which I dont know what that does. If its like VDC and forces a higher res picture then that is my problem with ichat. I am still investigating that.

 

So the whole list that makes up apples webcam support is: AppleUSBVideoSupport.kext, QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component, QuickTimeIIDCDigitizer.component, VDC.plugin & RawCamera.bundle.

 

Hope that helps. These drivers have changed a lot since panther so going back and getting different versions of all of them could be the best way to get your camera to show up and work. So far I have only found an older version of QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer from 10.4.10.

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vaidyla
vaidyla
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tryed all this on my hp dv9000 ... the cam only starts showing image in the configuration window of Webcam Monitor (Cam is detected as "Hp webcam"). The webcam Monitor doesnt show image in its normal (monitor) window. Even though the cam light is glowing.

 

I deleted VDC.plugin but neither photobooth or webcam monitor do work...

 

any suggestions?

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chinasky
chinasky
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I have a Asus monitor model pw201 with integrated cam. It appears in system profile as a usb cam, but i can not make it work.

 

USB2.0 Camera:

 

Versión: 1.00

Potencia del bus (mA): 500

Velocidad: Hasta 480 Mb/s

ID del producto: 0x5602

ID del fabricante: 0x0402

 

thanks

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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tryed all this on my hp dv9000 ... the cam only starts showing image in the configuration window of Webcam Monitor (Cam is detected as "Hp webcam"). The webcam Monitor doesnt show image in its normal (monitor) window. Even though the cam light is glowing.

 

I deleted VDC.plugin but neither photobooth or webcam monitor do work...

 

any suggestions?

 

Check to see if your camera is UVC compliant (google model and UVC). If it meets that standard this trick should work. When you go under system preferences under accounts do you see a picture from the cam when you go to change the icon for your logon picture? If you get a picture theres like a 90% chance your cam is UVC compliant and the problem is the mac driver. Now why deleting VDC did not give you a result I'm not sure. I myself still do not have ichat working with my cam so I am trying to figure that out still.

 

 

 

I have a Asus monitor model pw201 with integrated cam. It appears in system profile as a usb cam, but i can not make it work.

 

USB2.0 Camera:

 

Versión: 1.00

Potencia del bus (mA): 500

Velocidad: Hasta 480 Mb/s

ID del producto: 0x5602

ID del fabricante: 0x0402

 

thanks

 

I can not tell what camera model you have. Try to find out if its a UVC cam. Then go under system preferences under accounts do you see a picture from the cam when you go to change the icon for your logon picture? A mini version of photo booth should load there. If you get the cam to work there then most likely you have a UVC compliant cam and deleting the VDC.plugin might give you access to full photo booth like it did me.

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Steven2k7
Steven2k7
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I have a DV 9700 laptop with a 2mp webcam. At first when I opened photoboth it gave me a green screen, but when I deleted VDC.plugin I just got a black screen. Unfortunatly I have no idea how to fix it either :D

 

Under USB devices, this is what it says:

 

Version 1.00

speed up to 12mb/sec

Manufacturer Broadcom Corp

Product ID: 0x121d

Vendor ID 0x02f0

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artbj
artbj
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I have a chicony camera and idea for possible fix!!!!

 

HP Webcam:

 

Version: 6.06

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd.

Product ID: 0xb023

Serial Number: SN0001

Vendor ID: 0x04f2

 

The computer I have is a hp dv9850

 

mine only works in aMSN, and not ichat.

it does not work in system preferences, though my hp tx1285 worked there...

 

the hptx 1285 had a webcam that did not work with forexample freakshow using the tubgirl 10.4.10 installation

 

tho - I once started freakshow using my hackint0sh jas 10.4.8 installations hard disk as external - in this hard drives application

folder I started a regged version of freakshow - and woopsadaysie.... I got video there.

 

conclusion: the frameworks of 10.4.8 and certain kexts and bundles from there could help us out. As this hptx1285 also must be chicony / sonix

I am not sure wether or not leo would crash with this framework from 10.4.8 and kexts - but it could be worth a try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers

 

aRt

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00diabolic
00diabolic
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conclusion: the frameworks of 10.4.8 and certain kexts and bundles from there could help us out. As this hptx1285 also must be chicony / sonix

I am not sure wether or not leo would crash with this framework from 10.4.8 and kexts - but it could be worth a try.

cheers

 

aRt

 

Yes Exactly!!!!!!!!!!! :)

 

I think that the UVC driver and software used for cams in Leopard is the problem with most cams. If we can get the old tiger stuff and use that it should work. :moil: Now I have gotten part of the 10.4.10 UVC package and saw no difference. I have not tried 10.4.8 yet though nor can i find it anyway. Yet I have read that a lot more cams have worked in 10.4.8 then in any of the other versions of OSX so far. We need to come up with a list of files to get from 10.4.8. Its not just kext its also the quicktime components that we need to collect and then install in Leopard. I will see what I can dig up as far as all of the needed files.

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Monkey_@@
Monkey_@@
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Posted

Here is what I have:

 

HP Webcam:

 

Version: 6.06

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd.

Product ID: 0xb015

Serial Number: SN0001

Vendor ID: 0x04f2

 

Now, I've installed aGent Webcam G3 but the main WebCam Monitor screen is always blank. BUT, if I select Monitor -> Video Settings I can see my image on the preview box!!!

 

I've tried to delete VDC.plugin but still no changes either in Skype, iChat, Photo Booth, Quicktime or anything else... all of them showing just a black screen... so, any ideas???

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