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AbelCam with Creative Live! Motion VF0150 no device settings in Windows 7 32 bit
By: SyedF
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 25
From: n/a
Added: 10/24/2010 - 05:09 PM

Hello,


I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 32-Bit. 8GB RAM, AbelCam ver 4.0.0. The Webcam I have is Creative Live Motion Webcam VF0150 . There are no drivers for it released specifically for Windows 7 , so just by forcing the compatibility mode for Windows XP SP2 / 3 I did install the drivers and camera is detected in AbelCam and other applications. I was primarily using it for security / remote home surveillance using the AbelCam.

The only disappointing thing is under Windows 7 the "Device Settings" under "Properties" is totally disables. I cannot set exposure. brightness/contrast in this tab because everything is disables as you can see in the screen shot URL.

http://img684.imageshack.us/i/creativelivemotion.jpg

This is a very huge drawback, cause usually the "Auto Exposure" checkbox is ticked by default, which makes the camera display stream update very slow, especially during movements. The only trick to have a fast video capture stream from the camera is to manually un-check the "Auto Exposure" and set the exposure to a reasonable value on the slider.

It works fine in Windows XP, any version. In Windows 7 the whole tab is disabled and I guess the "Auto Exposure" check box is enabled by default. The other two tabs "Advanced Settings" and "Extended Settings" are working fine. Is it got something to do with the Video for Windows Interface, or some video card drivers. I have Nvidia 9800 GT which supposedly is a reasonably powered PCI-Express GPU.

I need it badly otherwise the camera capture stream during movements is very very blurry (guess USB 2.0 speed is insufficient for it, or maybe camera hardware cannot process auto exposure images very efficiently). Is it anyway we can disable this setting, (maybe by playing the INF driver files or somewhere else in the registry).

I also have the Windows XP installed where everything works normally , can we somehow copy the device settings from Windows XP. Any clues regarding this would be highly appreciated.

Badly need the expert gurus help over here.

Thanks for reading and replying .
By: MelvinG
Rank: Magna Cum Laude
Topics: 661
From: Los Angeles, USA
Added: 10/25/2010 - 12:24 PM

First just let me say that I ran a Creative Live Motion under WinXP for several years and the driver was TROUBLE. Any time something was keeping the system from booting it would turn out to be that Creative driver. I'm surprised it works under Win7 at all!! If at all possible, replace the camera with something more modern.

The settings you want to access are stored by the driver in the Registry. You'll need to use Regedit to change them since the dialog box is disabled.

The registry path will be like this:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{CLSID}

Substitute your camera's actual CLSID value for {CLSID}!! USB cameras typically have CLSID of:

6bdd1fc6-810f-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f

Once you get to that place in the Registry there will be a few "sub-keys" with names like 0000 and 0001 and 0002, etc. Use trial and error to figure out which one is your camera. I can't tell you because it's different on every system (depends what all you have installed and in what order you installed it).

Under one of those "000X" sub-keys will be a sub-key called Settings. It is in here that you will find all the camera settings, and they will have fairly clear English names. Make changes, reboot computer, see how it works, repeat until happy.

Here is the entire registry path to one of my cameras (again, note that the 4-digit number might not be the same on your system):

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\6bdd1fc6-810f-11d0-bec7-08002be2092f\0005\Settings

Also, just in case you don't already know this, "HKLM" stands for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

This info is from WinXP (I don't have Win7) but should be very similar on 7. SSE has Win7 - maybe he can correct me if I've said something wrong.

Best of luck... Wink
By: SyedF
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 25
From: n/a
Added: 10/25/2010 - 05:00 PM

Melvin,

Thank you very very much for showing me the light. I am a fairly able Windows Power User and hopefully would be able to steer my way in the registry. It was just ray of hope needed in the right direction.

Again thanks , and will update you about whether this experiment really was successful in Windows 7 or not.

Getting on to it now..

Cheers.

By: SyedF
Rank: Frequent User
Topics: 25
From: n/a
Added: 10/25/2010 - 07:24 PM

I have found the key as follows

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\0001\Settings

Within it I can see all the settings and adjusted it to my requriements.

Was a ingenious solution to a long withstanding problem...

Thanks again.

Cheers.
By: MelvinG
Rank: Magna Cum Laude
Topics: 661
From: Los Angeles, USA
Added: 10/26/2010 - 01:01 AM

No problem! I'm glad it worked. Also, thank you for the follow-up report.