Creative Live! Cam Optia

Hi Grant,

This page says it has a Note (1) on the USB Video Class info that it only applies to Windows XP Service Pack 2

This Page at Ecamm for their camera guide does not even mention it. (it may be a new version and the list is not exhaustive).

I can not see it comes with an On/Off Switch - although it can be twsited into a "Down" Position to be Off. It would be worth checking this.

Does it show up in her System Profiler ?
The Blue apple icon > About this Mac > More Info Button
Click on the Hardware reveal triangle > USB

If it is truly UVC compliant then it should work.



1:53 PM Friday; September 7, 2007

The other thing that crossed my mind was whether she has a USB 1.1 device or hub on the same port or controller (the USB Bus inside the Mac).

I have tried the X-Box 360 cam with my MacBook Pro where it works (USB 2.0) and my G4/1Ghz Dual (USB 1.1) where it does not despite being at the same OS.



3:57 PM Friday; September 7, 2007

I also recently purchased this camera as a birthday gift for friend of mine and decided to verify its functionality before handing in. So I've connected it to Mac Mini Intel and checked system profiler first. Camera recognized as Creative Optia so UVC is working here. But iChat, Skype and QT give black screen (QT gives actually green) although all of them see the camera. I have Mac Pro and iBook G4 so I've checked with them also. Mac Pro - same result, no image everywhere. But in iBook things totally different:
EvoCam - working !
iChat - working !
Skype - working !
QT Pro - working !

All computers updated to 10.4.10, Mac Mini and Mac Pro were updated manually with combo updater, iBook - via software update.
So what's conclusion :
1. Creative Live! Cam Optia should work on Macs
2. This is another one confirmation that something is really broken in 10.4.10 for Intel

Regards,
Igor

See if this might get you going:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/drivers/macam.html

Hey,

I'm having the EXACT same problem as the user above. Just bought the Creative Live! Optia camera. Just seeing a black screen on my Intel Mac Pro running OS X 10.4.10. When I switch the cam to my G4 12" Powerbook (also running OS X 10.4.10) I have NO problems at all!

Tried updating using "Software Update", but it didn't change a thing.
Tried using the recommended macam program and it doesn't detect the camera at all.

Is there some kind of patch in the works at Apple? Seems like an Intel issue...

The camera seems to work on PPC drivers, if you migrated to the Pro these might have been misplaced or lost. See if there is an uninstaller if you've downloaded drivers from a CD, I don't know a lot about these things but you could have a look here for common problems:

http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/troubleshooting.html

Think you need universal software.

Try a restart first.

Jan,

Thanks so much for the reply. The Mac Pro was a fresh start. Didn't migrate to it from any older computers. Neither ichat nor macam come with an uninstaller as far as I know.

Camera doesn't come with any drivers out of the box. It's seems that creative only supports Windows based PC's, but since it's a UVC device it should work plug and play straight from the box.

Definitely tried the reboot (and the power off, cycle, restart) and no love so far. It's just so strange to me that it works so easily on the old g4 processing computers...

If you have any other thoughts they would be appreciated.

Have you tried a different USB bus?

It's just so strange

Yes, it is kind of surprising, think the power management is a little different and that might be what makes this difference. Think you could best wait for an update cause it's hard to tweak this out yourself. Meanwhile use the G4 to video chat, at least it works on one of your systems.

Hi all,

Just wanted to say that I have the same problem. Live cam Optia, running on 10.4.10. Computer used iMac "globe" 800MHz. No previous webcam. Gives black screen in Skype!

same problem here. the computer sees the device yet no picture. any ideas or workarounds?

Humm... I have the same CAM as eveyrone else, Mac Mini w/ Intel 1.6GHz. Mac OSX 10.4.10, in "About This Mac/More Info.../USB/ this info appears:
Live! Cam Optia:
Version: 1.00
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Creative Labs
Product ID: 0x4057
Vendor ID: 0x041e

So the WebCAM is there, it's reconized, Skype knows it's there, so what's missing.....a plug in? Could it be a pulg in related to Skype or other chat programs?

Hi

Make sure you goto Skype's prefs/video and there is a check(tick) in the "enable skype video" and "start my video automatically.

Tony

It's ticked, the preview comes to a blank screen, the Optia Cam turns on it's blue ring light & no picture.

Did you install the macam driver.