Intel Create and Share

Cornell

Many users have been sucessful in getting this camera working with the Cornell version with the aid of SoftCam. The tech note below has a strong Softcam setup section that applies to many other camera/capture card setups. This is even though you may not have an ATI video card. I have a SoftCam setup quick start page.

White Pine 3.1.x

This camera works with the White Pine 3.1.2 version by doing some extra file manipulations. The file quartz.dll if present on the PC will cause the video to freeze if it is version 6 or newer. Others have found vid to be black. My present system has in c:\win98\system version 6.01.05.0319. White Pine installs version 4.x and it also works with version 5.x from earlier versions of DirectX. Here is one way to manipulate the file quartz.dll.

From: "RKW"
To:
Subject: [cu-seeme-network] Re: newbie here...how does it all work?
Date: Tuesday, January 04, 2000 11:26 PM

well, its pretty easy actually. All ya have to do is set it up properly.
Just follow the directions. Go to options, choose Microsoft WDM image
Capture as the default video source (in SoftCam), and for the default background ,default
Live Video. Then in cornell choose softcam as the video driver (Video tab, Capture Device). Thats it!
RKW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Squeek ©"
To:
Subject: [cu-seeme-network] Re: newbie here...how does it all work?
Date: Wednesday, January 05, 2000 12:39 AM

At 06:53 PM 01/04/2000 -0800, you wrote:
> I don't know how you have gotten softcam to work properly with the Intel
> camera. I have tried downloading it twice and it glitches up my Intel
> camera so bad that I have to start over and download the software for it
> all over again! I have been unsuccessful using softcam with ICU and
> CUSEEME. If anyone knows the secret.....please let me know. Softcam
> takes over your system and won't let the Intel camera perform properly.
>
> Dave

One of the first things you need to understand is exactly what SoftCam is,
and what it does, and how it's installed in windows. People that DON'T
understand these things, tend to reinstall software in an attempt to fix
things, when in actuality, the problem is elsewhere. I don't work for
softcam, nor do I profess to be an expert with it, but I can at least give
you a simplistic answer that may help. If my explanation sounds
condescending to you, don't take offense...some others may actually learn
something from this, too.

SoftCam is a video capture driver. It happens to be a very SPECIALIZED
video capture driver, which takes in video from ANOTHER video capture
driver (your Intel driver) and converts it into a format that other
programs (like the Cornell version of CU-SeeMe) understand how to
interpret. SoftCam is installed into Windows just like any other video
capture driver. Click on Start/Settings/Control panel/Multimedia, then on
the Devices tab, then click on the little square with the plus sign in it
[+] to expand the Video Capture Devices section. You should see both: your
Intel driver, AND SoftCam. They are both video capture drivers, and are
completely separate programs.

Once SoftCam is installed, you select it as your capture driver in programs
like CU-SeeMe, and then you tell SoftCam which OTHER video capture driver
it should use for its input.

Your Intel driver should still be in place, and you should be able to
select it in CU-SeeMe. If you download VidCap32 (from Microsoft), you
should be able to select the Intel capture driver and see yourself. After
that, select SoftCam for your video capture driver, and within SoftCam,
select the Intel video capture driver. Once again, you should be able to
see yourself, thus proving that SoftCam does NOT "take over your system".

I've placed a copy of vidcap32.zip in the vault for this mailing list,
which can be found here:

http://www.egroups.com/docvault/cu-seeme-network/

Now the beauty of SoftCam is that it can take your video from the Intel
driver at CIF (352X288), QCIF (176X144), or even Sub QCIF (128X96) size,
and convert to 120X160, which is what the Cornell version of CU-SeeMe
requires. In addition, it can take that video in 8 bit, or 16 bit RGB, or
YVU9 format (or even some others) and convert that into RGB24, which is
understandable by Cornell CU.

The ATI video capture card has caused some problems with others regarding
using SoftCam. Even though this is not the card you have, the following
info might still be of some help to you. This info came straight from
Jamie Erbes, the author (or maybe that's CO-author) of SoftCam:

> You asked me last night how I got ATI working with SoftCam on Cornell's CU
> 1.0. The first thing to do is to download the new updated version of
> SoftCam 1.0.1 (or get the little updater if you don't want to dl the full
> build with all its image samples). I just posted it on the web site around
> midnight (PST) last night. It is a bit more stable and overcomes some
> live/stored switching problems with some capture devices. It now supports
> all ATI formats. It also "fixes" the Iomega Buz driver to work with
> NetMeeting, stabilizes the Connectix QuickClip driver, and cleans up some
> driver residue left behind by the Hauppage WinTV (audio sometimes gets
> stuck on).
> >
> > The previous SoftCam/ATI combo had trouble if the ATI was natively set at
> QCIF (176x144). In other words, if you brought up CU, go to video
> preferences, select the ATI card, OK (CU will complain of unsupported video
> at this point), go back into video preferences, click format, set the ATI
> format to a size other than QCIF, OK (CU will complain again), go back into
> video preferences, select SoftCam as your video device, and then make sure
> your SoftCam video format settings are RGB 160x120.
> >
> > The new 1.0.1 SoftCam shouldn't be so difficult as the QCIF support is
> fixed.
> >
> > Also remember that when SoftCam is launched by CU (or any other video
> app), and it comes up in "live" mode, you might need to switch the
> stored/live toggle back and forth to bump the camera driver again. Also,
> a common problem we see stems from inadequate video capture device
> installation procedures. Many device vendors just don't do registry
> updates properly. They often leave device descriptions and "friendly
> names" unpopulated. When this is the case, SoftCam will have trouble
> finding the device's drivers. Windows "fixes" its own registry in this
> case if you go to your control panel, open up the Multimedia control panel,
> click the Advanced tab, look at your video capture devices, and then click
> OK. It's safest to reboot afterward depending on your applications and
> devices.

Their web page ( http://www.softcam.com ) states that the latest version is
1.2, and has just been released. If you have an older version, it might be
worth your time to get the update.

I hope this helps.

Bill Woodland squeek@cu-seeme.net http://cu-seeme.net
Email should be plain text, not HTML

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Hoople <hoople_ny@hotmail.com>

Last modified Thursday, February 24, 2000 11:44:13 AM