Latitude: How to access the webcam?

Is there some sotr of program installed that allows you to use the webcam?
I can only access mine by default when using Instant Messenger.

 

Dell Video Chat, is the application they install on consumer systems, try looking around in your start menu. If you don't have it, you can get it from here: http://www.sightspeed.com/dellvideochat

 

You can also use Yawcam (Google it ) or some other webcam program. Applications such as Google Talk (with video feature installed) access your webcam as well.

 

My Precision M6400 has probably the same built-in webcam. I don't have any software either. I looked at it finally using Yahoo Messenger but either the webcam is really bad or Yahoo is really bad at viewing webcams.

Edit: Tried Yawcam, but it was very buggy for me. Black flickering screen on previews. But it did capture images ok, just the previews were broken. You will have to get a DirectShow addon Here, at the very bottom of the page. Then you will have to get in the Yawcam folder in Program Files, and replace these two files with the ones from the download:
yawcam\dsj.dll
yawcam\lib\dsj.jar

Then you will be able to start the program.

Note: I'm on Vista 64.

 

im a quite disappointed with the cam and lack of software the ability to simple take an image capture is shocking nevermind a video capture

plus during instand messaging sessions my cam is always freezing for a few seconds and im on an e6500 with the 2.8ghz cpu and 4gb of ram an 7200rpm drive so its clearly the cam is terrible or the drivers need some serious work!

 

Dell have recently posted Webcam Software A01 on the download site.

I haven't tried it yet.

John

PS: I have now installed that software which brings up a window showing what's on the webcam.

Maybe it is just coincidence, but since I installed this software, Roxio Update Manager decided to keep waking up and getting stuck in a loop because I don't have my Roxio CD with me. The fix here didn't work for me, so I uninstalled the Roxio Update Manager. However, I'm not impressed that a programming bug that is about 3 years old has not yet been fixed. It's probably not a coincidence, since Roxio has a video component that probably wants to link to the webcam.

 

Thanks for that John. I've been trying the Creative Webcam software (the webcam is made by Creative), as well as the Dell software for other laptops, and none of them were compatible.

Greg

 

do you think maybe some testing of a few different creative drivers from creatives site will allow proper functions like the ability to take a snapshot with the cam or maybe improve its performance as i have already mentioned its pretty dire!

 

I haven't found any drivers from Creative for integrated webcams, only for their retail stuff, and their Webcam Center doesn't work with the integrated webcam.

Greg

 

The new Dell Webcam Central can take photos and record videos, and don't over look the settings options near the bottom right corner.

John