Every once in awhile we were seeing problems on MacBooks (Intel graphics adapter) where having CamCamX running in the background would cause some strange behaviour in the foreground application. We think we've isolated this problem to the QuickTime 2vuy to ARGB converter that we were using to drive the MixMonitor window. We've changed things around to use OpenGL for that window, and are being a bit less aggressive when it comes to performance. If you experience any strange problems with display updates when CamCamX is running (1.512 going forward), please be sure to ping us with a quick bug report that includes your 1. OSX Version, 2. Mac Model# and 3. Graphics Card make and model.

Today we released a new version of CamCamX, 1.511, which includes full support for Leopard. The enabling technology is our innovative Quartz Composer plug-in, which allows the CamCamX output to appear as an image input in any Quartz Composer composition. With this we built plug-ins for Leopard PhotoBooth which allow you to do sophisticated "Picture in Picture" style video mixing directly into Photo Booth, which means you can easily (and cheaply) record live video mixes.

For iChat Theater, we've included a file in the Goodies folder which will allow you to "share" the CamCamX mix output with anyone you're chatting with on iChat Video. Simply go to the file menu and Choose "Share a File with iChat Theater", and select the CamCamX sharing .QTZ -- this will send the live mix output from CamCamX to your chat buddy. Keep in mind that both DotMatrix and Qamera also support this functionality - or - you can mix DotMatrix and Qamera output with CamCamX and go nuts with a creative performance over chat. Because all these features are built on our sophisticated camera sharing architecture, it means that you can perform live on video, and simulcast the video stream AT THE SAME TIME, to SKYPE, Yahoo!Messenger, iChat, and almost all web-enabled chats, including Stickam, ustream.tv and mogulus.

We've also made improvements in the underlying architecture to support "Fast User Switching". Since Leopard allows two users to be logged in, both with the camera open, we thought it would be good if CamCamX could also be run independently in each session.

Back when trying to juggle our release schedule, and before CamCamX could read the ARGB camera inputs sent by Qamera and DotMatrix, we put a little code into the DotMatrix camera rebroadcaster to keep CamCamX from loading it. Well, today, in conjunction with our cool new Quartz Composer plug-ins for DotMatrix and Qamera, we've removed this limitation so that you can now setup Qamera and DotMatrix as inputs in CamCamX and mix them live.

In the picture on the right you can see the combo of CamCamX, DotMatrix and Qamera in action on Leopard. Naturally, we test our products on Tiger and Leopard and PowerPC and Intel. As it is to be expected, bugs may escape our awareness from time to time and we sure appreciate it when people tell us about it. It helps us make the products better.

NOTE: The following applies only to QuickTime 7.3 under Tiger.

It's been something of a challenge tracking the rapid deployment of all the QuickTime revisions, ahem, to say the least. While our Apps are working great under both QuickTime 7.2 and 7.3 (and probably 6.5, although we don't test it), they have made some changes to QT Player Pro that will require an update to all our little virtual cam apps for recording. We definitely want to do this, as the camera output from DotMatrix and Qamera is ARGB with an alpha channel which is something that many VJ's and PRO video nerds will love. If that sounds like you, either use an alternative movie recording App, or downgrade to QuickTime 7.2 -- QT 7.2, which we used primarily during the development of our new ARGB camera technology, works great with both Qamera and DotMatrix - you can record a Device Native 640x480 with an alpha channel and bring it into Final Cut. Etc. Or pipe DotMatrix into Quartz Composer and have the video texture alpha ready (at least, that's the theory).

BTW, we did release a CamCamX upgrade today that fixed a problem preventing MACAM and other third party webcams, including Qamera from working correctly. Now, on Tiger, you have a choice of either starting CamCamX first, then Qamera, or vice versa. On Leopard, with our X5 driver installed ("Leopard-Only.pkg"), it doesn't make a difference.

If you have any questions about routing video signals, please send them our way.

Due to the fact that new Quartz Composer accesses the iSight using the shared iSight features of Leopard, using CamCamX with QuartzComposer requires an additional step (shown at right).

Basically, you need to locate the video input "patch" inside the .QTZ composition, and then select the CamCamX camera as the source input. We're trying out some new QC Leopard stuff and it works great.

Labels: camcamx, leopard, quartz composer

Today we released a new mini-driver for Leopard that allows DotMatrix and CamCamX to open the Built-in iSight in Leopard's new "Shared Mode". This will allow both CamCamX and DotMatrix to run at the same time as PhotoBooth.

We call this little driver CamCamX5 and it is available as free download.

This driver will also allow Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and iMovie HD (all applications which support CamCamX) to open the iSight in shared mode under Leopard.

Labels: imovie, isight, leopard, skype, yim

Programs written to the new QuickTime 7.2 QTKit Capture APIs, which includes most Apple iApps included with Leopard, do work with CamCamX. However, a small workaround must be observed:

1. Start up CamCamX normally.
2. Under the "A" menu (Camera A), choose "No Camera".
3. Now start the other Camera application (ie. QuickTime Pro).
4. Now both the iSight (CamCamX) and Built-in iSight input should be visible in the Leopard App.
5. Choose iSight (CamCamX) as the input in the Leopard App.
6. Now, bring the CamCamX application to the foreground.
7. Under the "A" menu, choose "Built-in iSight".

This method works with all the Apple applications we've tested except for PhotoBooth and QuartzComposer.

Our initial testing with Leopard indicates that CamCamX is working normally. However, some webcams which rely on 3rd party drivers like MACAM may need a driver update first.

As a demonstration of so-called fake webcam with CamCamX, here's what we did:

• Copied PhotoBooth.app (temporarily) from a MacBook to a 12" PowerBook
• Disconnected the external iSight from the 12" PowerBook
• Opened CamCamX and dropped a music video onto Source A (could just as well have been a still image taken with a cellphone).
• Launched PhotoBooth and took a picture of the prerecorded video.
• As you can see from the screen grab, PhotoBooth believes the 12" MacBook has a built-in iSight, even though the Mac has no physical camera at all - that's how good our iSight emulation is.

Having a fake webcam is useful for uploading pre-edited video content to sites that only accept webcam input. Also, webcam performers might like to stage additional performances by repeat broadcasting earlier performances or rebroadcasting performances for viewers in different timezones. It's a handy feature, and if you were using Windows instead of a Mac, you'd pay $20 for a very rudimentary application that can barely emulate a webcam, let alone a full video mixer with multiple camera inputs.

If you need fake microphone to go with fake webcam, we suggest using SoundFlower and SoundFlowerBed.app.

In our release notes for version 1.5 of CamCamX, we state that the Logitech QuickCam UltraVision is "just as good" as the external Apple iSight. I want to clarify what we mean by that right now.

Apple no longer sells the external FireWire iSight. I'm sure there is some stock floating around on eBay and in other stores, and if possible, our recommendation at this time is that if you are wanting a second camera for doing 2-camera shoots with CamCamX, you should definitely pick up an Apple iSight (FireWire). First of all, it is much better to have your second camera on the FW bus instead of the USB bus (we're assuming a modern Intel MacBook here). While QuickTime can open a second camera on the USB bus, we're not exactly clear on whether the second camera is always opened in high-resolution mode, or if it is reduced to a 320x240 type frame size. We'll keep you updated on that fact.

Prior to CamCamX 1.5, if you had a Logitech QuickCam UltraVision, the default processing path was conversion to RGB (the old standby) and then back to YUV for use in the video mixer. However, in version 1.5 we made specific changes to the product so that the UltraVision pixels would be just as good as the native pixels from an iSight. This is what we meant in the release notes, which were hastily written on the day of the product ship.

As far as image quality goes, it appears to us that Apple is doing some image processing on the iSight frames at the driver level. In particular, we believe they are doing a temporal based noise reduction and possibly histogram equalization on the chroma channels to make the image more vivid. Which is why the iSight simply looks better than any other webcam on the market that we've tested, both Mac and PC. And as a side note, despite the much smaller size of the camera in the MacBook, these tiny built in cameras have significantly improved image quality over the older external FireWire iSight.

In summary, when shopping for a second camera for live 2-camera webcasting, if at all possible, use a FireWire iSight, and if one of those is not available, the Logitech QuickCam UltraVision is the preferred second choice for use with CamCamX.

It is absolutely true that the USB Class Video driver included with Mac OS X and the QuickTime vdig supports the QuickCam UltraVision (you do not need MACAM or any other 3rd party driver). You do need the most up to date version of QuickTime. Support in iChat preceded support in QuickTime, as far as we can tell, so if you're running an earlier version of QuickTime (earlier than July07 7.2), it will probably work in iChat. But if you need QuickTime support, you need the July07 updates to QuickTime. At least, that's what our testing tells us. Your mileage may vary....

We're pretty excited about the new version of CamCamX. In version 1, some of our customers wanted to use more than one camera. We added support for this, but we were not completely happy with the way it worked. SO, we went ahead and upgraded CamCamX to be a full 6x2 professional style video mixer aimed at live performance.

This is a free upgrade for all CamCamX users, and a free copy of CamCamX is available to all DotMatrix customers who purchased DotMatrix on or before August 18, 2007.

We always love to hear from our customers!