Creative WebCam NX Pro information and Troubleshooting

Creative WebCam NX Pro Product Guide

PC-CAM Center
PC-CAM Center is an application that enables you to take pictures and record videos with the Creative WebCam NX Pro. You can also view pictures and videos, and create and manage albums. You can start PC-CAM Center in any of the following ways:

• Click Start - Programs - Creative - Creative WebCam - Creative - PC-CAM Center.
• Double-click the Creative Cam Detector icon in your taskbar. This icon appears if, during installation, you clicked the option for Creative Cam Detector to launch automatically at Windows startup.
• Plug your camera into the USB port and let Windows auto-detect it. You can choose to start PC-CAM Center in Live Video mode from a popup window that appears.
  Note: PC-CAM Center automatically detects your installed model of Creative WebCam, and disables any unsupported features in the user interface.

Capturing Images and Video

For more instructions on how to take a photo or record a video, refer to the PC-CAM Center Help file.

Taking a Photo To take a photo:

• In the PC-CAM Center window, click the Live Video button. The current camera view is displayed in the Viewing window.
• In the Save photo in box, select the destination album for your photo.
• To capture the image shown in the viewing window, click the Snap an image button at the bottom of the window. By default, the photo is saved automatically and added to the destination album.

To preview a photo

• Click the Save automatically check box to clear it, if you want to preview each photo before deciding whether to save it to the destination album.
• Click the Snap an image button to take a photo. A preview of the photo is shown at the bottom-left corner of the Live Video window.
• Click the Save button if you wish to store it in the destination album.
• The Save automatically check box is selected, by default.

To record a video

• In the PC-CAM Center window, click the Live Video button. The current camera view is displayed in the Viewing window.
• In the Video size box, select a suitable resolution.
• In the Save video in box, select a destination album for your video.
• To start recording a video, click the Record video button.
• The button starts blinking to indicate that recording is now in progress.
• To stop the recording, click the button again.
• The button stops blinking. By default, the video is saved automatically and added to the destination album.

To preview a video

• Click the Save automatically check box to clear it, if you want to preview each video before deciding whether to save it to the destination album.
• Click the Record video button to start recording.
• After you stop recording, click the Play button on the bottom left-hand corner of the Live Video window to preview the video.
• If you wish to store it in the destination album, click the Save button after previewing the video.

Viewing a Photo

• Click the My Album button. PC-CAM Center is now in My Album mode.
• In the My Album box, click the My Photo folder and then click the album that contains the photos that you want to view.
• Thumbnails of photos in the album are displayed in the Thumbnails window.
• Double-click the thumbnail of the photo displayed in the Thumbnails window.
• The photo, in its actual size, is displayed in the PC-CAM Center Viewing window.
• If you are not satisfied with the result, you can select a higher resolution, and then capture the image again.

Viewing a Video

• Click the My Album button. PC-CAM Center is now in My Album mode.
• In the My Album box, click the My Video folder and then click the album that contains the video that you want to view. Thumbnails of videos in the album are displayed in the Thumbnails window.
• Double-click the thumbnail of the video you want to view.
• The video plays in the Viewing window.
• If you are not satisfied with the result, you can select a higher resolution, and then capture the video again.

Reactivating the Camera

If your computer goes into standby mode, your camera will go into suspend mode. You can reactivate the camera and computer by moving the mouse or pressing a key on the keyboard.

Starting PC-CAM Center Help

This Help file contains instructions on how to use PC-CAM Center to take photos and record videos. It also teaches you how to optimize settings to take high quality photos and videos.

To start the Help file:

• Click the PC-CAM Center logo at the top left corner of PC-CAM Center’s main window.
• On the PC-CAM Center menu, click Help.

Troubleshooting

An application reports that the video driver is already in use, or that the camera cannot be found.

We recommend you do the following:

• Ensure that the camera's USB connector is inserted, and that the USB connector is enabled in the BIOS. Refer to your computer's documentation for information on the BIOS.
• Reinstall the video capture drivers and restart your computer.

The camera's Power LED does not light up, or the computer restarts for no apparent reason.

You may have USB devices drawing too much power from your computer. This can happen especially when connecting USB devices to a passive or self-powered USB hub. In Windows XP, a dialog box similar to the above figure appears.

We recommend you do the following:

• Connect the camera directly to your computer's USB port.
• Use a USB hub with an external power supply.

Insufficient system resources reserved for the USB port, causing the system to be unable to function.

There are too many devices in the system, causing IRQ (interrupt request line) problems with the system's USB controller.

We recommend you do the following:

• Remove some devices from the system.
• Restart the system.
• The system will rearrange the resources automatically.

Problems in Windows XP

A Hardware Installation error message appears on a Windows XP operating system when applications are being installed.

At the time of this product's release, Microsoft strongly encouraged companies to submit their hardware solutions for certification. If a hardware device driver is not submitted, or does not qualify, for Microsoft certification, a warning message similar to the one below appears.

You may see this message when installing a driver. If you do, you may choose to click the Continue Anyway button. Creative has tested the driver on Windows XP, and it does not impair or destabilize your computer

Note on USB Compatibility

While testing Creative WebCam NX Pro on motherboards with integrated Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, we encountered a small number of motherboards that do not meet the USB specification exactly. These and other non-USB-compliant motherboards may not operate correctly with Creative WebCam NX Pro . Fortunately, the manufacturers of some of these motherboards have released new versions of motherboards or BIOS to address the problem.

If the setup program warns you that your motherboard's USB port is incompatible with Creative WebCam NX Pro , or if the camera does not work on your system and you suspect that the problem may be related to your computer's USB port, the following is a list of available options:

• Contact your computer vendor.Your computer vendor may be able to upgrade your motherboard or its BIOS to a newer version that addresses USB incompatibilities.
• Use a PCI host adapter that provides USB connectors.If you are not able to upgrade your motherboard or its BIOS, we recommend this approach.
• Attach the Creative WebCam NX Pro to a USB hub with an external power supply. Some USB devices (such as monitors) also operate as USB hubs; you can also buy USB hubs which are to be attached to your computer's USB port. However, in some cases, attaching a USB hub to a non-USB-compliant USB motherboard connector will not solve the problem.