Product Description

Connect the Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro camera and you'll love the smooth, fluid video the high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity delivers. At 30 frames per second, it's a great way to keep in touch with friends and family across the miles using your favorite Instant Messaging programs. Enjoy smooth, natural looking video thanks to Live! View Auto Tuning technology. You'll get sharp, vibrant images with accurate white balance and better light exposure. Plus, this smart technology gives you enhanced frame rates. Creative Advanced Video FX software lets you add cool effects and backgrounds to your video chats. Change your hairstyle, wear a mask, or warp your image. Everything you need to spice up your video IM is included. With Smart Face Tracking activated, webcam will focus on only you so that you will always stay inside the video frame. It even tracks multiple persons, so everyone can get in on the conversation. Creative bundles a high quality headset with every webcam. Creative hands-free headset is both convenient and easy to wear. Live! View technology for sharper, more vivid images and enhanced frame rates Smart face tracking with 4x digital zoom Multi-attach base also works on flat panel and notebook displays Live! Cam Suite lets you edit, enhance, and organize your photos Advanced Video FX to add fun to your video IM SightSpeed for premium quality video call and video mail OrbSecure for remote monitoring Works with Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, MSN Messenger and other compatible instant messaging services System Requirements - Intel Pentium III 850MHz or above (Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz or higher recommended), Windows 2000 or XP, 128MB RAM (256MB recommended), 300MB free disk space, CD-ROM drive, USB port (USB 2.0 recommended), Display adaptor capable of 16-bit color

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6294 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: 73VF023000000
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: 7.00" h x 4.00" w x 10.00" l, 1.25 pounds

Features

• Talk to friends and family around the world using this webcam and instant messaging software
• High quality 640 x 480 VGA sensor
• Included Creative hands-free headset and Multi-Attach Base
• Compatible with both USB 2.0 and 1.1
• Works with Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, MSN Messenger, and other compatible instant messaging services

From the Manufacturer
Live! Cam Video IM Pro lets you chat with sharp, smooth and clear video. It comes equipped with a high-speed USB 2.0 connection so that you can enjoy faster frame rates and ultra smooth videos. At 30 frames per second and VGA resolution, you'll feel as if you are chatting face-to-face. Don't worry about lighting and brightness adjustments. Creative Auto Tuning handles it for you, so that you'll enjoy the clearest picture possible. Sit back and have more fun by adding a wide range of special effects and backgrounds to your video chat with the included software, Advanced Video FX.

	High quality 640 x 480 VGA sensor A premium camera unit lets you enjoy clear, smooth video chats. You can also take 1.3-megapixel pictures and record videos at up to 800x600 resolutions.
	Look your best with Live! View Look your best the easy way. Creative Auto Tuning automatically adjusts lighting and brightness to give you the clearest possible picture while you video chat.
	Spice up your chats with Advanced Video FX Have more fun by adding a wide range of special effects and backgrounds to your video chat with Advanced Video FX. Learn More.
	Smart face tracking With Smart Face Tracking activated, the camera automatically follows you as you move about, keeping you within the video always. It even tracks multiple persons, so everyone can get in on the conversation.
	Certified high-speed USB 2.0 Experience smooth, full motion 30 fps digital video streams and top quality images. Live! Cam Video IM Pro is also USB 1.1 compliant and works perfectly with lower USB connection.
	Creative headset included The Live! Cam Video IM includes a Creative hands-free headset that is both convenient and easy to wear. The result is a crisp, clear reproduction of your voice.
	Multi-attach base Live! Cam Video IM Pro attaches to almost anything - notebook displays, CRT monitors, Flat panel displays. Or let it rest comfortably on tables or other flat surfaces.
	Do more with included software Do more with Creative Live! Cam Suite. Edit and organize your photos, create fun photo calendars, set up remote monitoring. Do all this and more with the included software suite.
	Muvee autoProducer Create videos easily and quickly. Muvee autoProducer's fantastic video editing technology enables you to produce professional videos in an amazingly short period of time. Simply shoot it, muvee it and share it!
	Included SightSpeed and Orb 2 software Maximize your webcam experience with these great software included at no extra charge. Turn your PC into a video phone, make multi-party video calls3, and even stream photos and videos to Web-enabled devices like laptops, PDAs and mobile phones.
	Superior video for instant messaging! The camera works with Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, MSN Messenger and other compatible instant messaging services.

What's in the Box
Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro with USB 2.0 cable; Creative hands free headset; multi-language quickstart guide; and CD software containing Creative Live! Cam Center, Creative Live! Cam Manager, Creative Live! Cam Console, Creative Photo Manager, Creative Photo Calendar, muvee autoProducer, SightSpeed, Orb with OrbSecure, Yahoo! Messenger, and multi-language user's guide.

Customer Reviews

Defective Software, Clueless Tech Support, No Low Light Performance!
I bought this camera as a low cost security camera, I also tested its use as an eBay auction picture camera, and IM chat webcam.

The software has the following problems:
1) Drains system resources
2) Frequently freezes
3) Uses lower than advertised resolution and frame rate*
4) Installs processes and services that run on startup that the software can't be used to disable**
5) Lacks streaming video***

Installing the software takes more than 30 minutes, and you are better off not using any of the CDs that come with the cam. Download the latest version of the software from the website, if you don't the update feature will make you download them and install them, save yourself the time and go to Creative's website yourself.

The website is not very easy to navigate because there is no Live Cam Video IM Pro listed, there is "WebCam Live! Pro" and "Live! Cam Video IM," but no "Live! Cam Video IM Pro." This is one of the many support annoyances you will face with this cam.

I suggest not installing the software and installing only the drivers that you download from the support website. The software has remote monitoring, motion detection, and some otherwise useful looking applications, the problem is I had the motion detection and remote monitoring hang on me during a 24hour test. I did not get the software to run for more than 12 hours continuously.

The FX features are interesting (well about 3 of them are) such as the ghost, psychedelic, and fire. But they don't work very well because the face tracking is not very accurate if you have a forehead, glasses, or a mouth. I have all three, and I am fairly certain any reader seeing this has at least two of the three.

*: While recording with the camera I captured 640x480 and my fps dropped to .53 at the moment I walked across the camera's field of vision. I was staging a burglary and this critical failure caused the video of my burglary (taking 3 boxes out of a basement) to not record my face. I warp across the field of vision as the fps fluctuates between .53 and 6 fps.

If you use motion detection it takes a second or two to kick in and depending on how close the camera is to the subject (closer images get better resolution of the facial features) you subject may have walked past the camera before it begins to capture video. A security cam should not miss the subject and then deliver only blurry pictures of limbs.

**: When you install the software you are not asked when it also installs StartFX and CTLCMgr, these programs insert themselves into startup. Calling tech support didn't help. They didn't know that the software did this, they were also unable to tell me how to disable the features (I used msconfig and manually disabled them). Software should not lack a menu option that disables startup processes. These slow down startup and waste resources when you are not running the camera. I also asked tech support to list the processes, but they failed this test, they were unable to 'research' the issue. They have no idea about their own software.

***: You can get streaming video only through a third party website, Orb. Orb is not entirely free, and Creative does not stand behind it whatsoever. I was able to get Orb working and stream my camera over the internet for a short time before it crashed. Something about the Orb site bothers me, I feel they are collecting a bit too much personal information and that they are trying to sell you something. Also, Orb secure or whatever it is called on the box of the cam is not what you get. I kept looking for the red icon and special orb secure features only to find that orb 2.0 is what you get.

Creative teamed up with Yahoo to bring you advertising in your box. Keep your eyes peeled during install so that you don't inadvertently infest your computer with annoying toolbars and adware.

BUY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE FOR THIS CAMERA. The sooner you abandon Creative as anything but a hardware company with no real warranty, the sooner you can enjoy what this cam can do.

The low light performance is so poor, even if you are 3 feet from the camera, that there is almost no point in using it. I have not explored if other software can help improve lowlight performance by using effects that more intelligently handle contrast (making gray scale noticeable to human eyes).

If you use the software out of the box you better setup nice lighting, artificial lighting works well if it is evenly distributed and not too intense. Flip the lights on and off and the software responds slowly and poorly. You can enjoy the floundering attempts to capture images every time there is a change in lighting, this will only last for 1 to 5 seconds and then the camera will resume its poor quality performance in inadequate lighting.

DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA. The detector isn't that good, the software is abysmal, the USB cable is poorly shielded and suffers from interference. Adjusting the focus doesn't work, there is one focus and if you change it you make the image blurry, so you can play with degrading the image all you want but you can't make it better than the one size fits all. The lens also feels very cheap (wiggles in and out and rotates farther than intended) when you try to adjust it and it lacks fine control.

If I find software that deals with these problems, or a method of insulating the cabling cheaply and efficiently, I will post them here later.

Bad Image Quality
If you can get this webcam in the $10 range, then it's a good buy, because the poor image quality cannot justify spending anything more on it. It installed without any problem, but Contrast is bad in low light situation, and even with good lighting the picture is very grainy. Compared to the MSFT lifecam 3000, the Creative cam is 10x worse in term of picture quality.

Installed easily and working well
I have two of these- one on a Windows XP Home Dell desktop and one on an IBM Thinkpad X22 running Windows XP Pro. I followed the installation instructions, but did not install the special video effects software. There are options during installation and I would recommend starting with the drivers and control panel first, adding an extras once things are up and running.

I am using the camera with Skype and the whole process has been much easier than I was expecting it to be. The only problem at all was getting the sound right using the microphone and ear piece- I had to unplug the main speakers on the desktop system or it would mute the earpiece.

I was also pleasantly surprised at how well it works on my laptop with its PIII 800 processor. The video looks fine.