MacBook Pro OS X Logitech C920

[chlocaine]

I can not get this webcam to work when streaming on myfreecams. After reading through the forums I downloaded Webcam Settings and my picture is still extremely pixelated. What am I doing wrong? I'm ok with the picture not being absolutely pristine just not so pixeled.

 

[Finebrush]

Are you sure is not that you have a pretty low bandwidth Internet connection ? ( I don't know!)

 

[Tilly]

There might be some helpful advice for you on this thread. I have found that using my HD Logitech cams on my macbook can be tricky as fuck and I have to run them through a program called iGlasses for it to be the right aspect ratio and whatnot. It has a free trial, so you could at least try it out and if it works, it's worth purchasing for future use.

Your problem might also be your bandwidth.
You could try speedtest.net to check it, or the bottom of the model web broadcaster while you're streaming.
You typically want the model web broadcaster to say that your bandwidth is EXCELLENT. Anything less and your pixellated problems could just be a slow connection. I know I had issues with pixellation on my feed when I was camming off shitty hotel internet and hotspots in Vegas for AEE. Once I got back home to my sorta fast internet, everything was fine again.
Worse comes to worse, you can try hardwiring to your internet to try to get the best speed possible.

 

[Finebrush]

Yep, wifi can be slowing the whole thing down. I know one can't always connect to the router by the typical network cable. I'd recommend it, tho.
(besides: More stability, more secure to have wifi even deactivated in the router, etc ) One silly reason of low bandwidth is that some people do steal bandwidth from their neighbors. And yeh, I hate wifi, so I just tend to recommend just turning it off in the router config, and several potential probs go away. In some cases this is impossible.

Anyway, it can be different issues if you see your self pixelated in applications on your computer, or if it's the users telling you they are seeing you pixelated. If you see your self all right in a test window in your PC, then it might be you having very low upload speed. Some providers do assign you a lot of download bandwidth but very poor upload speed. (Which is the key here, as what you are doing is actually sending)

Also, a lot of people don't know that with not very good Internet connections (I'd do with good ones, too) , you really should stop any peer to peer or other sort of downloads software which could be active. Or if you are in a home with shared connection with other users and their all the time playing, or watching youtube videos, the speed the cam gets is poor, and its stability. It made me mad one case till I discover the guy was always checking his connection speed at the very exact time when heavy anti virus updates where indeed scheduled to happen. Of course, turning off the anti virus would be crazy.

I'd check the connection, (I'd say a minimum of 1 megabit/sec of upload is recommended) is a must, but the reason behind all this is surely the mac issue Tea420 pointed out. (I'm a Windows and Linux user, but strongly suspect it could be that. In Windows this can happen for example when the driver is badly installed or the thing is using some generic driver.)

 

[chlocaine]

Thank you for taking the time to help. I'm fairly sure my internet speed is not the issue although I will be keeping all of your suggestions in mind. I downloaded iGlasses and the image is no longer pixelated. I'll see how it goes next time I'm broadcasting but this appears to have done the trick. Thanks again.

 

[CharlieSays]

Ew! So last night my c920/macbook/iglasses combo did the same thing. I had to use my old webcam. PIcture was fine in iGlasses preview, super pixelated in broadcaster.

WTF? I wonder if there was an update from either MFC or iGlasses causing it. Teacakes, what browser do you use for modelweb?

 

[Finebrush]

Ok. Curiosity did hit me again. That evil thing... :evil: :evil: :-D
(I like technology stuff, too...)

I have gone as far as digging now a bit about it (some minutes. Probably there's a lot more out there)

This below may not help at all. Or all the opposite. These are my fast findings :

- CPU, video card, etc. I am not asking what computer you have. But pointing out that it can happen with underpowered computers, or if you are multitasking heavily at the moment, etc.

- Logitech support FAQ for your cam model.
http://www.logitech.com/en-us/support/h ... =14&bit=64

- Some more help with tips in the Logitech site:
http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/app ... 5/cl/us,en

- Finally, but maybe, the most important point (if it can help to MFC broadcasting somehow, I don't have a clue, as I just digged about this extremely fast) is a video where a guy tells you about a really cheap itunes app (I think 8$) that is called "Webcam Settings", that in different sources I am finding that helps with your exact model. It might help a real lot, go check it.

http://youtu.be/6W1ct0yOpwU

The app itself, it seems is here (but double check your self if is the one the guy says)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/webcam- ... 6630?mt=12

A version of it, free. (but unless you are literally in extreme poverty, go all the way and purchase it, as I have read that is more powerful the commercial one. Anyway, you might want to try it too, in case the other one fails. The free one seems to be offered by Logitech)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/logitec ... mpt=uo%3D4

Final note: This are all facts I have not checked myself. But that seem to lead to a good solution. Also, it seems the problem is that this exact model is not well supported in the Mac, and that is probably what happens.

Note: One thing I have read in several places is, check that you count on USB 2.0 ports in your computer. I'm a Windows user, so a bit lost in all what is Mac related.

Very last note: I would need to test the app to know if helps some how with the pixelation problems. It sure helps with the camera controls. If it doesn't, checking fully the Logitech c920 FAQs linked above would totally help.

Cheers !

 

[Starling]

This is clearly not as thorough of a response as Finebrush has given, but I have this problem occasionally.

I cam in HD, and have both "HD" and "beta" options selected, but sometimes at the bottom of the screen it will say "SD". This is different from just camming in normal quality, in which case it will say "bandwidth: excellent/good/whatever". It'll say "SD" and then my connection speed.

When this happens the guys mention I'm pixelly, and I usually have to refresh a couple times. I have blazing fast internet and a brand new cam, so I've chalked it up to being an MFC problem.

 

[Finebrush]

Interesting... As pixelation also can occur with other cams in low cpu situations, maybe in some cases the Flash side (the Flash plugin has quite some issues related to stability and performance, in many browsers, that wouldn't be an issue necessarily from the cams site) of things in the cam site broadcaster for bugs or due to browser issues, too much load, memory and cpu usage have gone really bad (you often don't notice, other times you opened way too many tabs), one could think it might be just be the flash or browser resources usage. These 2 things are really resources hungry and they don't have good systems to "recover" them selves well. Sometimes requiring a full browser reboot, in really weird cases, a computer reboot... Can be faulty code in the broadcaster of the site, who knows.

In my very little knowledge about it, I tend to experience better memory, cpu and resources usage in Chrome browser than in Firefox. Safari, no idea. Chrome in the Mac, no idea. I would test Chrome. Each tab is an independent process, better memory and cpu stuff handling than with other browsers. I'd give it a try. And hurts to say so, as I'm a Firefox lover, and all time user.

 

[CharlieSays]

This is clearly not as thorough of a response as Finebrush has given, but I have this problem occasionally.

I cam in HD, and have both "HD" and "beta" options selected, but sometimes at the bottom of the screen it will say "SD". This is different from just camming in normal quality, in which case it will say "bandwidth: excellent/good/whatever". It'll say "SD" and then my connection speed.

When this happens the guys mention I'm pixelly, and I usually have to refresh a couple times. I have blazing fast internet and a brand new cam, so I've chalked it up to being an MFC problem.

It WAS doing the SD thing to me (normally doesn't.) I'll give everything including my router a reboot tonight and see if this helps.

 

[Finebrush]

Could it be that the mac is an old one, low cpu, graphic card, etc? if you were in Windows I'd say check your flash plugin is udpated and use Chrome...maybe some of this applies, though... Not every machine is capable of displaying fluidly HD, or can if there's not even a little extra processing going on (as some machines run it quite in the limit)

I'm guessing the software does the usual thing: Examines the available "power". And determines if it is going to be possible to display HD at good frame rate, etc. It could happen that if in that moment it is overloaded, a machine quite in the limit will loose its "ability" to display in HD quality, or the software might (correctly or not) "think" so. One thing important in general in these matters is, if it used to work well before, and all of a sudden it is doing it, think very well what you are doing new or different: From there you might deduce what's happening.

 

[Tilly]

Charlie, I typically use Chrome to broadcast on MFC. Every once in a while I switch it up but haven't lately.

The pixellation could just be that you're viewing the cam preview. If I drag mine any bigger than normal, it's always pixellated. Did it turn out pixellated when you broadcasted?

Make sure you right click or cam feed and see what you are selecting as your cam, too. You should have a few options like your built in iSight on your computer, the regular Logitech cam feed, iGlasses (it's a virtual webcam), and whatever other virtual webcam softwares you might run through. For me, I run my Logitech through iGlasses, then to Camtwist or Manycam for the watermark, so the end result is whatever I choose on MFC's Flash settings for my broadcast.

Also, check that link I posted above. We've troubleshooted through a lot of Logitech/Mac issues there. It may help you to read through it.

My macbook is from 2009 and I got my Logitech c910 it to work on it (finally!) and even got a watermark on my feed. I'm using iGlasses and Camtwist and/or Manycam but it's been fine so far now that I've sorted it out. The problem isn't that you have a mac, it's that Logitech doesn't make proper software (or drivers) for macs. There's nothing in the Logitech software or drivers for macs that will allow you to fix your aspect ratio or anything prior to broadcasting so you will get the squished look or a pixellated feed. It's really pathetic shit so to get the most out of your webcam using a mac you have to run it through alternate software. The best I've found is iGlasses to simply get your cam looking normal. Watermarking is a different story since iGlasses doesn't have that feature.

Another easy way around all this is to dual boot with Windows (using parallels, bootcamp, rEFIt, whatever else you find that you may prefer over the others) and see if anything works any better from there. I use rEFIt on my iMac solely because I have to in order to play some online games and whatnot, but I fiddled with using some other software to get the most out of my Logitech and ran into just as many (completely different) problems. Seems like there will be technical issues regardless. People like to blame different things, but there's always a way of working around it. Just takes a lot of trial and error!

In regards to HD Video Beta settings, I've noticed it's laggier for me and I get a lower frame rate regardless of my bandwidth being excellent. Besides getting a little "HD" banner on the homepage, it's useless to me in terms of quality. I have listened to my viewers and checked for myself on an alternate computer while I'm online and I see no difference in the picture quality of my feed when I use my HD cam using regular broadcast settings vs. using HD Video Beta. I'm not sure if that's just me or what. I do know that putting your feed through multiple virtual webcams like I do can depreciate the quality a bit, so that may be why I'm not seeing any difference between the two broadcast settings, but I figured I'd give my two cents on that as well since it seems to be an age old mystery at this point. :twocents-02cents:

 

[CharlieSays]

Well, it turns out I'm an idiot. I updated Adobe Flash, and forgot to go back in and choose iGlasses (rather than Logitech) in the broadcaster. I agree about the HD thing though. Slows my feed and doesn't seem to improve image quality of the user end.

Fist bump for 2009 macbooks!