Creative WebCam Live! Ultra Notebooks

Creative WebCam Live! Ultra Notebooks

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:15:42 PM, by Thai Tan

Overview

From audio, mice, keyboards, and video, Creative Labs sells an assortment of products for both desktop and notebook PCs. Since video instant messaging is the next-generation to communicate with friends, co-workers, and family from all over the world, Creative offers such solutions to enable mobile users to communicate via audio and video transmissions from their laptop. Creative's latest offering is the feature-rich, high-end Webcam Live! Ultra for Notebooks. This webcam takes advantage of high-speed USB 2.0 to deliver clear and smooth video and features a wide-angle lens to capture video in a 76-degree field view, which is 50% wider than other web cam offerings. The perfect solution for video instant messaging while on the go, the compact Webcam Live! Ultra attaches to the notebook's display lid and also includes a carry pouch for travel. A robust webcam control management software is included, the Webcam Center software gives users the ability to perform a multitude of functions, including taking snapshots, motion detection, remote video security monitoring, and time lapse videos.

With the quick and easy setup, good performance, and advanced features, the $99 Webcam Live! Ultra for Notebooks is a good value for mobile users who need a portable web camera to compliment their notebook for seamless communication with anyone, anywhere, and anytime.

Design

The compact design elements and stylish design make this web camera the perfect companion to any laptop. The camera is extremely lightweight, weighing approximately 2 ounces. Thanks to the high-gloss titanium finish, the silver and grey camera is sleek enough to compliment any laptop. Measuring in at 2.3-inches long, 1.8-inches wide, and .5-inch thick, the Webcam Live! Ultra is not much larger than three AA batteries combined. A protective pouch is included to ensure the camera is safely stored while on the go.

The camera is much more portable than the Sanyo mobile phone.

The included travel pouch offers protection and storage for the delicate camera.

Unlike flimsy hooks used on other notebook web cameras, the Webcam Live! Ultra has a clip design called PowerGrip that attaches on a notebook display. The clip uses a resistance method to cling on the bezel, while the rubber pads between each end of the clip provides additional grip. The adjustable clip retracts outwards about half an inch, with little space to clip the camera on thicker surfaces other than the notebook's bezel. Creative does offer the desktop variant of the Live! Ultra for those who don't mind the larger size.

Instead of automatically focusing the subject, the camera requires the focus to be manually adjusted, simply by turning the ring. The lens can focus close as 30 centimeters or infinitely far. This is actually an advantage since manual focus is useful for low light conditions. White balance and exposure can be automatically or manually controlled.

With a simple turns, the image is in focus.

The barrel that contains the lens can rotate 180 degrees vertically, giving the user more flexibility in capturing the subject. Unfortunately, the camera cannot rotate horizontally.

The camera's lens can rotate a complete 180 degrees.

Feature

CCD Sensor
The Webcam Live Ultra! uses CCD image sensors instead of the CMOS technology found in most conventional web cams. CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensors are specially manufactured for the device in question, whereas CMOS technology uses more traditional manufacturing process. These manufacturing differences lead to different performance qualities. CCD sensors capture high-quality and low-noise images. They are also more sensitive to light and can capture higher pixels. CMOS on the other hand are susceptible to noise, does not perform as well under low-light conditions and take lower quality images.

Capable of taking VGA quality (640 x 480) videos at up to 30 frames per second, the Creative webcam also features a 4X digital zoom and can snap digital still images up to 1.3 megapixels (1280 x 960). Users can opt to snap images at different resolutions using the Creative WebCam Center software. Additional video resolutions include: 352 x 288, 320 x 240, 176 x 144, and 160 x 120. For still images the only option is 640 x 480.

High-Speed USB 2.0
The web cam utilizes high-speed USB 2.0, capable of transmitting data at a maximum of 480 mega bits per second. This allows video to transfer faster and smoother, reaching up to 30 frames per second in video recording. Don't be misled with web cams that are advertised as, 'USB 2.0 compatible' - this is not the same as USB 2.0 certified. USB 2.0 compatible just means the device is actually USB 1.1, and works on computers equipped with a USB 2.0 host controller. USB 2.0 has the advantage of providing better performance since it reduces the computers workload. It also allows editing-gurus to capture full, uncompressed video streams. Lastly, the web cam is USB powered; therefore no additional batteries or AC adapter are required. If you're still stuck with USB 1.1, the camera is backwards compatible so anyone can use it.

Smart Face Tracking
Equipped with Creative's SmartFace-Tracking technology, the camera is capable of detecting movement of not just one person's face, but multiple faces simultaneously during video conferencing. The camera recognizes skin tone using color detection technology and automatically tracks a person's face, following and zooming into the face. The face tracking utility software allows you to select a couple of modes: continuous, which tracks the face continuously , or smart which means the camera is idle until head motion stops and it begins tracking again.

Creative Headset
Instead of integrating a built-in microphone to the camera, Creative includes a hands-free headset that plugs directly to the laptop's microphone and headphone jack. The advantage is it allows video messaging in private, as opposed to broadcasting the audio through the speakers.

Creative Webcam Software

Creative WebCam software
The Creative Webcam software provides an array of tools for controlling the webcam including taking snapshots, remote video monitoring, motion detection, and time-lapse video. There is a simple broadcast video button to seamlessly display the video you are capturing through Yahoo! Messenger. The creative software also organizes all your video clips and still images, providing the option to E-mail, print, or send through instant messaging.

Katie and Kristy likes this cam.

Taking digital still images or recording video clips is done by selecting the capture mode. Once selected, the subject will be displayed on-screen and user can simply click on the snap shot button under photo or video to begin recording. You can then organize the video clips and images within the Webcam Center software and send them via E-mail.

To enable the webcam to act as a security monitor, simply select remote monitoring. Users can program the time interval and duration to capture the images and then upload the captured images to a configured website through FTP - all automated. This is a perfect solution if you leave your home or office for an extended time, like for vacation; simply go to your desired website to view the images the webcam captured.

Since the remote monitoring feature records images continuously, even if nothing is happening, the motion detection feature captures images only if it detects movement in the room being monitored. Once motion is detected, an automated e-mail notification including a snapshot is sent to you. Giving you added flexibility, you can set the duration of the video recording or broadcast the video using Yahoo! Messenger when the camera detects movement. In addition, you can adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection and also select an area of interest in the screen to be monitored.

Thanks to the time lapse video feature, you can witness the process of the sun rising, plants growing, or eggs hatching in a shorter time. The time lapse video feature automatically captures images of a subject at a fixed time interval that is user-defined and it combines the multiple images together to form a continuous video at the end of the monitoring.

In the camera settings, users can select the desired image quality, video compression, and audio options to minimize the file size. You can also control the exposure, brightness, contrast, sharpness, gamma, and color in the main device settings. In the advanced settings, white balance and the option to flip the image either horizontally or vertically are available. In the extended settings, there are options to control the tracking speed, display mode (normal, letterbox, or pan-scan) and digital zoom.

Performance

Testbed
To test the Creative Webcam Live! Ultra, I synced it up to the Acer Travelmate 8103 Centrino based notebook, running on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2. I tested the camera with all three compatible instant messaging programs using the latest version available at the time of this review: AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger. The camera was used at its default settings.

Setup/Installation
In judging most computing devices, ease of use and setup is essential. The Creative Webcam Live! Ultra is ridiculously easy to setup. Install the software drivers from the included installation CD and once prompted, connect the camera to an open USB port; the Webcam software will recognize the camera for you to begin using it. No errors, no problems, and no complications -- it just works.

Indoor-Good Lighting
In the adequate lighting test, I used two lamps, one shining over the subject while the other faced the opposite end, lighting the entire room. The image taken below clearly displays the subject but slightly grainy.

In an office setting, where the atmosphere is well-lit, the image of Katie and Kristy below is more vibrant, although whites are a bit over saturated.

Recording video clips in all the available resolutions displayed good results, video was smooth and audio was clear. To illustrate, below is a recorded video clip of my dog at 192 x 140. Even at 640 x 480 displayed good results.

Indoor-Low lighting
With one lamp turned off and the second facing the opposite direction of the subject, the laptop was still visible but overall the image is still dark. Taking video clips or stills of a person's face in dark conditions with the webcam displays better results, bringing out more of the skin tone.

Internet
As mentioned in the preceding section, the Creative Webcam Live! Ultra is compatible with AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger. All three programs detected the camera without any issues. First, I connected through Yahoo! Messenger to chat with a friend from South Korea. Video was clear, and fairly smooth. She considered the video quality captured from my Creative Webcam as being fair, giving it a score of 6.5 out of 10. We proceeded to connect with MSN Messenger, this time image appeared brighter, but frame rates were choppy, most likely due to the internet connection, but we managed to sync nevertheless. Once again, she rated the image quality as fair, giving it a score of 6.5 out of 10. With AIM on the other hand, performance was not as good. Video quality appeared to be choppy with noticeable delays.

Video Instant Messaging with Yahoo! Messenger.

Video Instant Messaging with MSN Messenger.

...and with AIM, but performance was choppy.

Smart Tracking
The smart tracking feature works well, but if you move quickly, the camera has difficulty tracing you. Moving my face around in front of the camera, it followed me most of the time, zooming in each time it locked in. When multiple faces were present, it was able to track one face at a time. You can see the tracking feature in action in the previous video clip.

Conclusion

Pros:

• Easy setup, works out of the box
• Good digital still image quality
• Good video quality in low and normal light conditions
• Decent performance during video instant messaging
• Comprehensive Webcam Software
• Portable, compact design
• USB 2.0 powered

Cons:

• Does not support Macintosh
• Slight lag noticeable pixilation during video messaging
• Microphone is not built-in to the camera
• No auto focus

The Creative Live! Ultra for notebooks is a versatile web camera that has several capabilities in one package. It can act as a security camera, monitoring your house for example, record video clips, snap digital still images, and of course it can be used to video conference through instant messaging. It is truly remarkable how tiny this camera is, allowing it to be easily stored and carried while on the go. The bundled Webcam software is intuitive and straightforward to use. While it's not a major burden, having an auto-focus feature is preferred, especially from a web camera of this caliber. The included headset with microphone is a nice addition, but having the microphone built-in to the camera would have made it a more all-in-one audio/video solution. Capturing still images and recording video clips in both low and good light conditions provided good results.

From this analysis, the instant messaging software has a great affect with the camera's performance during video instant messaging. I have used Apple's iSight video conferencing with iChat (Apple OS X's equivalent to AIM) and found it to be very impressive. With the Creative Webcam Live! Ultra, video instant messaging through Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger worked fine and video looked decent, despite some noticeable lag that occurred but communication was still feasible. AOL Instant Messenger on the other hand did not perform as well, something AOL would need to rectify. Recorded video clips and images in high light conditions appeared smooth and clear. In dim environments, images looked dark and grainy but the subject was still visible. The smart tracking feature works most of the time, even when multiple faces were present in front of the camera. Mobile users, this is the camera to get if you want to quickly and effectively video conference with others. For $99, the price is on par to other higher end webcams, but those who don't need all the features can find a less expensive model that will do the same thing; obviously without all the extra bells, whistles, and size advantage.

Price and Availability
The Creative WebCam Live! Ultra for notebooks is available now at a suggested retail price of $99.99 It is covered under a one-year limited hardware warranty.

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Technical Specifications

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