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Webcam32 - Working with cameras


If you are having problems with Webcam32 and cameras, this page is designed to assist in diagnosing the problem.

The first question you need to ask is "Does the camera support Microsoft's Video for Windows?"

Webcam32 has been tested with many cameras but will only support cameras that support the Video for Windows interface.  Note that this is the majority that can be connected to Windows 95 or Windows NT.  If you believe that the camera does support Video for Windows, select the Start->Settings->Control Panel->Multimedia icon.

When the panel is displayed, select Advanced and the following panel should be presented.

MultiMedia properties

From this panel, you can select the Video Capture Devices option and determine a list of all of the known (to Windows) cameras.  If none are displayed, then you have no Video for Windows compatible cameras attached.

As a final test, you can download the Microsoft Supplied vidcap32.exe application which can be used to verify the operation of your video capture device.   A copy of the vidcap32.exe is available here.


What cameras are supported?

The better question to ask is what cameras are not supported?  Webcam32 will work with any video capture camera or card which is Video for Windows compliant.  Since every device which connects to Windows 95/98 or NT is designed such, they are all Video for Windows compliant.  It does not matter how the camera attaches to the PC.  It may be able to attach via a parallel printer port, a dedicated capture card or a USB interface.  This is unimportant to Webcam32 operation.

A list of technical support pages for various cameras and capture cards can be found here.

Advanced Only

It appears that the Video devices available are saved in the registry at the following location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\MediaResources\msvideo

After removing a device driver for a video camera, it is sometimes found that the entry remains in the selectable camera settings.  This appears to be defects in the install/un-install procedures for the capture device.  By experimentation, it has been found that removing an entry by hand from this area of the registry will remove the capture device from the list of selectable devices.

This is not an official Microsoft technique.  Please backup the registry before attempting this procedure.