Customer Reviews

Creative Live! Cam with Voice

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'm not sure why the other reviewers are not having the same excellent experience that I am having with my Voice camera. The installation was easy, the image is clear and the directional live audio feature that they have, works great.

When I video caht with my friend, he says that the image is clear and the frame rates are fine. Also, if there are others around, the directional live audio feature only picks up my voice. The software bundle is very good compared to the other cameras out there.

Overall, I'm very happy with my camera and highly recommend it.

I've been testing several cameras for my work and so far this one is the worst performance to cost for video we've played with. To get a one star it would have to have failed install or been otherwise fatally flawed as it is it works but The quality of the image , lack of focus ability and the quality of image, repetition? Nah it's a camera and it's worth noting that it's primary function is no better than a $5 after rebate model. Given the $70 price point this thing is seriously disappointing.

Sound's pretty good and unlike the MS vx3000 which has a great picture ( but lags the sound horribly) it works on systems other than XP/ Vista )
It's a real shame since it's nicely designed , has a pretty good software bundle ( specially if IM is your main use). Given that most of the reviews online have the same image issues I'd find something better than Creative live

My image on my screen is very sharp,however on the other side of transmission the picture is some what blured ( pixelated). The problem could be other then the quality of the Live Cam itselfe.
G

Liked the built in microphone. The zoom and pan features are nice.
Unfortunately the video and still picture quality is poor. Probably will toss when another "good" deal comes along.

I rate this camera with a zero out of five. I wish there were negative numbers for ratings. In terms of misery its a ten. Do yourself a favor. Don't unpack this camera from its hermetically sealed container. Just send it back. Worst piece of junk I ever purchased. I was tempted to do a video review just so you could see how bad it is. All it would have looked like was two or three video stills with voice over. Their suppport line is as clueless as the camera. They pretend that they have never heard of this problem but when you google this camera all kinds of complaints show up. Best tip off the internet: "Get rid of it!!!"

We love this camera we tried another by a well known company and the software and camera did not work with our operating systems. The camera had so many quirks we could never get it working. I am not a computer expert and I got this thing up and running with no problems. I would recommend this camera to anyone.

I use this camera quite often and it seems to work pretty well. My PC is pretty powerful but it seems sometimes the video is a bit choppy which is a little disappointing. Also, the video and audio get out of sync depending on what you choose to encode your video as.

1 thing I particularly do not like is it seems the microphone is constantly ON. I have a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum ZS2 internal card which I like using the 'record what you hear' feature quite often and I noticed that on one of my recordings room ambience included in my recordings. It took me a while to find that culprit was this camera. I unplugged the USB cable because I couldn't find an option to shut the microphone off when the camera was not recording, but was unsuccessful. I'm sure there is a way, but I looked for a good while and just winded up unplugging it instead.

The lighting seems to auto-adjust which can be good and bad at times. I believe this is also an option to shut off, but like I said, it is good in most cases. Sometimes when you move too close to it, it locks into a lighting setting and could take a while to re-adjust back to a good setting.

You really have to play around with the setting to get a good recording, but if you are just using it for normal conferencing I think you should be fine.

Overall it is still a good camera. I bought this a couple years ago, so Im sure there might be better ones out there now. Just do you research before you buy and if you can get a good price for this one then go for it.

Save yourself hassle, time, and frustration.

I stopped by Fry's electronics on my way home from work. I noticed at Fry's that there were scores of boxes of these units that were all refurbished. $29.99 I figured for the price it should provide basic functionality.

Installed the software, plugged it in when prompted, and updated the drivers. Went on to a site with videochat and within 20 seconds the picture froze. It then crashed Firefox. When I force quit Firefox, I got a flash of what I assume is the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Just great. After reboot, Windows XP Pro told me it had recovered from a fatal system error and asked me to report the crash. I was up until near midnight trying to get this to work before I decided to return it and that I had done all I could to make it work (and also to write this review).

I say that I assume it was the BSoD because I've never gotten a BSoD before. Even when I was teenager I did some dumb things to my computer (such as intentionally installing Back Orifice to learn how trojans worked). But now that I'm an adult and through a lifetime of learning, I am what is considered a Power User. I build my own computers, I run the best software and regularly maintain my pc, perform backups and restores, reformats, etc etc. I've never had a problem with malware, viruses, or serious operating system crashes because I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.

In the course of trying to get this webcam to work, I saw FOUR BSoD's. FOUR.

I'm fairly certain the driver is just not up to the job, and taking a look at the Creative Support page, I don't think it's been updated for awhile. Definitely buy a newer model, please. I was going to spring for the Logitech 9000 but I wanted something basic and lower cost for now.

The last Creative product I bought was a Zen Vision:M 30 GB and that was also a waste. I guess the moral is to stay away from Creative in general.

After hours of trying to figure out how to focus we have given up and ditching this camera. Since this model only has auto focus there is no way to adjust it manually. We tried calling techincal support and they were no help because we cannot see a serial number so we can send it in.

I only use the video portion of the camera and use cell phone for audio, so I haven't tested the audio aspects. The video quality is very good, although it does tend to have a fisheye effect that is noticeable.