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Sh!t We Like - The Creative Live! Cam Vid. IM Ultra
Originally I was just looking for a decent Webcam for a Linux project, but since almost all computers in my house run OS X, I thought it would be nice to find one that could be use on a MacMini as well. Fortunately, there is a growing list of UVC compatible devices available, some of which have been tested to work on a Mac out-of-the-box, i.e. without the need to install additional drivers.
Considering Linux and Mac compatibility, pixel/resolution, as well as price, we picked the Creative LIVE! CAM Video IM Ultra, which when compared to a built-in iSight cameras seems to create higher quality videos.

Video Recording

While we used the standard 640x480 video format for the recording below, the VF415 Live! Cam Vid. IM Ultra's native format is Y'CbCr 4:2:2 -yuvy, 1280x960 with Millions of Colors.
Creative LIVE! CAM Video IM Ultra

  • Format: H.264 640x480 Millions of Colors, AAC, Mono, 44.100 KHz
  • FPS: 30 frames per second
  • Data Rate: 1500.24 kbits/s

MacBook built-in iSight Camera

  • Format: H.264 640x480 Millions of Colors, AAC, Mono, 44.100 KHz
  • FPS: 30 frames per second
  • Data Rate: 711.34 kbits/s


Audio Recording

It was a positive surprise, finding out that there is a microphone hidden in the camera's focus ring. However, the microphone is pretty much useless, at least when used under Mac OS X. We used WireTap Studio to create a fair comparison recording, using the MacBook's built-in microphone, the Live Cam Ultra's built-in mic., as well as an external Logitech USB Microphone.
imultra
  • Creative LIVE! CAM Video IM Ultra built-in Microphone:
  • Creative LIVE! CAM Video IM Ultra built-in Microphone:
  • Logitech AK5370 external USB Microphone:,

Overall, we really like the IM Ultra, the image quality is crisp and it attaches easily to a laptop's lids as well as a much thicker LCD monitors. However, the audio quality really sucks (at least when used on a Mac and you better have another mic on hand). Moreover, expectedly, the camera doesn't work on a low power USB port.

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Published on: Sunday, July 12th, 2009  •  Category: [hardware]
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