G73SW - camera horrible fps with low res.

Hi,

I'm using "Debut" (software) to try the Asus built-in camera on my G73SW. I have an fps of 5 with horrible graininess with a 640x480 resolution. Is this how it is, or is there anything I can do to fix it?

Thanks!

 

I too am very disappointed in the camera in my G73 and have not read of a great fix. You can always try upgrading the driver from the ASUS support site, (I did this to no avail) or make sure you are using the camera in a room with ample light (I see a slight improvement with my window shades open on a sunny day compared to using it at night in a dimly lit room. What model camera do you have BTW?

 

I can't find any way to check what camera I have.

There's no driver available (of any kind) on the ASUS website in the G73 website.

I was using a standard Microsoft driver. I found another driver online and all it did was make the view upside-down.

This isn't just a lousy camera/driver, it's defective. It has a much larger resolution option but then I get 1 FPS. I might return this PC because of it.. doesn't make sense to pay $1500 for a laptop with defective parts.

I'll send in a message to ASUS support and see if I can get a solution. I've seen other people try it with no success, though...

 

You can modify a registry entry to make it not upside down. That driver is a lot better in terms of speed.

 

Make sure there's a lot of light

 

There's a big long explanation on why this happens on the asus driver site. Long story short: Asus uses 2 suppliers for their cameras. You need the correct driver *and* the correct orientation.

 

frosty5689 -- can you please tell me where the registry entry is? (Uninstalling the other driver doesn't flip back the camera view!)

Light helps with the graininess, but not the FPS -- still 5.

The FPS is still 5 with the other driver. I found the other driver on a random site, not the main ASUS site. I don't see any drivers at all on the ASUS support site... just their bloatware programs.

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}\0004\Settings

Inside it, you can change Flip to 0 and it should fix the issue. Just for confirmation, the driver I'm using is Chicony,(Sonix260), version 61.5.200.280, shows up in device manager with name USB 2.0 2.0M UVC WebCam. This was the latest driver I could find for the 2.0M version camera.

 

Thanks.

I found a few chicony sonix260 drivers -- not exactly your version. They would not install. The ProviderName is Sonix, but the Vendor is Azureware. No luck finding any drivers at all for it higher than the supposed current version of 5.8.54000.205. (according to the registry info)

PS: For some reason I get access denied when trying to view the Properties key.

 

I'm not sure if you can install this version, but it supports the 1.3M, 2.0M and VGA version of the webcams designed by Sonix.

Chicony(Sonix260)_61.5.200.310.zip

It is the latest version I just stumbled upon and doesn't produce the Flipped issue. Simply right click the device in Device Manager and choose Update Driver and point it to search where you extracted the above zip you just downloaded and it should install it.

As for the access error, if you click it again, it should show fine.

Oh and I did some digging and it appears the default resolution is 1600x1200 for the 2.0M webcams, at this setting the maximum framerate is 15FPS (default is set to 5FPS). I'm not sure how to change it from 5FPS default to 15FPS default. Either way it is no where near a smooth video, so for your recording program/web chat program find a way to turn off HD capture and it should be fine. Any resolution above 800x600 results in a max FPS of 15 (with default of 5FPS at 1600x1200 and default of 8FPS at 1280x960).

 

I tried it and it will not work.

If I do it from the device manager, (even after uninstalling the driver and having Windows auto-install the 1/27/2010 5.8.54000.205 version) Windows insists that the device is already up-to-date.

PNPINST64.exe, right? It asks me if I want to install the driver. I click yes. It then sends an error message with the "name" of the camera ("USB 2.0 UV VGA/1.3M/2.0M Webcam". (nothing else)

The individual file versions themselves are lower than what I already have. EG: vsnpvc64.dll is 1.5.8.0 vs. 1.5.1.0 in the DL.

 

Can you post the Vendor ID and Product ID of the webcam? You can find them by right clicking it in device manager -> properties -> details, under partner name or hardware id, right click the line that looks like VID_ PID_XXXX and click copy. ASUS might've switched to a different manufacturer (Azureware in your case, where mine was made by Chicony). However, they're both designed by Sonix, which is weird.

 

--->

Usb\vid_13d3&pid_5122&rev_0202&mi_00
Usb\vid_13d3&pid_5122&mi_00

 

Any more ideas? Did you forget about me, frosty? :-(

I've sent an email to Asus but no reply yet...

 

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb...era_Azure_2S005_WIN7_32_WIN7_64_585400206.zip

This is the latest one I could find for it. This is one subversion above yours and ASUS claims that it fixes the slow FPS issue.

Anyways, I have to say this, ASUS has always been using different brands of webcams for the same model of laptops and creates a lot of confusion when people try to figure out which driver to install. To top it off, they use brands that have never been heard of it before making it hard as hell to find the right ones that work.


Edit:

After looking at the .inf file it appears to not be flipped by default so it should at least fix that.

 

I ran 2KSETUP64.exe -- install worked, no error. Rebooted as it asked, but it's not doing the trick. Still 5 fps.

No reply from ASUS yet...

I'm starting to get backlogged now. I plugged in an HDMI cable to my Sony Bravia TV, transferred to screen view to the TV (because of built-in Blu-ray copyright protection...) and started playing Blu-Ray disk. The sound cut off every 3 seconds. Not sure if it's the bundled program, the HDMI cable, or the computer. Looked through several dozen pages on various HDMI or Asus or Nvidia sound issues, nothing. Any idea about this one?

 

Try using some other software, just incase, it plays without pause when you view it on the laptop screen right?

As for the camera, it is just crappy. I'm not sure about other Azureware owners, if this is a common problem for people with Azureware webcam (as opposed to the Sonix(Chicony) one), you might be able to get ASUS to RMA yours and replace it with the Chicony one, though I'm not sure how big of an improvement it will be though.

 

It plays fine on the laptop or separately in a Blu-Ray player.

I still have 23 days to return it to Tigerdirect for a full refund. I really don't want to... I don't get how they make a camera that goes up to 1600x1200 res but less than 1 fps.. :\

 

ASUS loves to use random unheard of manufacturers for the camera, probably to cut the cost. The laptop is great, if you just overlook the camera issue. As for the Bluray issue, if you use the included software and try to view a DVD or some other video on your TV, does it still pause? Also, try using HWInfo32 to see your CPU and GPU usage when playing that Bluray Disk on your TV. It shouldn't be hitting anywhere near 80-100% usage, if it does I think the software is just crap and not optimized, so it uses too much resources causing the video to freeze every few seconds.

 

If your BD drive is hitting 80%, I'd blame codec packs.

 

The video doesn't freeze, only the audio. I will try other disks, programs, etc when I get the chance...

I got a reply from ASUS on the web-camera issue. I'm speechless.

"The built-in camera was not designed for video recording this shows the poor performance and lower frame rate"

Am probably going to return it. Despite everything else, I don't like buying stuff that's supposed to be good which has at least one poor quality part. It's like buying a BMW, but the built-in CD player only plays .wmv files... "it's not designed to play mp3 files..."

Edit: or, perhaps a better comparison is a modern BMW with manual window rollers.

 

Welps, another problem now. random crashes and BSODs are continuing after a long respite... (had some earlier) Had one yesterday after a virus scan, and one today 1 minute after I booted up Windows (PC was completely cool).

 

There are three Camera providers. Chicony, Suyin and Azureware. I beleive they all use Sonic Drivers.

The latest Azureware Sonic Driver in my ASUS N61Jq-A1 laptop is 5.8.55133.208 dated 06-10-2010.

You can download the above driver from the following thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/494250-asus-n61jq-driver-thread.html

Check out the following thread for the latest 5.8.55133.208:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-reviews-owners-lounges/494250-asus-n61jq-driver-thread.html

Or you can directly download from ASUS support site:

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Camera

The above link has the latest drivers for all camera manufactoreres Chicony, Suyin, Azureware, ....... for ASUS.

 

Tried the latest driver for Azureware (the first one in the list -- the one you guys both mentiobed) and the latest driver which explicitly states win7 64-bit in the descriptiond. No difference except for the camera view being inverted again.

Edit: actually the clarity of the picture seems slightly better. Might have to do with me testing it with a lot of daylight whereas before it was with bits of fluorescent lighting.

 

99% chance I am going to return this. I've gone through two technical support people and it is clear to me that Asus's technical support is non-existent. It seems they are just copy-pasting from a list of possible replies instead of answering my question.

PS: I've read in other forums/posts that the problem is caused by software pre-processing by the Azurewave driver which significantly slows down the fps. Someone tried installing the generic Microsoft driver and their camera FPS was fine (after being low just like mine). Only problem is that I don't think I have any "generic" Microsoft web-camera driver... uninstalling the driver and then automatic reinstalling will just give me the same driver I had before.

The latest round:

 

So... now I made a video for them to determine whether it was defective or not, as they requested: "Please provide a video clip so we can determine if the bulit-in camera is defective". They also mentioned that I could also send it to them for replacement. I also said that I would not be sending the computer to them but instead just return it to Tigerdirect.

The response is:
"The frame rate pers seconds is dependent on what video resolution was setup for the camera, the higher the resolution settings the slower will be the fps. If in case, you wanted to send the unit for service, please let us know."

So, instead of saying whether or not the camera is defective, they give a non-answer. The same person, in fact. I am perplexed by this apparent inability to read past the last message... it seems that they either don't read the entirety of my latest message and forget the running conversation in every email.

*facedesk*

 

A friend and his friend both got a G73SW, with different webcam models. No problems for them. ASUS tech support stopped returning my emails.

Posted a review on Tigerdirect with my problem a few days ago.. it's still not there. It's possible they read it and didn't like what they see. (All reviews are subject to approval by Tigerdirect)

Also have a twitchy trackpad issue...

Returning this tomorrow; might order another one.