Why is the M1530 webcam so laggy?

The thing lags like no other, is there a way to cure this insane lag while filming videos in any resolution?

 

Its not bad for me at the lowest resolution.

 

Ya, when the camera first fades in it is very very smooth but once all of the colors load it gets very choppy at any resolution and stays that way.

 

Hey bowlerguy, what application do you use for the webcam, I can't seem to find out why my camera doesn't work. when I try using it with aim it says there is an error, but with webcam manager it works. any help would be appreciated.

 

Mine only gets 7-8 frames pre second on some of the smallest settings on my XPS m1530. I have heard that it may be a software or driver issue. I still have not found a fix.

 

I just use the webcam manager or Skype. Both of which work well except for the lag. Now that I think about it though, it doesn't really lag in Skype...........

 

Wow I was wondering this myself. My camera/video have an aweful lag. Plus the video is so choppy it's basically useless. If anyone has an idea please let me know b/c this is worse than my webcam I bought almost ten years ago- no joke.

 

Count me in with the chorus of people wondering WTF is up with this lousy webcam. It doesn't seem to matter what rez you use - 320x240 and 1600x1200 will do 5-8 fps while 640x480 can sometimes hit 12-15 fps - they are all really poor. I was just watching some vlogs on YouTube and was stunned to see in one that it was being recorded on a MacBook or MBP. The 1530 webcam is almost as bad as the Xbox 360 LiveVision cam. Sucktastic!

 

I have the same problem. Tried every new and old driver for the cam. Still getting only 7fps, even on the lowest resolutions and good light conditions.

I thinks the driver lacks of an option to control the exposure time manually or at least to disable the auto-exposure. (almost every cheap webcam can do this)
The auto-exposure is just too aggressive and kills all the FPS...

But it´s Creative... I got no hope....

 

For a comparison of what a PROPERLY FUNCTION WEBCAM looks like, hit this YouTube video in which you can see the MacBook that's taping it in the mirror in the background. That we can't get even a decent fraction of this performance is another disappointment at Dell's short-sighted corner-cutting. Between the crappy Samsuck screens, abysmal customer service and lousy hardware implementations, they're working hard at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

Have any of you spoken to Dell tech support about this? I'd be interested to see what they say.

 

I a german forum a dell spokesman wrote, that there would be 30fps at 320x240. he thought the problem was that ppl expecting 30fps @ 1280x1024 or such high resolutions.

He didnt even understand the problem -> the crappy auto-exposure, which works very bad and drops the framerate to 7fps if you´re not in extreme daylight. The auto-exposure sets in too early and too extreme.

Even in creative forums creative guys tell something like "the auto exposure has to set in, because of your bad light conditions"
That´s such a bullish. The auto-exposure sets it even in good light conditions and puts up the exposure time to a not needed too high setting...

 

I have the same problem (always have 7FPS). But whe I relocate my laptop near the window an Sun is shining to the window (and to the my laptop screen/camera) suddenly I have 25 FPS
Picture is a dark, but better then wire to the eye.

 

Has anyone called Dell support about this and/or found a solution for this. In a brightly lit living room in the afternoon at 640x480, this piece of junk only musters 8-10 fps. I was looking at a MacBook Pro at the store under muted store lighting and it was clearly running in the 25-30 fps range. WTF is Dell's problem in providing actually functioning hardware and support?!?

 

I take it that this problem has not and will never be resolved. Grrrrr...

 

So far what's worked for me is turning off the automatic white balance and manually setting that to 6500 and turning the backlight compensation to 0. That's given me at least 15 fps and up to 30 fps at 800 x 600.

 

great tip, can't wait to try it.

 

Forgot to mention that if you turn off the automatic white balance, you HAVE to be in a VERY WELL LIT environment. Otherwise, it's impossible to make out an image.

 

Where do you find the option to turn off the automatic white balance and manually set it? I can't find that option for anything. I see so many other options but not that one.

 

Is that possible the laggy is because of the software?

 

id like to know where you changed these settings
thanks in advance

 

In Dell Media Center, [Tools] --> [Video Source], go [Video Proc Amp] Tap.
Then you can find both setting there

 

When I use my webcam through flash based websites (i.e. cameroid.com), it works great. It's only with the Creative software that I get very low frame rate.