Envy 14: Webcam Problems

Hello,

Ive used this webcam in daylight before and it was decent...the colors were right...resolution was okay...

So now, I'm using my envy 14 during this time in the night with normal lights on and its reddish...its similar to the problem I had with my envy 15 (it had a purplish tone instead of my reddish problem now).

Please help...this is a dealbreaker for me...a student.

Thanks so much!

 

I had/have a similar problem. I think it has to do with the external light and the way the webcam picks it up. For my fix, I have to turn off my lights then wait a minute or so for the webcam to normalize, then turn my lights back on.

 

Try getting something white (I use my ipod charger, but anything should work fine) and hold it in front of the camera so that it takes up the full shot and it should readjust and filter out the color of the lighting. Takes a few tries sometimes, so you may have to move the object around a little.

 

I'm almost certain this is due to the way the camera can work with IR (infrared) light. On the Envy 15 I know the camera has little IR lights beside it so it can see in the dark. The issue is that the camera is overwhelmed by IR light produced by other sources as well, producing a purplish (or in this case reddish I guess) tone.

Try 3 light sources:
- Incandescent: The color problem should be very pronounced and easily noticed
- Sunlight: The color problem should also be noticeable but not as vividly.
- Fluorescent: Colors should look much much better.

Why is this? Because the first two sources contain a large amount of IR light as well as the normal spectrum. Fluorescent does not, hence there is no problem as the camera is not overwhelmed.

I'm pretty sure this is the problem, but I have not tested it myself (Envy 15 still in the mail). One possible solution would be to get an IR filter and put it over the camera, although I'm not sure how much natural light that would block and if you would still be able to see fine with it. When I get my laptop more rigorous testing will be done.

 

open hp media smart webcam then click on enhance current video image then go to advanced and untick the auto box under white balance and adjust to your taste.

 

thanks, that worked.

 

Yea, had to figure that out on my own no thanks to HP support. The guy said to uninstall the HP webcam software and reinstall it like that would help and left me while it was reinstalling. I figured I didn't want to have to deal with them again and just let them be and figured it out.