Envy 15 webcam blue-shifted issue

I no longer own an Envy15, but I did for about 23 days.

I found this article on engadget: HP Envy 15 said to be suffering from blank screen issues, lousy webcam -- Engadget

Cliffnotes: Fluorescent light produces nice images, incandescent and sunlight produce blue-shifted images.

This might have to do with the camera detecting more into the IR spectrum than a normal camera. We know this because it uses IR LEDs for low-light "night vision." Direct sunlight and incandescent put out a lot of IR light and the camera probably interprets infrared light as bluish. Fluorescent lights produce much less IR light than incandescent and sunlight, so that's probably the issue.

From wiki:
"Many light sources, such as the fluorescent lamp, high-intensity discharge lamps and LED lamps offer higher efficiency, and some have been designed to be retrofitted in existing fixtures. These devices produce light by luminescence, instead of heating a filament to incandescence. These mechanisms produce discrete spectral lines and so don't have the broad "tail" of wasted invisible infrared emissions produced by incandescent emitters." - Incandescent light article

"The heated filament emits light that approximates a continuous spectrum. The useful part of the emitted energy is visible light, but most energy is given off as heat in the near-infrared wavelengths.'' - Incandescent light article

I'm about 90% sure this is the problem. If you have an Envy15 and don't mind spending a few bucks to test this, try purchase an infrared cut-off filter and put it over your web cam.

 

This is definitely what is causing the purple appearance. If you look at the computer through another digital camera you should be able to tell when the leds kick on (I'll try this when I get home tonight). This has also been stated but I believe you could cover up the two infrared leds that are on the sides of the webcam.

 

The LEDs definitely contribute to the problem, but incandescent light and sunlight are much bigger emitters of IR than two small LEDs. I wonder if someone with some technical skill and balls would open up their bezel and put some IR reflective film over their cam

 

I have the same exact problem and covering up the two LED does nothing to fix it. this is my second envy 15 and it's getting to be a huge pain in the butt to return and get a new one.

I can honestly say that I will never purchase another hp laptop again. Envy is supposed to be their high end laptops... what a joke.

 

If you dont mind me asking, why did you return it? (The envy 15 that is) You were not happy with the performance? I am considering the envy 14, but as I am not from the US returns are a big issue for me, so I am trying to get all the information to help me make a good decision.

 

Returned for a number of small issues, like the bezel, the left column of keys, and the fact that the computer got very very hot just watching a youtube video.

 

It is a high-end laptop. It's just that the blue shift is a side-effect of the night-vision capabilities. You either filter out all the infrared like most webcams and get a good picture in any normal light but no ability for dark shots, or leave the camera able to detect infrared and have some blue shifting in "normal" lighting situations.

Have you considered buying some CFLs? They'll save you money running the lights, and work better with your Envy.

 

Ok so I was toying around with the webcam in skype which has some basic property settings. Turning off the low light compensation kills the IR leds which definitely reduces the purple freakshow, but there is still a bluish hue. I then turned off the autowhite balance and the picture no longer had the blue. This is in pretty low house lighting, I'll give it a shot under some fluorescent bulbs to see if that introduces more lighting problems.

 

Yeah this is basically a problem that HP cannot "fix" without removing an advertised feature. Get CFLs to save money and have a good image on your Envy or place a filter over the camera.

 

makes me wonder what HP is thinking allowing the QA to pass this laptop for commercial use. Do you guys see hardware problems happening in the envy 14 or should I just go with the xps 16? I love the envy's look/design so it would be disappointing going toward that approach.

 

What do you mean? QA did it's job, the webcam works 100% as intended. It's just that people without a photography background didn't know that cameras picking up IR light often makes unnatural looking pictures.

 

yes and with that most consumers without a photography background should not need to tinker with the webcam in order for it to work properly.

 

No amount of tinkering with it will change it because it's a design choice by HP. You can't use software to filter out wavelengths of light after it's already hit the CCD. Consumers without a photography background should've been warned about the camera's properties, but the camera is not "broken" in any way.

 

What a joke, you've got to be kidding me. No reasonable person would consider this webcam to be working 100% correctly. It's purple in incandescent light folks, and it can't be fixed. Do you really think HP thought that everybody looking purple in normal house light was a good thing? This webcam is worse (way worse) than any bottom of the barrel webcam you can possibly purchase. And HP put it in their top of the line notebook computer. HP has my $2,200 and I am purple without a fix. I don't know about you guys, but HP just lost this life long buyer forever. After unsuccessful attempts to have this horrible webcam fixed, I asked to switch models to something with a webcam that works according to any reasonable expectation, and HP said not a chance. They have my money and stuck me with a webcam that is not even close to satisfactory. Goodbye HP. I posted a Youtube video about this, I encourage all of you to post a video response to my video and let HP know this is absolutely unacceptable. YouTube video here: YouTube - HP Envy Webcam Purple

 

lol you cant possibly blame a consumer who bought HP's top of the line notebook and portray them of being negligent when one portion of the laptop does not work as well. Does anyone know if they are deploying out the same webcams in their 17 and 14 consumer lines?

 

This is not a joke. It works 100% as intended- it's a low light camera optimized to perform where almost no other web cam will get any image at all. A side effect is that because there is IR light produced by incandescent and sunlight, you can STILL see that IR light when there's plenty of visible light. The camera is not malfunctioning, it's working just as intended by HP, but that might not be what a lot of people actually want. There's essentially no way for them to create a camera that will pick up both IR and visible light exclusively without changing a lens or other physical filter, so they chose one and went with it. A side effect of that choice is that unless you're using fluorescent light, you'll see IR light along with the visible light.

I watched both of your videos mintchap, but the only way you'd get this fixed is probably by replacing the webcam with an entirely different model, or sticking a filter over the webcam. I doubt HP will do either, unfortunately, but you could fix the problem yourself. You'd just have to sacrifice the ability to see in very low light.

You're completely within your rights to complain about something that functions differently than you expected, but saying it's broken or doesn't work is inaccurate. It works in every objective sense of the word.

sinafl - I'm not blaming the consumer, I'm blaming HP for not properly explaining the camera's "features."

 

It seems like a few users were able to fix this problem by using webcam drivers from other manufacturers.

See this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...blem-solved-fingers-crossed-heres-hoping.html

 

all I'll say to you new Envy 17 owners: good luck. you're gonna need it.

and sorry to all the Envy 15 owners. think I'm gonna stay away from HP as a whole for awhile. they failed to deliver on the 8740w, the Envy 15's are still having problems, and the Envy 17's will likely share some parts (like the webcam...which is a problem whether all the "features" are explained or not).

just not a good time to jump into HP, it seems. unless you want an Elitebook model they stock readily or are into the dv lines.

anyway, best of luck to you all. sucks when problems become pandemic.

 

If this is the case then it is a driver issue not a camera issue.

 

This thread is 3 years old. Where did you see Envy 15 owners claim Acer drivers disabled the IR sensor?

 

My mistake, I thought the IR sensor was the same thing as the purple shift I've seen listed for a number of HP laptops under certain lighting conditions (which is fixable with the above link [sometimes]).

 

No, it's not an IR sensor at all, it's a regular webcam. A lot of digital cameras actually pick up light in the near-IR range, like the Envy15 webcam does. However, most digital cameras also filter out the IR light, while the Envy15 webcam does not (on purpose). There isn't a separate CCD for IR and for visible light. The same CCD simply picks up a different range of light than what humans can see, and interprets the parts we can't see as blue.

 

dude, dont cast your negativity on future owners its deamening.

 

Koshinn, by looking at your signature you seem to have recycled through alot of laptops.. may I ask why? Is it just a need to have the latest and greatest or did you have problems with each and everyone? Just trying to figure out your motif for getting the envy 14 vs having the MBP, alienware, and envy 15.

 

This was over a 7 year period, give or take. I like having the latest, but some had problems. The AW Area-51 766 had a desktop P4 processor in it... that meant like 30 min of battery life and I decided I wanted something smaller to take to class. The 5500 was better, but couldn't play games at all (nvidia gt 7600) so I got rid of that. The AW m15x had hinge issues, my hinge cracked and broke off so I repaired it, the next one was showing signs of future cracking, so I sold it. The AW M17x r1 was a good laptop when they finally fixed the dpc latency issue and it had integrated graphics for decent battery life... it was a good laptop, but I wanted something smaller (again). I still have the ASUS EEE 900a as my backup computer. The MBP13 I bought for school (at the same time as I owned the M17x), and I'm using it at this very moment. The Envy15 had a lot of annoyances, like it got super hot, the bezel scratched with microfiber cloth, and the left column of keys killed me in games.

Which brings me to the Envy17, due to arrive June 3rd or 4th. It should have a balance of mobility and power that I was looking for my entire life. The m15x got very close, and I'd still be using it now if it was more solidly built. The Envy17 would be PERFECT if it had switchable graphics. It has a compatible chipset and processor, but something is missing... idk what. Over this time period I've been in undergrad (computer science degree), law school, and in the military (USAF).

Oh and I'll probably give my MBP13 to my mom when I get the Envy17.

 

aw Im taking comp sci right now and I havent done too well .. may you can help

 

you seem to be a busy person.. I am taking comp sci as well right now. You dont have an A+ certificate do you?

 

No, never worked in the computer science field professionally.

 

Ok, if the camera is working properly, then HP made a decision to sell a webcam in their top of the line notebook computer that looks purple under ordinary incandescent light, which is the light most people would have in their homes of course. While not technically broken per your definition, I think everybody sending out purple images would disagree. The webcam is broken per any reasonable expectation of how a webcam should look and function. If HP wanted to sell a webcam that looked purple in their top of the line notebook, they should have stated in big bold letters to potential buyers that the camera varies to the extremes from what any reasonable person would expect from a webcam.

If you purchased a digital camera and it produced purple images would that be acceptable? If you purchased a color printer and everything you printed was purple would that be acceptable? No reasonable person would expect to purchase a top of the line notebook computer and have it come with a purple webcam. If HP did this on purpose it's (just my opinion) about the dumbest design choice I've ever heard of. And again they had an obligation to inform people that they'd be purple on cam. Due to their "design choice" and failure to tell anybody about it, I still content they owe people who are unhappy a switch to a model that works like anybody would expect.

Note: To this day I've never asked HP for a refund. All I've asked for was a switch to a model with what one would consider a normal functioning webcam. Their stone wall answer has left myself and thousands of purple people very unhappy. And that's an incredibly poor way of handling this for an American landmark company like HP. I paid $2,200 for a webcam and I'm purple. I don't want to be purple. Reasonably, you can't expect a buyer of a notebook computer to be an advanced photography professional to the point where they could have discerned in advance that they'd be purple on this webcam given what was marketed by HP.

HP owes unhappy customers a solution. Again just my opinion. Technical definition aside, the vast majority of people with this cam consider this broken. Not just a little broken, a lot broken. We all look terrible.

I wonder if the new Envy HD webcam is also purple. I don't know, but I bet it's not.

 

So I'm clear, exactly what filter are you recommending be taped over the webcam? I'm not too concerned about low light, anything is better than being purple.