Please post your ArcSoft WebCam Companion settings

For anyone who uses their webcam frequently and likes it, I'm having a devil of a time getting settings I like. No matter what I do, it's grainy, sepia-toned, etc. Can people who use their webcam and are happy with the results please do the following for me?

Open ArcSoft WebCam Companion
Click "capture"
Click on the "settings" button (top right)
Click "advanced"
Post what your values are for the following (copy and paste to save yourself typing):

Brightness:
Contrast:
Hue:
Saturation:
Sharpness:
Gamma:
White Balance:
Backlight Comp:
Gain:
PowerLine Frequency:

I would be very, very grateful. I do weekly webcam chats so my kids can talk to their grandparents, and I'm really unhappy with the overall product of this webcam, though I think it's just that the settings are all wrong. Thank you!

 

I couldn't get the settings right either; spent over an hour trying to configure it right. After a format the video quality turned from horrible to great. You should try to remove the ArcSoft software, many other webcams don't even ship with this sort of software and people are barely complaining about those.

 

I tried uninstalling it, and the good news is that the colors are FINALLY right, but now the resolution is extremely low. How do I adjust the webcam resolution without using Arcsoft Webcam Companion 4?

 

Have you tried messing around in the settings of the application you use for videochatting? I haven't encountered that problem.

 

I use Google chat, and it's got a pretty minimal interface. No settings for resolution that I could find. Curiously, when i first took the machine out of the box, it was very low-res as well, and I had to use ArcSoft WebCam Companion 4 to improve resolution.

But I think I found the fix. The real problem seems to be Arcsoft Visual Effects, not Arcsoft Webcam Companion. Remove the visual effects program (the other Arcsoft program) and colors get remarkably better. I still don't like the default settings, but now I'm actually able to get good colors if I fiddle with it.

My current profile is:

Brightness: 0
Contrast: 20
Hue: -520
Saturation: 70
Sharpness: 1
Gamma: 100
White Balance: 4600
Backlight Comp: 1
Gain: 2 (increasing gain to 2 seems to be key)
PowerLine Frequency: 50 Hz

 

Here ya go..

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That's definitely a very different version of the Arcsoft software. My gain goes from 1 to 4, not to 255. Huh.

 

I have to admit I've never used ArcSoft but now I am intrigued but I can't get my ArSoft Visual Effects 2 to accept inputs at all (shows the grid as on Xactic's post, but I can't manipulate settings. I can adjusts several of the those inputs in Arcsoft Companion3, but several are greyed out - eg, gain, white balance, everything below, and some of the values on my version are different as well. Is everyone using ArcSoft Companion 4? I have 3, would need to buy 4, it's not a free upgrade but will do so if recommended.

 

I don't use it either lol, I don't even use the webcam in the laptop anyway. i just connect a Logitech Orbit AF, but that pesky screen in the post pops up everytime. Never bothered to interfere or take it off though, just incase I want to use it at some point (mobile).

 

Yeah, I agree that it's only needed when you are traveling and find a need to Skype and didn't bring an external camera. How did you get those settings to adjust though?

 

I wasn't able to adjust settings in Arcsoft Visual Effects 2 either; I had to use Arcsoft Web Companion 4 (go into capture and you can adjust settings). But I ended up uninstalling both, and the webcam looks the best it ever has. There's a slight yellow tone, but otherwise, it looks pretty good. Far better than I could ever do with Arcsoft software installed.

I would have thought Fresh Start would have taken care of this...I'd definitely classify Arcsoft as unwanted bloatware.

 

2 questions remain for me:

1) There is lots of video enhancement software on the market, and I have read that many of them improve image quality, especially in low light, just as similar adjustments are standard on all hand held cameras.

1)Are you saying Arcsoft is a bad one of them, or that you think none of them improve upon the Sony's/Windows OEM embedded webcam sftwe (does it have the same adjustments? Of those variables I could adjust with Companion3, the brightness and contrast settings do improve image quality substantially.

2) Just curious, did you buy an upgrade to to Companion 4, or is it standard on all Z's past the Z11? On Companion 3, you can't adjust several key variables, like white balance and gain: can you adjust these in 4?

 

I could adjust white balance and gain. I did not buy any upgrades; I just used what came on my F2.

I tinkered with settings for literally hours, and never got the image quality as good as what resulted when I just uninstalled the ArcSoft.

I'm not saying that it's impossible for webcam software to be a good thing; I'm saying the particular package that came with my Vaio F2 does more harm than good.

 

Got it. I think ArcSoft Companion 4, that came with your F2, allows more adjustments than v.3 that came with my Z11. FWIW, there are at least two adjustments that I found very useful on ArcSoft companion 3: brightness and contrast. Since you can see the effect of adjustments of the image in real time as you move those settings, there was a meaningful improvement by adjusting these settings, vs. what the camera produces with Companion disabled, and vs. leaving the ArcSoft settings at defaults.

FWIW, segue subject: from laptop webcam video processing sftwe to laptop audio processing sftwe. I saw your (excellent) review video on your F2 and recall discussion of the sound on that model. You stated that you thought it sounded quite good when you turned on its included Dolby audio processor though Endgadget said they found it had little if any impact. (the segue: Well, as for add-on software, I have been very pleasantly surprised by what SRS Audio Essentials does for laptop audio, even if it runs on top of SRS or Dolby processing built in to the computer. You need to fork out for the $20 pay version as the free version does not allow enough adjusting. It even makes the miserable Z speakers tolerable, but entirely changes the character of better laptop speakers or small USB/bluetooth speakers that are essential if you want to listen to music or watch a movie on the Z without connecting to a TV or audio system.

 

I don't think Engadget said that Dolby didn't make a difference; what they said was that it brought sound from miserable up to average. They're still recognizing that Dolby makes a big change, just a different way of characterizing the final product. My version of "average" may be worse than theirs. Regardless, I do have a set of desktop speakers, and while I think the onboard sound is pretty good for a laptop, it obviously doesn't compete with the desktop speakers.

 

methinks you missed my point: however they sound, the product I recommended ^ makes laptop and desktop speakers sound better. Just offering...