System Upgrade - Add a WebCam

System Upgrade - Add a WebCam
October 11, 2007

I wanted to add a USB web camera for some stereo-video experiments. Of course, that requires adding 2 (two) WebCams.

Apparently, Windows XP is designed to specifically allow only a single USB WebCam from each vendor - you can have as many cameras as you like ... as long as there is only one per vendor. (Of course, I discovered this AFTER purchasing the cameras.)

After fiddling with it for a few hours, I discovered that each time you plug the camera into a different USB port, you have to reinstall the drivers. However, this installation overwrites the existing drivers. This means that if one camera is plugged in, you can not install a second. The fix was to install the cameras on each port while the other was removed, then the system would support 2 cameras from the same vendor at the same time.

iMicro 1280x960 WebCam

By the way, I was using the iMicro 1280x960 WebCam ($30). Apparently, the actual resolution is 1280x1024 and the images are pretty good. The near focus is super - about 2 inches and very sharp. However, I do not recommend buying these cameras because BOTH of them have dead pixels near the center of the image.

I noticed the ones on the first camera and just figured they were a simple flaw. But when I bought a second camera with 5 bad pixels - well, this just a very poor product - thumbs down on a dog.

Two undocumented features - Neither of these is documented in the manual or on the packaging.

The button on the top can be used to capture single images
The circular control on the back (below the cord) will turn on and control the brightness of 6 white LEDs. However, these are mostly cosmetic since they do not produce enough light to be useful. (The packaging does say - LED Night Vision - dim white LEDs is NOT night vision.)

If it wasn't for the bad pixels - I would highly recommend this camera.

The packaging indicates that the following software is included ... it is NOT ... this is fraud

Photo Explorer 8
Video Studio 7
Cool 360

The only "software" provided is the drivers and DirectX 9.

Since only the removable (2 screws) base mount and the packaging indicate the brand, I assume that these are the pixel rejects of a high quality product - wish I knew which one.

Registry Accesses

On the downside, the software loaded with these cameras runs continuously (slowing down all other programs) and continuously reads the registry.

It is especially irritating that C:\WINDOWS\vsnp2std.exe continuously tries to open a registry key that does not exist.

HKLM\3 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel

The closest matches are

HKLM\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0
  Identifier = x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
  PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER = x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel

Thus proving that this software is written by incompetent fools (or that there is another registry mystery that I don't understand).

According to liutilities.com, vsnp2std.exe is a Camera Monitor from Sonix belonging to PC Camera Monitor Application

C:\WINDOWS\vsnp2std(2).exe  12/5/06
C:\WINDOWS\vsnp2std(3).exe  12/5/06
C:\WINDOWS\vsnp2std.exe     12/5/06

C:\WINDOWS\tsnp2std.exe     2/13/07

These were installed via

C:\Program Files\Common Files\snp2std

Every time my system boots, these are executed via

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
  snp2std  = C:\WINDOWS\vsnp2std.exe
  tsnp2std = C:\WINDOWS\tsnp2std.exe

Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org