Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000

Summary: I purchased this camera at Best Buy yesterday, and have already decided to return it. I'm a bit surprised that there aren't more reviews here on C-Net about ...

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Summary: I purchased this camera at Best Buy yesterday, and have already decided to return it. I'm a bit surprised that there aren't more reviews here on C-Net about this camera, but I hope this one helps prospective buyers!

Out of the box, the camera and software are extremely easy to install. The quality of the built-in mic seems to be very good. That's about where I have to stop saying good things about it.

1) The base does NOT "securely" attach to an LCD monitor like the C-Net review stated. It doesn't even really "attach", it just sits there perched like most other webcams do. Definitely not a show-stopper, but I wanted to let readers know that it doesn't fit "snugly" onto LCD's.

2) Overall video quality is extremely poor, especially during video conferencing. The video was fuzzy, and could not be corrected by focusing. The camera's ability to handle different background lighting is notably poor. I had a light in front of me on my computer desk and the video was overly-bright on my face and head while the rest of the room looked ok. I had to turn on the overhead light just to get the video to within acceptable viewing. The colors are not bright and vivid, and are far from an accurate visual representation of what the naked-eye sees.

3) The software is not as "user-friendly" as the review leads you to believe. You cannot seem to set different video resolutions within video teleconferencing. It's as if while you are in Messenger Live or Yahoo, the resolution is set FOR you and you cannot increase or decrease it. (And note that the claimed 1.3mp video is NOT during teleconferencing.) IF there is a way to adjust the resolution during teleconferencing, then it is NOT an easy thing to figure out. The only options available on the camera settings are lighting, B&W, and the other basics.

Adding to the software not being user-friendly, the digital face tracking is VERY jerky and annoying. It's pretty much a useless feature. I couldn't even get it to work during teleconferencing, only during video capture!

BOTTOM LINE...

My wife and I sat nearly side-by-side to do a teleconferencing test. I was armed with my new VX-6000 attached to my top-of-the-line desktop which is connected via CAT5 to my wireless DSL router. My wife was armed with my Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Pro and my HP laptop, connected via 802.11G wireless to my router.

Same lighting of course.

We teleconferenced using both Messenger Live and Yahoo Messenger. My Quickcam blew the VX-6000 out of the water. Overall video quality was much better than the VX-6000, and the lighting was EXCELLENT (probably as a result of Logitech's "RightLight" technology.) Video on the VX-6000 remained fuzzy and "color-challenged" while the Quickcam had sharp images and vivid lighting.

I hope this helps.

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Summary: Suprised more was not mentioned about this models 1280x1024 SXGA high definition video mode, the image quality and frames per second.
The reviewer states that "Video records at a maximum
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Summary: Suprised more was not mentioned about this models 1280x1024 SXGA high definition video mode, the image quality and frames per second.
The reviewer states that "Video records at a maximum 30 frames per second at resolutions ranging from 160x120 to 1.3 megapixels, which is standard for this class of Webcam"
This is perhaps the first consumer webcam to offer that kind of resolution, it is the first in it's class. There is nothing standard about it. That's also a pretty ambiguous statement about the FPS. I know microsoft doesn't even mention FPS on their specificaion sheet. Could you please let us know the specific max FPS for each resolution? Thank you.

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Summary: This review is not very informative nor helpful. The reviewer should be ashamed. This simply isn't up to CNET standards.

It mentions a best in class resolution and says

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Summary: This review is not very informative nor helpful. The reviewer should be ashamed. This simply isn't up to CNET standards.

It mentions a best in class resolution and says it is normal. It says nothing about FPS except that it has a maximum of 30 frames per second at a tiny resolution, and that it can scale very high. What is the FPS at 320x240? At 640x480? etc....
What is the image quality like through the various resolutions?
How about putting actual specs on the specs page?
How about talking about the hardware? We aren't likely to use the bundled software, but the hardware is extremely important.
What is the audio like? How does it compare to the Logitech 4000pro? Is it built into the camera like the logitech? (good) Or a seperate boom mike like the Creative Labs (bad)? How much extra junk are we forced to install if all we want to do is video chat? Is it as bad as Logictech which installs a host of useless stuff and changes lots of system settings?
How well does it work on a USB bus? As good as a Creative, as bad as a logitech? etc....
This review answers almost none of the questions we potential buyers are likely to ask.
Finally, I entered a 9 value only to not change the average review score by the others readers.

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Summary: The image quality is as good as anything I have seen. So I have a hard time reconciling why others are so adamant that the IQ is poor - perhaps ...

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Summary: The image quality is as good as anything I have seen. So I have a hard time reconciling why others are so adamant that the IQ is poor - perhaps they didn?t realize the camera has a focus ring?

Also having a hard time understanding why some would report audio/video lag ? I haven?t seen any of the same issues and I tested under various scenarios to see if I could repro. I came to the conclusion those users must be over taxing their system in some manner: possibly trying to record 1.3MP video with the camera plugged into shared USB hubs/roots or over USB 1.1.

If you want to see this thing perform to the max give it a dedicated High Speed USB 2.0 root (1.3MP is a lot of data to stream over USB, give it a freeway travel) and reach up and focus the camera.

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Summary: Can someone from Cnet review this product? So far the review from Cnet talks about the software features. When people want to buy a webcam they don't care much ...

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Summary: Can someone from Cnet review this product? So far the review from Cnet talks about the software features. When people want to buy a webcam they don't care much for software it comes with. So can someone do an actual review of the webcam and not the software? People want to know if the picture and video is good. The logitech cam 4000 got a good video review and it has lower specs. Can this webcam get a review of it's audio and video soon?

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Summary: I recently got one of these from Amazon (yes, the VX-6000 model). The still image and video quality is absolutely horrible. There's some obvious CCD noise coming through, and ...

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Summary: I recently got one of these from Amazon (yes, the VX-6000 model). The still image and video quality is absolutely horrible. There's some obvious CCD noise coming through, and likely some bus noise as well. The resolution is indeed selectable, but the noise is visible in all resolutions (including 5 megapixel mode).

The software that comes with the camera is so-so. The official "LifeCam" application is disgusting -- you'll launch it, and it will take literally 10-15 *full seconds* before the video appears, making you wonder "is this thing working?!" Other applications don't do this (MSN Messenger/Windows Live, for example), although they do take awhile to initialise the camera.

Admittedly Microsoft's drivers are solid in the sense that I couldn't get them to crash, but they could be improved. The actual device configuration does include a lot of little adjustments that other camera vendors don't provide, but none of them address the awful video quality.

The microphone aspect is so-so as well. Audio sounds very "squawky", in the sense that there's a lot of reverb and the quality isn't that great. Will it work for a low-end microphone? Absolutely.

If you want support for this camera, you won't find any -- try visiting Microsoft's site to download some new drivers. You won't find any, and the link provided (which tells you to "wait until September") goes to a KB article that tells you absolutely nothing. Uhhh, what? Why is this product on the market if there's no support for it?

Ultimately I have to give this product 3 out of 10, because the video quality is horrible.

Seems consumers are out of options when it comes to webcams these days. Creative's products are so-so, Logitech's drivers will literally destroy your entire system (see below), and this product from Microsoft is sub-par. I expect more from Microsoft's hardware division, who has made fantastic mice and keyboards for quite some time.

Stay away from this product, and try to find another camera vendor if you can.

(Note that the the Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 easily blows the VX-6000 away in terms of camera quality... except the Logitech drivers are something you *absolutely must stay away from*. If you have other image capturing devices (scanner of any kind, for example), the Logitech drivers will completely screw up TWAIN acquisition. Uninstalling does not fix the problem, either. Oh, and don't even get me started on the bugs in the microphone driver, and the fact that the Logitech drivers set your soundcard hardware acceleration to "Basic" every time you boot up -- which affects games, and general performance of your sound card. Gee, thanks Logitech).

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Summary: I have read many reviews from people about the quality, the resolution, the ease to install. All these are true. The choppiness of the live image is also true. Camera ...

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Summary: I have read many reviews from people about the quality, the resolution, the ease to install. All these are true. The choppiness of the live image is also true. Camera operated great for 3 months. Removed it because I needed to use the port. Plugged it in and never worked again. Did not expect this from such an expensive webcam. Do not let the microsoft name fool you as they will not provide any support for their product. My OS is XP Home but I read that people with Vista had the same problem.

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Summary: Bought 2 of these and sent 1 to my parents. Dad is a computer engineer but Mom is technology challenged so the push button access was ideal. Once installed the ...

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Summary: Bought 2 of these and sent 1 to my parents. Dad is a computer engineer but Mom is technology challenged so the push button access was ideal. Once installed the video quality displayed by MY camera on MY computer was very good. However, the video quality received on my parents end was extremely degraded and very poor. They complained of the same on their end. Video was grainy, sluggish, and completely out of sync with the audio. The audio was just absolutely horrible! Besides being 2-3 seconds faster than the video, the echo's were only controllable by turning the mic down to near zero but then it was impossible to hear. There was also a recurring but inconsistent noise which sounded like pinging feedback which continued even after turning off all electronics in the room.
The software inerfered with my parents non-microsoft firewall software and security settings. To initialize the camera he would have to shutdown all the security on his computer and reboot with the camera plugged in during start up. What a pain! Also interfered with my corporate VPN client which I was forced to reinstall.
And the high resolution claims on the box... well, as mentioned previously, that's only on the end where the camera is used. Once sent over the wire the quality is worse than many $40 camera's. I don't plan on using my webcam for taking pic's or recording video offline. That's why I have a digital SLR and HandyCam. Which, by the way, the HandyCam made a nice webcam substitute for a while.
All said and done, both camera's were returned and we went w/ the Logitech 5000 which has been great so far. Only problem so far was that CD installation kit didn't work and I had to get the driver/software online.

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