:: Deepquest ::

Since the upgrade to Panther it’s very hard to find a solution to run several USB webcams, and a network one. Many solution exits for the webcam software, but not for the usb drivers. Actually there aren’t much choices.

I had a phililps toucam and a quickcam pro running fine for months, since the upgrade to Panther the driver didn’t work very well: 90 % cpu… Not very good for a server.
After few hours of researchs I only found 2 drivers for usb cams:
-[url=http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/]macam 8.0[/url]. No updates january 2003, the problem is that they were some changes at Cupertino since that time. The install is easy but doesn’t work, I understand why it’s free. Even trying to recompile on my own the sources. Still have many IO issues.
-[url=http://www.ioxperts.com/dcam.html]IOXperts[/url]. The install went fine, the cost is acceptable less than $20. The only “problem” is the install process and the GUID to get a licence. Anyway it works fine.

Now the webcam works, but not the webcams… The quickcam isn’t detected when both are connected. The first step was to see if the system recognise it, I used [url=http://developer.apple.com/hardware/usb/]USBprober[/url], a freeware that comes with developer tools.
Yes it was but not seen by the websoftare.

About the webcam stoftware, have a look [url=http://www.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=webcam&os=macosx&button.x=22&button.y=18] on Macupdate[/url]. There many but many are out dated. I used to have [url=http://www.evological.com/evocam.html]evocam[/url], but switched to [url=http://www.bensoftware.com/ss/] securityspy[/url]. It more oriented security than a simple webcam publishing. It’s a great beta, frequenly updated that supports many network cams such as the Axis.

The only recommandation I’d make from this experience before buying any shareware not only test it, but really look at the frequencies of the updates. Many good webcam disapeared since OSX.