HD Pro Webcam C910 - Logitech

[Mad Pierre]

I recently bought a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 for recording to YouTube, in HD - although 720p would be fine. I wanted to do better than the iSight on my MacBook Pro and 27" LCD display. The camera is superb - under Windows. 720/1080, very good. On OSX - useless. Anything greater than 480 and the image swims horribly. It's just not usable. I've installed it on two Macs, a MacBook Pro (a year or so old) and a MacBook air (last refresh). Same issues. Logitech support are useless. They've suggested removing all video software - and that this is the only way they can suggest it will work. hardly reasonable, and on the MacBook Air, the only video software on it is that which shipped with the Mac itself. Tech support also said I needed to be not running in UVC mode - but provided no advice for how to do this, despite me asking twice. The Logitech software is lame - on the PC you get zoom/pan/tilt and auto follow, lots and lots of options. On the Mac, it's resolution - and er, that's it. There's no setting on either for UVC or not. I would record via VMware, but within seconds the audio and video are out of sync because of them being passed the PC via the Mac. Anyone had any experience of these issues? Help appreciated.

 

[Mad Pierre]

In case anyone else has the same issue...

Logitech could not resolve this. I installed their software on three Macs - an iMac, a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air - with exactly the same results. The Air has zero video editing software on it apart from iMovie, it was a clean OS X install. After a lot of messing around Logitech agreed to a refund, using a complex and time-consuming process the like of which I'd never experienced. The whole thing has left me very anti-Logitech and highly unlikely to buy one of their devices for a Mac. The product was clearly described as having a level of compatibility it did not have. Tech support was useless. Buy at your own risk!

 

[Badrottie]

thank you for sharing your painful experience I was about to buy a Logitech webcam next month.

http://www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com/

 

[jenzjen]

I agree with most of your differences between it on the Mac and windows, but I never had an issue recording HD on the Mac side, ie no image swimming etc so suspect you need more horsepower in your system. I have a 3.33 Mac Pro.

 

[Mad Pierre]

I agree with most of your differences between it on the Mac and windows, but I never had an issue recording HD on the Mac side, ie no image swimming etc so suspect you need more horsepower in your system. I have a 3.33 Mac Pro.

I just couldn't get it to work on any of my three machines. Glad yours is working - I need an alternative now but it won't be Logitech - as much for their very unhelpful support as much as anything.

 

[Mad Pierre]

I agree with most of your differences between it on the Mac and windows, but I never had an issue recording HD on the Mac side, ie no image swimming etc so suspect you need more horsepower in your system. I have a 3.33 Mac Pro.

Define more horsepower? This is a pretty recent MBP with 8GB RAM, a brand new iMac with the same. Besides, described as works with Intel OS X - it should just work.

 

[jenzjen]

6 core 3.33ghz CPU, 16gb ram, etc if it doesn't work well with your setup, return it. I read somewhere that the camera relies heavily upon the CPU more so than one would think.

 

[Mad Pierre]

6 core 3.33ghz CPU, 16gb ram, etc if it doesn't work well with your setup, return it. I read somewhere that the camera relies heavily upon the CPU more so than one would think.

It worked fine under Windows, even on the same machine and even via Parallels. (I would have just used it under Parallels but the sound and video get out of sync pretty quickly.) I really don't think it's the hardware when these are pretty powerful machines and two of them less than five months old. In any event, it's returned.

 

[Mad Pierre]

Its worth noting some of the suggestions to get this working that Logitech's tech support people came up with. It gives you a measure of their Mac expertise. Top of the list was "uninstall ALL of your video software of any kind as it may not work when you have other video software present". Say what? iMovie? And what if I want to edit my files? They repeated this several times, even when I said I had a Mac with a clean OS X install and no video software whatsoever.

Also, them: "Make sure the camera is not working in UVC mode"

Me: "How to I do that, there isn't a setting?"

Them: "Please make sure the camera isn't working in UVC mode."

Me: "Can you please advise how to do that?"

Them: "HD does not work in UVC mode"

Me: "Could you please advise on how to ensure the camera is not working in UVC mode"

Them: Silence.

Me: "Could you please tell me how to ensure this camera is not working in UVC mode?"

Them: Silence.

Really.

 

[Outrigger]

6 core 3.33ghz CPU, 16gb ram, etc if it doesn't work well with your setup, return it. I read somewhere that the camera relies heavily upon the CPU more so than one would think.

This is just a web cam, I find it absurd that it needs 16GB of ram and multicore to have it running. I feel there must be something else thats causing the issue.