Recently aquired a "driverless" USB2 webcam.

It shows up as "USB Web Camera" in Device Manager and works just fine with several imaging softwares including Amcap and Webcam XP.

BUT

Skype refuses to understand it, although it sees the device I get just a black preview screen. My old cam still works fine. Google seach suggested upgrading to latest Direct X, no improvement.

Vista Ultimate (genuine and fully updated), but I get the same issue with a box running XP SP-3 (again genuine).

Bright ideas anyone?

What brand is it?

Some cams have a light adjustment on the cable or cam that needs to be turned on for the cam to work. My MD Tech also has a switch on top that needed to be pressed for the cam to work.

What brand is it?

Some cams have a light adjustment on the cable or cam that needs to be turned on for the cam to work. My MD Tech also has a switch on top that needed to be pressed for the cam to work.

It's a no-name (probably Chinese) beastie. Like I said, it works fine with Amcap and Webcam XP, it's just Skype that hates it

Recently aquired a "driverless" USB2 webcam.

It shows up as "USB Web Camera" in Device Manager and works just fine with several imaging softwares including Amcap and Webcam XP.

BUT

Skype refuses to understand it, although it sees the device I get just a black preview screen. My old cam still works fine. Google seach suggested upgrading to latest Direct X, no improvement.

Vista Ultimate (genuine and fully updated), but I get the same issue with a box running XP SP-3 (again genuine).

Bright ideas anyone?

Skype didn't work with an "driverless" Camera! I checked that some month ago and was contacting Skype about and was get tha answer that Skype need an driver to work.

Cheers.

It sounds to me like it has a functional VFW driver (Video for Windows) but not a working DirectShow WDM driver. DirectShow is the newer video standard.

Long ago, I used a VFW wrapper to allow me to use newer WDM devices on older programs that only supported VFW. Unfortuately, if my guess is correct you actually need the opposite, something that will make connect to your older drivers and allow you to use the cam on DirectShow apps. I suspect, but I'm not certain, that Skype is not supporting VFW drivers.

I just found a program called "WillingWebcam" that support VFW drivers and has output stream support, so technically you should be able to use this program to provide skype with the Directshow source it's looking for.

Give it a try and see if that works, I'd be interested to know if it solves your issue.

Splitcam might work as well, but i think it adds a delay.

EDIT: Wo! I just noticed WillingWebcam is $59... I guess it's still worth trying the 21 day trial to see if it solves the problem.

EDIT2: One more free app that might fix the problem

It's working

DV driver from Trackercam works well and does digital PTZ, but is $20 (considerably more than the camera cost).

Splitcam works OK and is free, I like free

The fact that the camera shows up as a valid device in Skype, but doesn't work (but other WDM devices do) suggests that Skype or the camera is not fully compliant, such is life