MacOS – Mountain Lion: how to change webcam resolution

macossettingswebcam

I've just recently got my first Macbook Pro. I'd like to change the resolution of the inbuilt webcam, because my daily GoToMeeting chews through 1-2Gb of traffic and there's no flatrate available from my ISP for my connection.

The GoTo meeting software offers no setting for resolution change. How can I do this?

Thanks

Best Answer

Apple (or a 3rd party) should write a utility to allow you to dial down the native resolution of the internal camera, but to my knowledge they have not, so far.

You can work around this by piping the video output from your web camera into another program that processes the camera's video stream and "re-publishes" it to your Mac as a virtual camera (aka pseudo-camera) which will be available for use in other applications on your Mac.

Here's how I did it. I've tested this solution under OS X 10.8. It also works under OS X 10.6. (I'd bet it probably works in 10.7, also.)

Download the free (donation-ware) webcam effects utility CamTwist Studio.
Set your web browser to run in 32-bit mode. (Why? Because the Adobe Flash browser plugin must run in 32-bit mode in order to access the CamTwist virtual camera device.) To do this, go to the Finder, locate your web browser app, do "Get Info", and check the "Open in 32-bit mode" checkbox. Don't launch your web browser yet.

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Open CamTwist Studio, go to the Preferences, click the Video Devices tab, choose your video device, then use the "Force camera resolution" setting to force whatever resolution you prefer. (Suggest 320 x 240 for low-bandwidth internet connections.)

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You'll then need to define a "Setup" in CamTwist studio. Follow the Steps in the CamTwist main window: double-click "WebCam" from the Video Sources column.

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Skip to Step 5 in the Cam Twist main window - select your camera device in the Settings column:

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Open the Preview from the Tools menu. A window should pop up showing you a live video stream from your camera device.
(optional) If you wish, play around with the many interesting effects available within CamTwist, such as "Comic Book," shown here:

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Now you're ready to launch your web browser (in 32-bit mode). Most web-based video chat/meeeting services (such as GoToMeeting) use Adobe Flash for handling video. When you go to configure your camera settings for video chat, you should see a new "camera" device available, called "CamTwist Studio." If you select this device, your video stream should be the modified, low-resolution 320x240 (or whatever size you chose) stream, plus any effects you added in CamTwist.

The CamTwist "virtual" video device should also be available in most other programs that use Mac OS X Core Video services, i.e. Skype and many other apps. (But not all. For example, it doesn't work with FaceTime.)

Here's an example of the CamTwist video stream being used on http://www.chatroulette.com:

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Change webcam settings

According to this Apple discussion forum post:

As you know, software always controls your iSight. Most apps, including all Apple apps of which I am aware, automatically make the iSight settings for you and do NOT allow you to manipulate them from within the application.

In my own case, I have found that merely adding more light to my work room has allowed the automatic settings to give me adequate iSight images.

However, if you want to take manual control, the iGlasses2 add-on lets you manipulate many of the features that iSight (and many other compatible webcams) offer. Note that iGlasses2 may not work with every applications that can work with your camera.

You can get iGlasses2 here: http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/

This Apple KB also offers some troubleshooting guidance:

Important: Follow these instructions in order. Test the camera between steps to see if the issue is resolved.

Built-in iSight cameras These steps are for iSight cameras that are built into a computer, such as the iMac G5 (iSight) or later, the MacBook, or MacBook Pro.

See if the issue is application-specific. Try another application (iSight works with applications like iChat, PhotoBooth, and iMovie HD 6) to see if the iSight camera exhibits the same behavior in all applications. If it only happens in one application, try reinstalling that application.

See if the issue is user-specific. Test your iSight camera in another user account. If the issue only occurs in one user, the issue would be isolated to user settings.

Find out if the computer recognizes the iSight Check System Profiler (in the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder). Under the USB header, check to see if the iSight camera is detected.

Reset SMC or PMU Reset your computer's SMC or PMU, and then check System Profiler again. (SMC reset instructions for iMac G5 (iSight), Intel-based iMacs; PMU reset instructions for MacBook and MacBook Pro.)

If your built-in iSight camera is still not behaving correctly after trying all these steps, you may need to contact Apple or an Apple-Authorized Service Provider for service.

In short, you can try adding an app to offer access to the controls or do a bit of troubleshooting on you MBP to confirm if this issue occurs on other applications or for other users. Worst case, bring your MBP in for servicing.

Note: Fixed typo.

How to keep ~/Library visible in (Mountain) Lion

If you don't want to add a login item, you could also save this as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.stackexchange.apple.66594.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN
http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnableGlobbing</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.stackexchange.apple.66594</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>chflags</string>
        <string>nohidden</string>
        <string>~/Library/</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Best Answer

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