I have a work provided webcam that is very nice that I'd like to use for teams meetings at work, it's meant to be mounted on top of a monitor so it looks more or less like you're staring at a camera. Thing is I have a vertical monitor, so mounting it on top of the monitor would have it looking down at me constantly; I'd risk blinding all my team mates if a ceiling light reflected off my bald spot.
I'd instead like to put the camera on the side of the monitor about halfway up, but with the way the camera mounts the video would be sideways. I'd like to tell windows "take this, rotate it", but can't seem to find a system setting of any sort to do this. Is it at all possible?
Best Answer
This response is not really for Microsoft Teams - it's more about rotating the webcam stream in Windows, so I'm posting this as it is related to the title of the questions.
Basically, I just need to play a webcam video on Windows, nothing else - however, since the webcam camera is installed in an inaccessible location, I would like to rotate the stream image in software.
Thus, I'd be quite happy to use the built-in Camera app in Windows - and once, there actually used to be a rotation setting for the Camera app in Windows 10 (although, seemingly, just for "Windows Insiders"):
https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-rolls-out-an-update-for-the-camera-app-for-windows-10/
But then, somewhere in 2018, Microsoft decided to remove it:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/apps_windows_10-camera/camera-app-rotation-setting-where-did-it-disappear/539bd7ba-f5ce-4c5f-8e40-95e94f828aae
The only sort of funny explanation on why this happened I found here:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/camera-orientation/88d1a744-7ac7-452f-9438-8c69bd161138
They "fixed the problem"? What "problem"?
:)They certainly did not solve the problem of how to do software rotation, if your webcam is mounted in an inaccessible place!So, even if Microsoft is one of the richest software companies in the world - money only attracts idiots and parasites, and the only thing we can expect is things turning more and more to crap ... what a waste of time.
Oh well - I guess, the real answer is, Microsoft do not want to be bothered with support issues dealing with webcam rotation, and instead of leaving a possibility for the users to fix the problem themselves (as there was an option to do so) - they'd rather users plague the manufacturer of the device instead ... At least if they were honest about it, one would not have to spend endless hours for a fix that does not exist.
Well, then - now, in this case, I use a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, so I thought I'd check out what the manufacturer has on offer - and I tracked down something called Logitech Capture - so I thought, ok maybe that has some sort of a rotation setting.
Note here, that I'm in the EU, and I first got a location-based language webpage for Logitech Capture, but I wanted to download an English version. So I change the language to "en-us" in the URL, so I get https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/capture - but when I try to load this, I just get https://www.logitech.com/en-us/ ... and after some searching online, it turns out the right link for EU is https://www.logitech.com/en-roeu/product/capture ! I mean, how hard would it have been, to have a notification "Sorry, as you're based outside of the United States, you are not allowed to download the software intended for the US"?
Eh, so not just for Microsoft - everything in the business software world is turning to more and more crap ... What a waste of time.
So, ok - I install this Logitech capture, I get a lot of flashy screens, and then I realise this:
Notice something? Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 is NOT in the sources list! However, if you look at the video settings, you get resolution and FPS:
... and if you change this here, it actually does change the settings of the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000!
So, what is the reason for this stupidity? Found the answer here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LogitechG/comments/fox6wy/logitech_c930e_webcam_not_detected_by_logi_capture/
Well, then - why not be honest, and in the program itself, instead of "Source 1: None", just write "Source 1: Screw you, you piece of ****, buy a new webcam, we don't care"? At least one would not have to spend endless hours finding an explanation... Oh well, no avoidance of more and more crap - what a waste of time ...
Well, finally, there is only one remaining thing to do - and that is turn to open-source; and I managed to get a webcam stream viewer which can rotate the video image in VLC. Install an open VLC (I used 3.0.11), and click Media/Open Capture Device... - and you get this screen:
Thankfully, the webcam I use is found under "Video device name" - however, note that there are no obvious options to change FPS and resolution here; so for that, you'll either have to use Logitech Capture (heh
:)), or the Windows 10 Camera app (click the Settings gear top left corner, then scroll down to Video Quality, and make your choice there):(Although, I guess now that this is posted, Microsoft employees will easily figure out that this is useful, so they'll likely remove it in the next update - so I wouldn't count on this too much)
Once you have your webcam settings done, open VLC, do the Media/Open Capture Device... as above, click Play - and you should get the stream; now, to rotate it - click Tools/Events and Filters/Video Effects tab/Geometry tab - click the Rotate checkbox there, and then use the wheel to set the rotation angle; this should be applied immediately - and then you can click Close:
If you click Save here - this will cause the rotation setting to be remembered and saved, so it will be applied to everything - including when you want to watch normal videos in VLC.
So, a better idea would be (at least for me), to actually have a command line call to VLC, which will set up both the webcam viewing and the rotation, and throw that into a
.batscript.So, start up Command Prompt (
cmd.exe), to test this kind of a call; note that VLC should be able to target the camera by name, and it seemingly does not have an option to list capture devices ( apparently you have to useffmpegfor that, which I got from https://github.com/mjasnikovs/logitechC920-vlc/blob/master/README.md ; see also VLC. Rotation works when using command line but it doesn't when entering the options in the Edit Options section , Video playback as minimalist overlay in corner of screen , How to disable all window borders from the VLC playback window ):Well, this worked good enough for me - so now, let's just through this command in a .bat file - I call it "
VLC-webcam.bat"; use the start command here, so you do not have a terminal shown ( How do I create a Windows Batch file that does not show the Command Prompt when executed? ; plus you need an empty set of quotes at first, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/154075/ )Eh, finally - I can do just one double-click, and get a window showing a rotated webcam video; isn't that amazing?
Of course, caveat emptor - since everything has to turn to bigger and bigger crap, expect Microsoft employees to soon release an update which removes setting of resolution from the Camera app (or remove the Camera app altogether), and Logitech employees to soon release an update to the driver, so you cannot set the resolution there either, so this whole process will break - and soon, I'll have to use again countless hours on solving the same problem... What a waste of time.