
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Did they say "USB Video Class", "UVC", or something along the lines of "Designed for Windows Vista/7"?
If not, they may be older designs. If so, then your problem is Windows's approach to drivers.
There are some devices where they will work with one of the drivers Windows has built-in, but because of the metadata their USB microcontrollers report, you need to craft your own INF file to make Windows aware of that.
"if"? They're out there, for better part of a decade ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_video_device_class#Revision_Histor... & when I was shopping for a webcam 5 years ago or so, there were certainly some USB video class models available; few on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_USB_video_class_devices or http://www.ideasonboard.org/uvc/#devices list are at least that old)
I guess some noname models might still use oldish innards, not modified for a long time ...as usual with hardware, you check if it fulfils your criteria before buying (but, if you care about such "total" plug'n'play in a webcam, how did you miss the existence of USB video class?), and/or get something very popular - hence widely supported (that example I gave, when the default Windows drivers worked better than manufacturer-provided - it wasn't even a USB video class webcam; it was about pre-UVC, but as standard as they come, classic QuickCam Express)
Yes, I say "if" because clearly some new webcams are not supported by windows 7 out of the box. I'm looking now at newegg and I can't tell which ones are and which are not, they don't list their usb classes or identification numbers. To be honest, I don't mind installing drivers the old-school way, it was never really a criteria for me.
The only device type where not having built in drivers really hurts is network cards - since there's no way to go online and download new drivers.
Member since:
2011-01-28
zima,
I've purchased a few webcams, one this year. I have yet to own a webcam where windows drivers weren't necessary...but then it's a noname brand. If what you are saying is true and they are becoming standardised, that's a very welcome change!