Webcam Opens in Browser after LiveUpdate?

Hey there! It's been a while since I've been on, but that's just because up 'til now, the Acer Aspire One has been working! Yesterday, I live updated and it went through several updates, including the network one, which is the only one I remember (not the best memory, I'm afraid ), and it switched off wireless, but it worked fine. I assumed that this would be the end of all the update installations/rebooting.

However, today, I wanted to take a picture for a friend (a pic of Mr Gecko if anyone was interested) and when I double clicked on the "Webcam" icon that I put on my desktop (I changed it from the other childish interface to one that resembles Windows), I think that the live update has done something to the webcam software that has caused the icon on my desktop to stop responding. The one on the XFCE Menu > MULTIMEDIA > WEBCAM however, does work.

Could anyone tell me how to either "update" the old icon, or remove it and replace it with one that will be recognized with the Live Update's changes?

Thanks.

 

Hi LisaKirsty

Had the same problems as you and when I opened my previous webcam icon I got a list of script including some Chinese characters. I found the icon that looks exactly as before in the same place as before under /user/share/applications. Deleted the "old" one draged the "new" one onto desktop and works just as before.

Best wishes

 

Hey there, Solpeurto!

Thank you, the icon now works as before. However, I did read in some other posts that this update is supposed to enable sound on the videos also? I wonder if this is true with you as well, but I have tried to record both speech and electronic sound (just to see if my voice is perhaps too weak to be picked up by the microphone, it's been rather soft and unheard lately) but neither my voice nor my keyboard were picked up in the video.

If you are managing to get sound in your video, could you perhaps tell me whether in your webcam's "Source" area it gives an option for microphone (it doesn't in mine, but I would assume Acer would have the brains to put an External/Internal - but then again, we thought that with the webcam software in the first place :roll:!) Could you possibly push me in the right direction towards getting sound in my webcam?

 

Hi again

Yes I get the mic picking up and recording sound. Use the sound icon on the bottom task bar. I had to put mine on full to make it audible. You may need to shout if you have a soft voice???????
I used the internal mike but I notice there is an option to use an external one but when I selected this and closed then opened again it was still at internal.

Best wishes

 

Hi again, you're being such a great help, thanks.

Unfortunately, I clicked Volume > Recording and put both Mic Boost and Capture to full on both sides of each set of bars. I then tried again with recording a sound video, both close to the mic and even whistling loudly at the thing. On playback, no sound, not even distortion which would indicate that the microphone is trying to get some sound, which is a shame because having a webcam that records sound would be useful for updating video-blogs and my piano portfolio.

Any ideas, anybody?

Thanks again,

 

Hi
Have you choosed "Internal Mic" in the "Option" tab of sound properties?

 

Hey there! "Internal Mic" was selected in both Alsa Mixer (alsamixer in Terminal) and the volume control. I tried again and again, messing with mic boost and volume enabled/disabled controls. I finally decided, what the hell, try it and plugged in a Singstar microphone. I went onto Alsa mixer, tabbed until I got input Microphone and changed it to E-Mic - now it works! Hardware troubles ¬¬

Can the internal mics be replaced free under warranty, or should I just keep my spare "mic" in my case?

Thanks for all of your help !