weird webcam/yahoo problem

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.webcam (More info?)

On Mon, 10 Jan 2005 12:01:47 -0500, Drew <drew@drew.com> wrote:

>
>Hi All:
>
>I've ran across something strange with my webcam and the camera
>feature in Yahoo.
>
>My PC also has a TV card in it that I watch shows on via the computer
>from time to time.
>
>If I have the tv card enabled under device manager (as one would most
>of the time of course), and I run Yahoo messenger and do a Start My
>Webcam, Yahoo starts broadcasting from the TV card rather than the
>webcam. Even if I go under the setup options in Yahoo Messenger and
>select the webcam, the video source still doesn't change and is still
>the TV card.
>
>I have noticed the following as a workaround, though its inconvenient
>but does work. If I go under device manager in Windows XP and right
>click my TV card and disable it *before* doing the Start Camera in
>Yahoo messenger, Yahoo accesses the webcam just fine.
>
>Its almost like Yahoo has the capture devices out of order or
>something and the only way to trick Yahoo into working is to disable
>the TV card.
>
>Anyone ever had this problem or have any ideas on the fix?

I don't know the ordering answer, but a simpler work around is to
open another video capture application, like netmeeting,
vidcap32.exe, or something else simple and select the tv card
video. Then start yahoo and it should go to the webcam, as the tv
card is already in use. Then close the application that was used
to capture the video card.