Creative Webcam Live! Motion- Titanium

The picture quality of this WebCam is good. However, this product has some terrible design faults. Unlike other Creative WebCam products, I cannot change the vertical angle of this WebCam. If I put this WebCam on the my LCD monitor, the WebCam lens is too high. If I put it on the desk, then the camera lens is too low. I will not buy this product. Instead, I will just buy a regular creative WebCam which only costs me $20~$30 while I can adjust both horizontal and vertical angle of the WebCam lens manually.

I've owned this webcam for months and very satisfied so far. For such price I didn't expect anything remotely like Nikon DSLRs (hardware-wise), however it turned out that the light metering, shutter speed and aperture of this tiny thing are all quite right, even under some really complex lighting conditions. (I'm a long-time avid photographer) The zooming is digital but not optical, but then again it is really a consumer gadget targeted at mass-market.The video is reasonably smooth. The panning and tilting works well. The bundled software is quite impressive. Not necessarily the most cutting-edge computer vision algorithms are implemented, but it's really nice to see creative get quite a few applications featuring object detection and motion tracking. Some people complained the face detection didn't work out well for them. It's really not the hardware's fault but can be improved by employing some not-so-primitive, state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms in the software. That means we can always hope Creative to release more advanced software or even roll out our own (oops, the driver is closed-source, but there is workaround for this issue if one really wants to hack along...). Tip for a quick fix is: do not expose any object which has the similar colour and similar shape of your face to the webcam. This way, the software is not likely to get confused and will track your face well. I experimented with my hand in front of the cam, the little robot eye stared straight at my palm and followed it when I waved my hands. This tells that in the software, the rules defining a "face" is really primitive for now. (I wonder what will this little camera do when it sees an African whose face is nearly RGB(0, 0, 0), can it still track?) And I'd like to see a driver for Linux too. I run Debian most of the time recently, don't want to reboot to windows just in order to use this webcam.

The visual surveillance feature is cool. It suggests a really nice application possibility of this camera. Creative put these ideas together and created a decent and stylish UI for utilizing this little robot eye, appreciated here.

This cam looks good and is well built. It's especially cute when it does track your face's motion and stares straight at you, just like a cat or a little kid. The blue illuminated circles at each side looks modern and elegant.

I bought this cam for several reasons. My parents live far away from me, a webcam can be a great tool for our communication; My boyfriend is a hardcore researcher working on automatic video segmentation, feature recognition, etc. We are just curious about the trend of applications in the consumer market and how far have the consumer-oriented products gone, technology-wise. Creative webcam live motion's performance meets my need for a visual aid of the remote communication. As a practical tool it is more than adequate; Both my boyfriend and me had great fun when tweaking, cheating and playing with this little robot eye and we cannot wait to write our own applications for it. It is also a great toy. Thus 5 stars.

PS: Creative just released some really flashy software called "advanced video FX" for this camera, freely available from their website. Though not anything really that innovative, still a nice move. And I really hope they would release some SDK so that people can implement better algorithms for applications like remote monitoring, motion tracking...for this webcam.

I tried to install this on 3 different computers, A Toshiba, a Sony and a voodoo. It will not install on any of them.

The webcam is just like any other ordinary Logitech webcam. Nothing new or great about it. The description given by the manufacturer seems to claim that this is the best webcam in the world. Don't believe any word from the manufacturer. If you already have a webcam, don't re-invest in this.

The "face-recognizing" software is a joke. It takes any bright light ahead of the webcam as a "face". If two or more people stand in front of the camera, it goes crazy trying to figure out what to do and does what it can do best... hang or freeze. I had to close the software and restart it 7 times in an hour. I returned the webcam after using it for 2 days.

I am not satisfied with this Creative Webcam Live! Motion- Titanium. I bought this even of the higher cost because I thought it should be the best. However,the authomatic sensor is junk and the headphone is broken. The tracking device is not very good because each time I moved the captured picture would blur and freeze. The pant and tilt control is a pain. Although it works well with Yahoo messenger, as a buyer, you should consider spending time reading other reviews of a procuct that you are interested. Higher price does not mean good product.

The Creative WebCam Live! Motion takes some huge steps forward with it's wide angle lens, pan and tilt capability, remote capability, and image tracking capability.

However, some of this technological leap forward takes some steps backward as the sharpness of the picture isn't quite as good as what is possible with a stationary fixed focus webcam. There is quite a bit of distortion in the pictures too which I attribute to the wide angle lens and the plastic cover over the lens.

Software installation was easy and clean. The instructions say to connect to the computer directly via USB and not to hook up the unit to a hub but that is almost impossible considering the length of attached USB chord. My webcam is connected thru one of my USB 2.0 hubs and is working fine. Another weak point is the face tracking software. Some times it would focus in on me and other times it would wander aimlessly making my friends that are watching very dizzy.

I will give this unit 4 out of 5 because over all it is a good product with a good feature set. Comparing this device to like devices still makes this product a leader because let's face it, a really good, super high quality webcam for a reasonable price just doesn't exist yet.


I use my webcam to make what my granddaughter and I call "computer calls." We actually use the telephone for audio so that each household can use the speakerphones and use the cameras only for the video portion. I had a Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 which I did not find particularly good. Furthermore, it kept falling out of its base. Because my husband is so much taller than I am, I wanted a camera that would do panning up and down. This camera is perfect for our needs. We use the panning control panel - not the Smartface tracking. The picture is much better than my Logitech picture, whether we use Yahoo Messenger or the SightSpeed that came with the camera. I do not agree with any of the other reviews that have negative things to say about the video, but I do not intend to do a full "conference" with this camera, do not intend to use it for audio, and do not intend to use the face tracking. So, if your needs are as simple as mine, this is a great camera. However, I bought mine on eBay, where I paid considerably less than the Amazon price, so I have no complaints about the camera's possible shortcomings compared to its price. For my needs, this camera is of considerably higher quality than the Logitech Quickcam pro 4000.

The camera works fine with Yahoo Instant Messenger, and with the software that Creative includes with the product. But we got the camera to use it with AIM which is what the rest of our distributed family uses. Alas, neither AIM 5.9 nor AIM Triton displays anything from the the camera. Creative's support has been frustrating. They have suggested a number of things to do if the camera doesn't work at all, ignoring the fact that I've told them where the camera does work, and that we get the same results on two very different computers.

The problem may be with AIM, but then Creative's website and tech support should just say that, instead of encouraging users to think that it does work. I've found several entries on the web indicating others having the same problem.

I'm very pleased with this camera. I updated it with the new drivers and software on the Creative site (from January 2006) immediately and I have not had any of the problems others mention. The image quality is excellent with good lighting and the camera is fast since it is a true USB 2.0 camera. It will work with USB 1, but be sure you use USB 2.0 for better quality.

Video calls run a bit choppy if there is a lot of movement, but for basic conversations, it is fine. I use 8 Mbs cable and I connect with people using the same or high speed DSL.

This camera takes great video & photos and has an excellent one click panoramic option that does all of the stitching for you. If you want to take a large group shot, it is really cool. The other features like security and remote monitoring are very useful as well. I don't use the face tracking.

The base deserves a mention too. I use this on my notebook and on my desktop. It's cool that the base works with both notebook screens and on flat surfaces. Highly recommended for the price now with the current rebate Amazon is offering.

From the photos and specs I thought this was "the camera" to have (both my wife and I loved the look of the camera from the photos we had seen). There's always exceptions to rules, and the rule, "the more you pay, the more you get" is the exception to the rule for this web camera. After getting it, I had difficulty in getting the software to load but eventually had success. I was very disappointed in the video quality. There seemed to be a lot of noise in the picture, and tweaking gave no improvement. I returned it to Amazon and took a lose in the return shipping cost, but considered it worth it just to get the price of the camera back. Amazon lived up to their part and refunded the price paid (less return shipment) with no hassle.

this webcam is not compatible with acer ferrari, with windows xp. I don't know why. I just returned it.

This webcam has great resolution and the coolest tilt and pan feature. It also has software that allows it to follow your face around if you choose to move during broadcast. The adjustable legs work either hang it from your laptop screen or set it on your desk or table. Great value and performance for the money.

I feel similar to the gentleman above. I am separated from my wife and 2 year old son due to work. I bought us each a camera. Mine is a fixed Logitech, and I brought the new Titanium home with me at Christmas for her. Well, I tried it on our 2.2GHz Pentium 4 laptop and was shocked at lack of video quality. So I bought her a brand new dual core 3.0 GHz pentium with 2 gig of ram (my computer here is a 2.8 P4 with 1.0 gig of ram). Anyhow, the network conditions seem to be the deciding factor. Both computers are through cable modem, so they are fast. The whole process is at best, disappointing. We tried going through Yahoo--much worse than Sight Speed. I would even be willing to pay for Sight Speed if they guaranteed better video quality. It freezes alot, the audio seems to lag. If you want to leave video messages, then no problem. As far as actual video conferencing, we end up talking on our cell phones (my wife on speaker so my son can hear) and just using the video. Would I attempt to set up video conferencing again? Not until there is an improvement in data transfer. This review isn't so much about the camera as it is video conferencing. If I had a read a review that would have said, "In my opinion, I would wait for technology to advance before wasting the money," I may have reconsidered. I just wanted my son to see me everyday and tell him goodnight. The camera isn't any better than the $80 logitech, but it wasn't worth the time or money to send this one back to save $20.

This is my first webcam. My wife and sister wanted to communicate. Overall, I wouldn't buy this again given what I know now.

The camera's image quality and features are excellent, but the software is buggy and the cheap little headset (that clips to your ear) is a joke. It broke after 10 minutes.

We then hooked up a little walkman mic while waiting for a new USB mic to arrive ($30 more) and began playing with the face tracking. It was good for a laugh. Maybe in the right environment it would be useful, but it would get confused by our ceiling fan, our TV a bright photo on the wall or just get stuck on a bright corner on the ceiling. It's not useful for us.

The failure of face tracking would be acceptable if the camera didn't repeatedly freeze. Most of the time just unplugging and plugging it back in and restarting the software would fix it, but sometimes a reboot is required. It has probably froze 50 times in the month we've had it. And all that gets old when working with other webcam newbies across country with kids on both ends and little technical experience on their side.

Setting up audio was no piece of cake either, with or without the broken headset. There are 3-4 places that sound is controlled on a PC, and the installation instructions, software help and Creative online help have absolutely zero to say about it. I had to do lots of digging through google for several hours to learn it.

We use the recommended service of SightSpeed. It's good for leaving video mails of nice quality, but very marginal live video quality. After a half dozen chats with my wife's relatives, we still haven't got both or our voices to transmit at the same time without breaking up. Maybe her computer is slow, I should check, but it's really not the kind of thing you want to work with your mother on for a holiday gift and expect to go smoothly.

After all this, I'm glad to have it and sure some of the remaining issues will be resolved, but I would not do it all over again. Life is short. I'd either buy a nice medium priced webcam or wait for the next version to come out.