camtasia wont release my webcam

[CaptainKangaroo]

Hi,
I have a good quality Creative Webcam, which I use for Messenger and sometimes I leave on for video surveillance of my office using Creative Live! software.

I recently installed Camtasia6, which I use for making training videos for my business by recording the screen. Camtasia can use the webcam but isn't very good at it, but its great for recording the screen and I really need it.

Since installing Camtasia, I can't use the Webcam with Creative Live! anymore. If I open the Cam Manager, and try to use the Webcam, it tells me that " another application is using the webcam " and won't allow me to use it.

Camtasia is the only other program, apart from Windows Live Messenger, that is capable of using the Webcam in my computer. Since the problem didn't exist before I installed Camtasia, it's obvious to me that Camtasia is the culprit. I have had both Messenger and Creative Live! installed for more than a year and never had a problem.

If Camtasia is not turned on, and I can find no background process related to Camtasia, why can't I use Creative Live! to operate the Webcam any more? Is there a way of giving Creative Live! back total control of the Webcam? I have no use for it within Camtasia at all.

I use Windows XP Pro and my computer is an AMD dual core with 2GB RAM and 500GB hard drive. I hope someone can help me!

[Mitz]

Hi Captain
I have a few questions for you...

What makes you think it is Camtasia hogging the webcam? Could it be MSN or some other program?

When you restart your computer can you use the webcam then?

Have you looked into Camtasia's settings to see if there is something you can change there?

Does the webcam work in any other programs besides Camtasia?

[CaptainKangaroo]

the only things that can use the webcam as far as i know are camtasia, msn and creative. I dont have yahoo or any other stuff like that.

restarting the computer makes no difference.

msn and creative have always been there with no problems, the problem only started when i installed camtasia. 

I have checked every setting on all 3 programs and i can find nothing that helps.

i am ready to buy a second computer and cam, so i can have both 

i havent tried the cam in msn recently though, i will do that in the morning.

[Mitz]

Ok captain...
I am going to keep asking you more questions so bare with me...

If you restart your computer and go to use the creative software first, does this work?

Does Camtasia work without any problems no matter what?

Have you tried removing Camtasia, trying the Creative software, then reinstalling it. That will proove that it is Camtasia.

When you open task manager and go to the processes tab, what are some of the odd ones you can't account for?

[CaptainKangaroo]

This is really wierd..

I tried the camera with Messenger and it worked!
Creative still said the camera was being used, so I uninstalled Messenger. Seemed obvious to me that the culprit must be Messenger, but no dice! Creative still wouldn't use the camera.

I uninstalled Camtasia, and this didn't help. Creative still claimed the cam was being used by another application.

I uninstalled Creative. I reinstalled it, and the camera works!
I reinstalled Messenger, and the camera still works!
I reinstalled Camtasia, and the camera still works!

 

I can only guess that Creative developed some kind of bug, because now all 3 programs are very happily living together without problems.

Thankyou very much for your assistance, and I am sorry to have wasted your time. 

[Merlin33069]

Meh.

we all love to help people, and as such, anyone involved is happy that you got everything fixed.

no time is wasted, ever.