Adjust system-wide camera settings in Windows 10?

Question

On Windows 10, how can I adjust the camera / webcam settings at an OS level level?

Depending on my environment, I need to adjust the brightness of the camera capture and have it being applied in any webcam application (e.g. Skype, Google Hangout, other video conference call tools). Running Windows 10 Professional (v1703) on a Macbook Pro via bootcamp.

For clarity, I can adjust my sound volume and it affects any application that uses the speakers. Similar notion but for the camera.

Solution 1

As I came here from Google looking for solution myself...

You will need FFmpeg unzipped anywhere on your disk. Assuming Windows here, but FFmpeg should have Linux version as well.

1. Navigate to bin directory in CMD shell (via cd "C:/path/to/ffmpeg/bin/")
2. Execute following command: ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy -hide_banner
3. Note your camera name from the output (like HP Wide Vision HD, because I have HP laptop)
4. Execute following command (of course replace HP Wide Vision HD with your camera name): ffmpeg -f dshow -show_video_device_dialog true -i video="HP Wide Vision HD"
5. The settings will now open (the same as in Skype).
6. ... question sanity of guys at some american OS vendor who had hidden this dialog so deeply...

Solution 2

I found out that you can do this using the video settings in Skype.

By saving the settings in Sykpe they will be used in any other application.

Comments

[distante]

With the desktop version of Skype being deprecated this will be no longer an option.

[Aaron N. Brock]

Thank you! I'm slowly learning that if my problem is even the slightest bit related to video, FFMPEG is the answer.

[Jthorpe]

Pro tip: Right click your desktop and create a shortcut to your ffmpeg.exe file called Camera Settings. Then right click the shortcut and copy the rest of the ffmpeg command (-f dshow ...) to the target field of the shortcut. You now have a shortcut to your camera settings.