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#1
Webcam video encoding types not available after Win 10 Anniv Update
I offer this in the hope that it will help get the issue some attention.
Background
I use webcams for video conferencing and streaming production. I have a large collection of webcams of all sorts, along with various software applications that allows explicit control of the cameras.
Camera I have on-hand: Logitech C920, C930e, BCC950, CC3000e, Aver VC520
Applications I use: vMix, Wirecast, Open Broadcaster Studio, SparkoCam
Most webcams are USB 2.0 connected and only support delivery of uncompressed video frames (I420, YUY2 or RGB encoded) to the client application. These two facts limit them to 720p30.
Some webcams (including all those listed above) support MJPEG and/or H264 encoding. That allows them to achieve 1080p30 if the client app is capable of setting the camera up to deliver the compressed stream. It also makes it a lot easier to use multiple webcams on the same computer without fighting USB bandwidth headaches.
The Problem
On a windows 10 system without the anniversary update installed all of the apps I have can put these various cameras into MJPEG or H264 mode and successfully achieve 1080p30.
On a similar system that has been updated with the anniversary update the compressed encoding types are not available to the applications. Only uncompressed encodings are offered. Thus 1080p30 cannot be achieved.
If I compare device drivers between the systems I find that they are identical. Same source, date, version.
I think that they have broken something in their basic UVC implementation. MJPEG encoding is an aspect of UVC 1.1, H264 was in UVC 1.5.
I reported this to Microsoft. They issued me a ticket number and referred me to some utterly worthless documents regarding repairing access to webcam that was not working at all.
Reverting to pre-anniversary update restores the missing functionality.
I've documented this here: Windows 10 Anniversary Update Breaks USB Camera Functionality Graves On SOHO Technology
It's also been reported in support forums for vMix, Wirecast and OBS.
Michael