YouCam Review - Fun and Games with a Live Video Studio for Webcams

excellent
key review info
application features
  • Live video studio for webcams
  • (11 more, see all...)

Dedicated to webcam users, CyberLink YouCam is a comprehensive application that acts as a live video studio. It's armed with a wide range of effects which can be applied to the webcam footage in real time, so that you can have some fun when chatting with friends via instant messengers.

The program is not only entertaining but useful as well. It supports a screenshot grabber, video recorder, image editor, motion detection recorder with email alerts, and face detection technology for logging into Windows and locking the PC, among other features.

License, installation, and interface

The trial edition of CyberLink YouCam Deluxe can be tested for 30 days without any feature limitations. After this time's up, you can purchase the deluxe for $44.95 / €40.52. Otherwise, the program reverts to the essential edition, which is free but has some limited features. You can also check out CyberLink YouCam Standard (available for $34.95 / €31.52).

The installation procedure doesn’t take a long time to finish. Although this is not mentioned by the application, it integrates itself into the Windows Explorer startup sequence.

As far as the interface is concerned, YouCam puts a lot of emphasis on appearance. The main app window has a dark theme and plays animations when selecting options. It automatically gets the webcam running at startup and it’s possible to switch to fullscreen mode.

YouCam: Insert gadgets
YouCam: Insert gadgets

Plus, it creates an icon in the systray for quick access and gets sent there on exit, and it gets launched automatically when starting a webcam video call within an IM tool (Yahoo Messenger, Skype or AOL Instant Messenger).

Make video adjustments in real time

Apart from the fact that you can zoom in and out, you can tweak the video stream in real time when it comes to the brightness, contrast and exposure levels. This can be done manually or automatically. Auto lighting may be applied too, while the video sharpness and noise reduction can be adjusted. Further changes can be made to the hue, saturation, gamma, white balance, gain, exposure, and any other features supported by your camera. These options can be restored to default.

Explore scenes, frames, particles and other effects

All of the program’s components are broken down into five major categories, dedicated to frames and scenes, particles, filters and distortions, emotions and gadgets, avatars and augmented reality, in addition to brushes and stamps (for drawing on webcam footage in real time).

There are 21 scenes, 54 frames, 14 particle types, 9 filters, 12 distortion types, 34 emoticons, 34 gadgets and 19 avatars. Additional ones can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Create custom avatars and draw on the video

New avatars can be created with custom faces, hair, eyes, eyebrows, noses, and lips. YouCam contains numerous styles available in this regard, and you can choose any color from the spectrum. Before wrapping up the avatar, you can add earrings or hats as accessories, along with a background image, including local JPEG and BMP files. Results can be previewed before turning it into a new profile.

YouCam: Insert avatars
YouCam: Insert avatars

When it comes to drawing directly on the webcam video, the application lets you use a pen and pick a color, make corrections with an eraser, or fill selections with color. Several stamps resembling emoticons are ready for use. You can also apply the skin smoothening effect to the footage in real time and adjust its level, as well as remove all applied effects with one click.

Grab, organize and edit snapshots

Screenshots can be easily captured, opened in Windows Explorer, renamed, emailed, compressed (ZIP archive), sent to the desktop (as shortcut), as well as sent to My Documents or Skype. You can explore a library that keeps a calendar and holds all photos and video recordings, as well as filter files by date, month or faces.

HDR and burst mode can be enabled, and the shots can be opened in a built-in image editor. YouCam contains face beautification tools for smoothening and toning the skin, reshaping the face, adding blush, enlarging eyes and whitening teeth, as well as for removing blemish, shine and eye bags.

Furthermore, you can apply preset color filters, add frames, use brushes, crop the image, and add face tags. The resulted media can be sent via email, posted on YouTube or Facebook, and saved as a JPG, BMP or PNG file.

Create panoramas and record desktop video

It’s also possible to put together multiple photos into panoramas by aligning the camera to the edge of the previous image, create video presentations from Microsoft PowerPoint files and two webcams, or switch to “mirror” mode which is not significantly different from the regular camera mode.

What's more, YouCam has a tool capable of recording the full screen, mouse movement or fixed area, which can be quickly activated and halted by triggering a hotkey. This recording is saved as a video file with the WMV, AVI or MP4 extension.

Motion detection and facial recognition for PC login/lock

In terms of security, the application reserves a surveillance module that can record webcam footage continuously or every now and then (timelapse mode), or to react on motion detection. The video can be automatically sent to an email address via SMTP.

Additionally, YouCam supports facial recognition technology. It can memorize your facial features to give access only to you when attempting to log into Windows. This is done by capturing a screenshot of your face for registration with a user account. Moreover, it can be set to automatically lock your computer when the webcam no longer sees you.

The face login feature is also supported by several websites, such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Flickr, and Twitter. It requires Internet Explorer.

Configure program preferences

Camera settings may be configured by selecting between multiple capture and audio devices, in addition to the image resolution. The image can be flipped horizontally, while audio recording can be disabled. Plus, you can enable video zoom and set YouCam to automatically zoom in the face.

It’s also possible to modify the default capture folder, set a countdown before capture, display a timestamp, change the capture format for video captures (WMV, AVI, MP4) and snapshots (JPG, BMP, PNG), capture quality, shutter speed, and number of shots per burst.

Lastly, general program options revolve around the UI language, effect thumbnail size and preview display, whether or not to keep the original photo with HDR, and removing YouCam from the Windows autostart sequence.


The Good

The tool's multilingual, wrapped in an attractive interface, and easy-to-use by anyone. It's a live video studio for webcams that supports real-time video adjustments and a wide range of effects for scenes, frames, particles, filters, distortions, emotions, gadgets, augmented reality, drawing tools, and avatars.

It has a screenshot grabber, video recorder (for the webcam and desktop), photo editor, media library, and beautification tools.

No one may argue the fact that YouCam is fun to play with. However, some of its features are actually practical and quite advanced, like the face recognition system for logging into Windows and locking the computer.

It also automatically tracks the face and partially mimics expressions when using avatars. Plus, you can apply the face blur or full blur effect to be able to anonymously chat with someone online, or monitor webcam activity and send it via email automatically.

There are many options available but they can be easily missed if you don't explore all buttons. Although the app doesn't have a section with all features listed, you can consult the help manual to find out all information (click "YouCam" in the top left corner of the main window).

The Bad

Although a slight delay in FPS is expected from a webcam utility, we have noticed that it increases when applying specific effects, particularly the animations with particles.

As previously mentioned, the program creates an icon in the Windows autostart sequence, which means that it contributes to a slower boot time without asking for your permission, let alone give you the possibility to disable this option during installation (only later from the settings panel). On top of that, it creates a systray icon where the program gets sent on exit. This wouldn't normally be an issue but YouCam doesn’t indicate this through a balloon message or any other means.

In several cases during our tests, after exiting the main window the tool prompted an error dialog when launching it from the systray, notifying us that it cannot connect to the computer’s integrated camera (no other apps were using the webcam during this time). We tried terminating its process and service to restart it, but this didn’t work. The issue was resolved only after rebooting the PC.

The Truth

Bottom line is that we had a lot of fun exploring CyberLink YouCam, and we're sure it has many features to your liking as well.

user interface 5
features 5
ease of use 4
pricing / value 4


final rating 5
Editor's review
excellent
 

Preview some of YouCam's effects (37 Images)

YouCam: Insert avatarsYouCam: Apply dozens of effects to your webcam footage in real timeYouCam: Adjust video settingsYouCam: Apply scenesYouCam: Apply scenes
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