Oly web cam software dead?

[walter_j]

I tried to use it recently, but doesn't work. Apparently, it's hard coded to stop working in 2021. It's beta software, so maybe OM Digital Cameras may or may not support it. Dosen't give me a whole lot of confidence in JII's takeover of Olympus.

 

[Replytoken]

We are 10 days in the new year. You would think that somebody would re-release the beta for 2021 until the final product is developed and released.

--Ken

 

[travelbug]

yeah such a bummer. had a live stream today and thats the only time i found out, after using it (and failing) in many programs and searching the web.

 

[fortwodriver]

UPDATE: Olympus has acknowledged it:

https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/olympus-om-d-webcam-beta

 

[pdk42]

Ah, that explains what's going on! I re-installed firmware, re-booted the PC, bought a new cable, ... how annoying!

 

[c12402]

There is a new update working now

 

[M.V.]

Ah, that explains what's going on! I re-installed firmware, re-booted the PC, bought a new cable, ... how annoying!

Aaaarrrghhh!!!!
Happened to me today. I was about to live-stream Catholic mass service from our church (our anti-Corona measures do not allow public attendance at Sunday services), and the picure just wasn‘t there.
I thought it could be the fault of the Olympus Workspace software which I installed recently, so I uninstalled this and the webcam app, rebooted and reistalled the webcam app, all this as the priest was waiting to begin the service... nothing.

Had to improvise recording with the laptop’s webcam, which fortunately worked decently.

I was sure the malfunction was due to some stupidity on the part of Olympus, and I was not wrong

 

[fortwodriver]

Looks like the update posted late last night is working...

It's an unfortunately side-effect of googling a problem you're having with your setup. Many so-called experts post instructions telling people to completely mess with their setup, while the official Olympus solution ends up hidden.

 

[M.V.]

Yes, the version currently available for download is working. (Tried the Windows 64 bit version).

 

[walter_j]

Yes it works now. Battery time probably next hurdle

 

[c12402]

Also working for me now

 

[Angus Gibbins]

I was sure the malfunction was due to some stupidity on the part of Olympus, and I was not wrong

You can't begrudge Olympus (or any other vendor) when a piece of software still in beta breaks though, that's the very nature of beta software.

 

[M.V.]

You can't begrudge Olympus (or any other vendor) when a piece of software still in beta breaks though, that's the very nature of beta software.

Hi Angus,

Apparently the issue here was that 1) the software was purposedly designed to stop working by the end of 2020, 2) this information was obviously not communicated clearly enough (or not at all), and 3) the replacement version was not made available until the second week of 2021, meanwhile leaving regular users hanging out to dry.

The software itself works fine (had no trouble with either the 2020 or 2021 version so far), nobody complained about that.

I am not sure I can recognize wisdom in hard-coding the end-of-life date into a piece of freely available beta software, which is by definition expected to be replaced with the (freely available) finalized version that everyone is eager install as soon as it is available.

 

[Angus Gibbins]

Hi Angus,

Apparently the issue here was that 1) the software was purposedly designed to stop working by the end of 2020, 2) this information was obviously not communicated clearly enough (or not at all), and 3) the replacement version was not made available until the second week of 2021, meanwhile leaving regular users hanging out to dry.

And again, that's the nature of beta software and why beta software should not be used in production. I don't think that Olympus deliberately stopped the software from working, it's possible that a hard arbitrary EOL date was required in their code, and that Olympus either planned to have a new version out or didn't document this in their internal technical documentation and at the time, end of 2020 was as good as date as any.

I am not sure I can recognize the wisdom of hard-coding the end-of-life date into a piece of freely available beta software, which is by definition expected to be replaced with the (freely available) finalized version that everyone is eager install as soon as it is available.

That is never a garantuee with beta software. There is no garantuee that a final production release will ever come to be. Olympus could at any time decide that the beta program's not working out and pull the plug without warning or explanation.

There are no "regular users" when it comes to a public beta, we're all beta testers here.

I run the webcam beta for video conferences with my team, but if that drops out it's no biggie. Would I run it for something that's imperative to have video for? Hell no.