USB HD Cam¶
Makes the PS5 HD Camera (CFI-ZEY1) a webcam on Windows. The camera has no memory of its own: it starts as a boot loader and needs its firmware each time it is plugged in, as a PlayStation sends it. The app gets the firmware (a pinned, checked download, or a file of your own), gives the boot loader a driver once, and sends the firmware when you press A. Then Windows sees an ordinary webcam, USB Camera-OV580, for OBS, a browser, Discord or any other app. The Picture card shows it full screen in the app itself, with screenshots, recordings, zoom and black and white. Keep the app open while you use the camera in another app: it keeps the picture bright (see Keeping the picture bright). The camera has no microphone.
USB HD Cam is on the portal's Utilities tab: A on its tile installs it, and once it is installed, A opens it. It is also in the Start menu (Windows Portable Suite, USB HD Cam). It opens full screen; B goes back and ⧉ (View) exits it.
What you need¶
- A PS5 HD Camera. Its plug is USB 3 (USB-A): on a handheld with only USB-C ports, a USB-C hub or dock with a USB-A port, or an adapter.
- A USB 3 port (5 Gbit/s). The boot loader works on a slower one, the video does not.
- An administrator's password, once per USB port (or a yes, when your own user is one): see Allow access below.
The screen¶
Four cards on the left, Camera, Picture, Firmware and Bandwidth; the right side shows what the focused card does. The d-pad or the left stick moves the amber focus. Every action is a button, listed in the row at the bottom with what it does on the pane that shows: A included. Press the button, or tap the entry. B goes back: from a list to its card. ⧉ (View) exits the app. ☰ (Menu) opens the information of the pane that shows; the information icon at a pane's top right does the same by touch. Nothing is grayed out: when a button cannot do its job now, pressing it says why on the pane's status line.
Camera¶
Plug the camera in, then press A on the Camera card. Nothing is looked for before you do. A always does the next step, and the row at the bottom names it:
- A Look for it finds the camera and shows what it is now: its USB speed, its driver and, once it is a webcam, the name apps list it by.
- A Allow access, the first time on a USB port. Windows gives a device without a driver none, so the boot loader gets Microsoft's own WinUSB driver: the one that ships with Windows, signed by Microsoft, the same as picking WinUsb Device by hand in Device Manager. Installing a driver takes an administrator, so Windows asks once (its prompt may open behind the app). This is the app's only step as administrator, and it installs nothing else. Windows keeps a device for each USB port, so another port asks once more.
- A Load the firmware sends the firmware to the boot loader. The camera comes back as a webcam within a second, and stays one until it is unplugged. After the handheld slept or restarted, unplug it and plug it in if apps no longer see it, then load it again.
- A Look again checks it once more. Once the camera is a webcam, the app also sets its picture (below); A Look again sets it anew, for instance after you plugged the camera in again.
A PS4 Camera on Sony's adapter is found and named, but the app does not load its firmware.
Picture¶
The Picture card shows the camera's picture full screen, once the Camera card has made it a webcam. LB Mode before and RB Next mode choose the mode, named under the title: one camera's picture first, from 1920 x 1080 down to 320 x 184, then both cameras side by side, as the camera sends them for depth (5148 x 1088 is both and smaller copies of them). Each size comes at its fastest rate that gives a picture; the modes in which the camera sends nothing are not listed. The app remembers the mode. A Start starts the picture.
Full screen¶
The picture fills the screen. The row at the bottom holds its buttons, and the line above it shows the mode, the zoom and, while it records, the recording's time in amber:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| A Screenshot | Saves what the screen shows as a PNG in your Pictures folder |
| X Record, X Stop | Starts a recording of what the screen shows, and stops it; it goes to your Videos folder |
| Y Gray, Y Color | Black and white, or color again; the app remembers it |
| LB Mode −, RB Mode + | The mode before or the next one; the picture starts again in it |
| LT Zoom −, RT Zoom + | Zooms out or in: 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 3x and 4x |
| d-pad, left stick | Moves the zoomed picture |
| B Back | Ends the full screen; a recording stops and is kept |
By touch, tap an entry in the row, drag the picture with a finger to move it, or turn the mouse wheel to zoom. ☰ (Menu) or the information icon shows these buttons.
Screenshots and recordings show what you see: zoomed in and black and white too. Each goes in a USB HD Cam
folder, named with the date and the time (USB HD Cam 2026-11-01 21-04-09.png); after a screenshot Explorer opens on
that folder with the new file selected. A recording is an MP4 (H.264,
written by Windows' own video encoder) at the mode's size, with at most 30 frames a second. The mode does not change
while it records: stop it first. If the camera stops sending, the screen says so and stays: choose another mode with
LB or RB. ⧉ (View) asks for a second press while a recording runs, then stops it and keeps the file.
Other apps can show the camera while the picture runs; they get the camera's own picture, in color and not zoomed.
Keeping the picture bright¶
Left to itself, the camera keeps a very short exposure (its own Shutter Priority mode), and its picture is close to black, even in a lit room. So once it is a webcam, the app switches its exposure to automatic, and the Camera card's Picture row says Auto exposure, while the app is open.
Windows switches a camera off as soon as no app uses it, and this camera forgets the setting when it is switched off. So the app keeps the camera's driver open while it runs, without taking its picture: OBS, a browser, Discord or Windows' Camera app show the camera meanwhile, with the bright picture. Leave USB HD Cam open in the background while you use the camera; once it closes, the picture is dark again. ⧉ (View) therefore asks for a second press then.
Firmware¶
The firmware is Sony's, so the suite does not ship it.
- A Download gets firmware 21.01-03.20.00.04 from github.com/prosperodev/hdcamera, and keeps it only when its size and SHA-256 are the ones this version of the app knows.
- X Pick a file takes a firmware file of your own (a
.bin): browse to it with the controller (A opens a folder or takes the file, B goes a level up). The pane says whether the app knows the file. A PS4 Camera's firmware is refused.
The file is kept in the suite's folder (see Files) and used for every load.
Bandwidth¶
The firmware asks the USB controller for the most video bandwidth USB 3 has. Some controllers refuse it; then the largest modes give no picture. A on a row picks it:
- Full, the default: on the ROG XBOX Ally X every mode runs at its full rate, side by side up to 5148 x 1088 at 30 fps.
- Reduced: two thirds of it, for a controller that refuses full. Every one-camera mode still runs at its full rate, side by side up to 2560 x 800 at 30 fps; the three largest side-by-side modes give no picture.
The firmware file stays as it is; only the copy sent to the camera changes. It counts from the next load: unplug the camera, plug it in again and load it.
How it works¶
The upload is the one the PS4EYECam driver found and PS Move API uses: the file in 512-byte USB control transfers, then one byte that starts it, through WinUSB. The camera's USB speed is what its hub reports, as Windows' USBView reads it. The ready camera is a standard USB video camera, which Windows' own webcam driver (usbvideo) takes.
To take the WinUSB driver off the boot loader again, unplug the camera and plug it in, then in Device Manager: Universal Serial Bus devices, WinUsb Device, Uninstall device.
Install it on its own¶
The portal installs it. To install it on its own, download wp-hdcam-v<x.y.z>.zip and SHA256SUMS from its release,
then in PowerShell, in that folder:
(Get-FileHash wp-hdcam-v<x.y.z>.zip).Hash -eq (-split (Get-Content SHA256SUMS))[0] # True: the download is intact
Expand-Archive wp-hdcam-v<x.y.z>.zip . -Force
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File wp-hdcam-v<x.y.z>\install.ps1
Installed on its own, it gets a Start-menu entry and a Desktop shortcut. Afterwards the installer asks whether to remove the download.
| Option | |
|---|---|
--no-desktop-shortcut |
the Start-menu entry only |
--uninstall |
remove the app; the settings and the log stay |
--uninstall --purge |
also remove the settings and the log |
Files¶
| Where | What |
|---|---|
%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-hdcam\app\ |
The program, USB-HD-Cam.exe |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-hdcam\windows-portable-hdcam.log |
The log |
%LOCALAPPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-hdcam\firmware\cfi-zey1.bin |
The camera's firmware (kept by --uninstall, removed by --purge) |
%APPDATA%\windows-portable-suite\windows-portable-hdcam.ini |
The settings |
Pictures\USB HD Cam\ |
The screenshots (your own Pictures folder, wherever Windows keeps it; --uninstall --purge leaves them) |
Videos\USB HD Cam\ |
The recordings (your own Videos folder; --uninstall --purge leaves them) |