Closed Bug 993205 Opened 10 years ago Closed 6 months ago

Vidyo Desktop Client issues for review

Categories

(Infrastructure & Operations Graveyard :: AVOps: Vidyo, task)

x86
macOS
task
Not set
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: mjeffries, Unassigned)

Details

(Whiteboard: VIdyo Case CAS-33213)

Attachments

(3 files)

This is a compilation of Vidyo Desktop 3.0 issues that came in Via Yammer. We have addressed a number of these issues, so this bug is mainly a container so that we have a record of these issues in some location other than Yammer. I can generate separate bugs if needed.

=================================
Linux Client Issues
Ben Hearsum
Without trying to be horribly negative, I do want to caution Linux users that performance may be awful. I've been using 3.0 for a few months and found that my laptop ground to a halt (to the point where my machine hung for 20s at a time) about 30min into any Vidyo call. I hope others have better luck!

linux Client Issues
Mark Jeffries
Hello Ben,

What we have encountered so far with the Linux 3.0 client is that the performance can vary, depending on what distro one is using, and whether it was a "mainstream" distro or a custom build. According to Vidyo, 3.0 production has been tested with the following:
- Ubuntu
- Redhat
- SuSE
Those are the reference platforms they aim for when building for Linux. They did say mileage may vary with custom BSD builds, or forks of any of the previously mentioned distros.

Vidyo 3.0 Review
Myk Melez
I haven't used it for an actual meeting yet, but I installed it, started it up, joined a room, and played around with it on my Mac. Video quality looks great, and the interface seems much improved; but it's very slow to start up (~1.5 minutes on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro) and still doesn't preserve the authentication session, so I have to sign in each time I start it (which I do regularly, as I quit the app after each meeting).
Vidyo 3.0 Client review
Mark Jeffries
Myk, another change with the 3.0 client is that you can log in to Vidyo directly from the client- you do not have to log in via the webpage. And the slow startup may be due to the fact that we are in transition to a full Vidyo 3.0 architecture - servers, endpoints, etc. Hence the soft launch. We will make a wider announcement once all the architecture is in place, but we want to make the client available to all you heatseekers out there who like livin' on the edge ;).

Mark Jeffries in reply to Myk Melez
Myk, another thing that could be going on in your case is whacked root level permissions. If you are around SFO today, I can come by and give you a quick checkup.

Concerns on our links to the Beta (re;BOX)
David Baron
Are there more authoritative (and less suspicious-looking) download links somewhere? I'm not inclined to install software on my machine from a link on yammer linking to a box.com URL.


Vidyo Mobile for Android - new version coming? and Linux Client test
Robert Kaiser
I wonder if they'll also do another update for the Android client. It became unusable in terms of voiping with the last release (even if the added features in that one were nice).

I guess I'll try if 3.0 brings improvements on Linux though, as e.g. the names on the images would be nice to have and are missing in the stable version on Linux so far.

  
Reply to David's Box concerns
Mark Jeffries in reply to David Baron
Hello David,
These links are from the Moz Box account - we wanted to get them in people's hot & sweaty's right away (after all, this is a soft launch).
We will have less suspicious-looking links at go-live.



Vidyo Mobile on Android questions
Mark Jeffries
New reply: Mark Jeffries in reply to Robert Kaiser
Mark Jeffries in reply to Robert Kaiser
Robert, what is the version of the Android client you have? the latest release is 2.1.

 
New reply: Robert Kaiser in reply to Mark Jeffries
Robert Kaiser in reply to Mark Jeffries
I have VidyoMobile 2.1.0.00087 on a Nexus 10 with the most-current Android that Google shipped to this device (KitKat in any case).
With the previous VidyoMobile version, meetings worked fine without much voiping, since this 2.1 version, that has a long list of new features, the problems started and I needed to switch to the laptop for Vidyo due to the (probably performance) issues. Fortunately I did finally get Vidyo for Linux to work on the laptop - but in the end, using the tablet would still be nice.
  
Mark Jeffries
New reply: Mark Jeffries in reply to Robert Kaiser
Mark Jeffries in reply to Robert Kaiser
According to Vidyo, once we get the portals upgraded to 3.0, there should be improvements to VidyoMobile performance.

 
Robert Kaiser in reply to Mark Jeffries
Ah, nice, I'll try again once that's done, then! Thanks for the info!

   
Vidyo 3.0 Client issues
Myk Melez
New reply: Myk Melez in reply to Mark Jeffries
Myk Melez in reply to Mark Jeffries
It was already possible to sign into Vidyo directly from the client, although the mechanism was hard to discover (a dock icon context menu item), so the new authentication flow is an improvement. But an even older version of the client persisted your authentication (or at least your credentials) across sessions, so you didn't need to retype your username/password each time you started it. That feature was removed at some point in the 2.0 client, and it looks like it's still gone in 3.0.


New reply: Myk Melez in reply to Mark Jeffries
Myk Melez in reply to Mark Jeffries
I'm in Portland this week, but if you point me at a description of the issue, then I'll look into it!

Vidyo 3.0 Mac Feedback
Stefan Arentz
On OS X this client is a huge improvement. Very nice. The video quality looks so much better. AND it fixes the stupid 2x zoom issue that happened after moving to OS X 10.9.

  
Vidyo 3.0 Embedded Chat
Larissa Shapiro
I do love the idea of embedded chat... but I already have so many issues with 2.... :-/

 Vidyo Mobile 3.0 for Android?
Gervase Markham
Are they shipping 3.0 on Android as well? You didn't give a link...

Vidyo Mobile 3.0 on Android 
Mark Jeffries
Mark Jeffries in reply to Gervase Markham
At present, the latest Android/iOS versions of Vidyo Mobile is 2.1, which supports the Vidyo 3.0 portal (available at GooPlay/Apple App store). They will eventually release a new client, but no ETA yet.


Portal downgrade issue (goes away with portal upgrade, byproduct of beta)
Ludovic Hirlimann
so the funny thing is that it tells me to downgrade because our portal works best with 2.x clients....


Lost credentials after upgrading to Beta
Ludovic Hirlimann in reply to Myk Melez
I don't loose my credentials over restart and it was true in 2.x too for me. Maybe you got some corrupted prefs somewhere.


Vidyo Portal upgrade issues
Mark Jeffries in reply to Ludovic Hirlimann
Hello Ludovic,

For now, tell the Vidyo client to ignore the downgrade. This will go away after the Portal upgrade. (It's a minor irritation that comes with being a heatseeker).

    
No Flash Required
Garrett Robinson

No flash?! Hallelujah!


Linux Client Issues
Robert Kaiser
And yes, it works without any Flash, which is awesome for sure!

That said, on Linux, I'm running into some issues of not seeing one other person in the conference, sometimes seeing a still picture of myself instead. It looks like some fiddling with switching to no video feeds in the layout button and back to automatic can fix it with some waiting afterwards.
But otherwise it's awesome to be able to turn on the option on Linux to have names displayed underneath the people, for example!

   
Vidyo 3.0/Windows Connectivity Issues
Vladan Djeric
I can't join any Vidyo rooms with Vidyo 3 on Windows 7 :/

Mark Jeffries
New reply: Mark Jeffries in reply to Vladan Djeric
Mark Jeffries in reply to Vladan Djeric
Hello Vladan,

Submit a ServiceNow request. We'll have someone on the team check it out and get things on the road for you. Win7 is one of the supported platforms.


Linux Client Issues
Andrew Chilton
I have just upgraded to v3 on Linux too. It's an improvement.

One issue (fairly major) is that whilst it switches on my webcam, it doesn't show my picture either to myself or the other members of the call, it's just a grey screen.

     


Linux Client Issues (Debian 64-Bit not supported)
Sylvestre Ledru
Crashes under a Debian Jessie 64 with:
Assertion failed: (sampleBuffer), function PulseAudioStreamReadCallback, file ../../SDK/Lmi/DeviceManager/LmiAudioCapturerAlsa.c, line 323.
When joining a room



Linux Client Issues
Sylvestre Ledru
Ludovic ;) Anyway, the Ubuntu packages lack an explicit dependency on zenity



Linux Client Issues
Robert Kaiser
One annoying issue I'm seeing is that Vidyo 3 on Linux is now always starting up at login (to KDE in my case), even if I disabled that option. I do not always use the computer for Vidyo and I do not want to have stuff running that I don't need. We should bring that up with them, I guess that's probably something they do not test much themselves.

 

Linux Client Issues
Robert Kaiser 
Oh, and I found there's an entry in the KDE Settings under "Startup and Shutdown" that I can disable or remove, I hope that does it.


Vidyo/Skype conflicts
Irina Sandu
It works for me on Mac but I have an issue where it conflicts with Skype. If Skype is open when I join a meeting, I can't use my camera and the other way around. The only way to make it work is to close both Vidyo and Skype and start that application which I want to use with the camera. This has been an issue with past versions, as well, and that the Vidyo team knows about. I was hoping they might have fixed it in this version.



Linux Client Improvements
Gene Wood
It works great and it's so nice to not have to copy paste my LDAP password into the flash interface everytime. I'm running the Linux client on Ubuntu 13.10. One downside is that every 15 seconds or so it takes all 4 cores of my CPU to 100% for about 5 seconds and the audio starts to have gaps. It also intermittently loses audio (not mic, just audio). I then have to quit. Kill the VidyoDesktop process which refuses to exit and restart and rejoin. Even with these weaknesses though, it's an improvement over the Vidyo2 linux client.
 
System Tray changes on 3.0 Windows Client
Ryan VanderMeulen
On Windows, version 2.x used to boot into the system tray by default. Now it always pops up a window that can't be disabled by default as far as I can tell. Rather annoying.


Vidyo 3.0 Client Gray screen 
John Schoenick 
I also have the grey screen issue. No video output, console spams: libv4l2: error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not a multiple of dctsize


Linux Client Improvements
Pascal Chevrel
I just had my first call with Vidyo 3 on Linux, it was a Linux to Linux call (Ubuntu 64 bits both sides). It worked when we were both on version 3, but with one participant on V2 and one on V3 we had sound problems (only one of us had sound). Once we were both on V3, we had one freeze that lasted like 3 seconds (image and sound) at the beginning of the call but then it worked well during about 20mn. The quality and sound were in my opinion much better than with V2. The UI is also much better with new options that make more sense to me. In particular the option to show the real name of a person as a subtitle on the video is valuable for remoties that don't necessarily know faces of people.


Linux Client improvements
Delphine Lebédel
I agree with Pascal (with whom I was talking). A lot of improvement compared with previous versions on Linux. Just that one small freeze but we didn't even have to hang up, it stopped by itself. Other than that, smooth experience. Next call in 20 minutes with many other participants, let's see how that goes ;)

   

Vidyo 3.0/ Windows 8.1 issues with black screen (addressed in recent release?)
Blair McBride
Anyone else had trouble getting audio come through on Windows 8.1? I just had a meeting with someone in the new MV office (first meeting running v3 - I've been off sick), and I couldn't hear anything. They were running v3 and previous meetings for them had gone fine.


Black flickering screen, audio too loud (was a Vidyo/ Mavericks issue (addressed)
Carsten Book
had some mixed feeling after the first usage of v3 in a meeting. Seems there was a issue with some video in 10.9 had black flickering screen and seems mic noise was too loud for others when using 10.9


Conference Participants greyed out
Lawrence Mandel
I'm unclear when I should be able to see the conference participants. Most of the time the icon is greyed out. In the v2 client I was able to see the participants on any meeting.


Disconnected Client while in meeting, would not reconnect (was addressed in recent release)
Carsten Book
oh and i forgot while i was in the weekly sheriffs meeting and the meeting was ongoing, v3 disconnected and told me the call ended while it was still in progress. We only changed to the next topic but didn't end the call :)



Vidyo Client Status indicator
Lawrence Mandel
If feedback can be passed on to Vidyo, I would really like an indicator that shows the current mic, speaker, and video status. (Perhaps in the status bar. An overlay like on the conference room systems would work as well.) I currently have to hover over the Vidyo window to bring up the menu to know if I'm muted, face muted, etc.



Vidyo client CPU performance issue
Ludovic Hirlimann
52540 VDCAssistant 6.5 01:25.31 9 0 113 204 26M 13M
52537- VidyoDesktop 69.5 13:25.33 62/6 1 482+ 1217+ 100M+ 80M+

Do they know how much cpu they consume ?


Audio issue (possibly with Linux client)
Blair McBride
Hm, so, got sound out of out of my audio devices (USB device built into my monitor)... just still doesn't work out of the one I want to use (nice high-end tube amp with a USB DAC).


Issues with the 3.0 Client and 10.9.x
Fred Wenzel
Tried v3 today for the first time on OS X 10.9 because it appears to not have the zoom-in issue that the old versions have. It froze a lot, so the people I talked to would wave to let me know. I could still see and hear them well. (To be fair both of them were in MV conf rooms, it's possible that the issue was on their end).


Freezing Beta Client
Bryan Clark
I reverted back to the release version because this froze up on me too many times and hung the mac completely a couple times.

Vidyo Client Freeze (possibly a 2.x portal issue)
Soledad Penadés

It froze you and I wasn't in MV but in London using Vidyo on my laptop.


Randell Jesup
re: ability to see mic/camera/etc status and change them.

What I always have to do is collapse it into a window, then use maximize (Windows) to expand it but not full-screen. This leaves the UI elements visible all the time (V2). Then I can leave the mouse on the mic-mute button, and jut poke the left-click button to mute/unmute. Critical in Vidyo meetings.


 
UI Issues
Andrew Halberstadt
When you click on a contact in the desktop client, it opens a door hanger. The door hangar has a yellow 'x' with a person beside it in the top right. This looks like it will dismiss the door hangar, but in fact it removes your contact. This is poor ux, but still seems like an improvement over the older version (ux-wise at least).
(In reply to Mark Jeffries from comment #0)
> Vidyo 3.0 Client Gray screen 
> John Schoenick 
> I also have the grey screen issue. No video output, console spams: libv4l2:
> error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not
> a multiple of dctsize

I think I've figured this out: it's a bug in libv4lconvert.  My laptop's camera supports, among other modes, MJPEG at 960x540; libv4lconvert will set the camera to that mode if 960x540 is requested, but its JPEG decoder can't handle that size (it has to be decoded at 960x544 and cropped, a detail that most decoding libraries/tools take care of automatically).  If it had used a size that's divisible by 8 in both dimensions, the bug would not have manifested, which might explain why some people are/aren't seeing it.

Useful commands (v4l2-ctl is in the v4l-utils package on Debian):

v4l2-ctl --get-fmt-video         # Show current camera state.
v4l2-ctl --list-framesizes=MJPG  # Show supported MJPEG sizes.
mplayer -tv width=960:height=540:outfmt=mjpg tv:// # Test a camera mode (doesn't use libv4l*).

I'm curious if there are people who've gotten this to work with other Linux distributions and had Vidyo successfully use a camera in a non-multiple-of-8 MJPEG mode.

In particular, I've reproduced this bug on Debian unstable using the versions of the libv4l-0 and libv4lconvert0 packages from Debian stable (== wheezy == 7.0), but it's not impossible that there are also relevant changes to the kernel's uvcvideo driver, for example.
Hello Jed,

I will submit this as a bug to Vidyo. Thanks for providing the traces, and a possible explanation of what is happening behind the scenes on your system.
Hello Jed,

Vidyo has responded to the bug I submitted. They would like to get more info if possible:

"Can you provide the VidyoDesktop logs from before when the issue occurs and after when you fixed the issue?

Also, can you provide us some screenshots. We would like to escalate this case as well but can you confirm the versions of Linux that have experienced this issue?"


(In reply to Jed Davis [:jld] from comment #1)
> (In reply to Mark Jeffries from comment #0)
> > Vidyo 3.0 Client Gray screen 
> > John Schoenick 
> > I also have the grey screen issue. No video output, console spams: libv4l2:
> > error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not
> > a multiple of dctsize
> 
> I think I've figured this out: it's a bug in libv4lconvert.  My laptop's
> camera supports, among other modes, MJPEG at 960x540; libv4lconvert will set
> the camera to that mode if 960x540 is requested, but its JPEG decoder can't
> handle that size (it has to be decoded at 960x544 and cropped, a detail that
> most decoding libraries/tools take care of automatically).  If it had used a
> size that's divisible by 8 in both dimensions, the bug would not have
> manifested, which might explain why some people are/aren't seeing it.
> 
> Useful commands (v4l2-ctl is in the v4l-utils package on Debian):
> 
> v4l2-ctl --get-fmt-video         # Show current camera state.
> v4l2-ctl --list-framesizes=MJPG  # Show supported MJPEG sizes.
> mplayer -tv width=960:height=540:outfmt=mjpg tv:// # Test a camera mode
> (doesn't use libv4l*).
> 
> I'm curious if there are people who've gotten this to work with other Linux
> distributions and had Vidyo successfully use a camera in a non-multiple-of-8
> MJPEG mode.
> 
> In particular, I've reproduced this bug on Debian unstable using the
> versions of the libv4l-0 and libv4lconvert0 packages from Debian stable (==
> wheezy == 7.0), but it's not impossible that there are also relevant changes
> to the kernel's uvcvideo driver, for example.
I can also show you the one-click command to get the dumps from the Vidyo client.

(In reply to Mark Jeffries from comment #3)
> Hello Jed,
> 
> Vidyo has responded to the bug I submitted. They would like to get more info
> if possible:
> 
> "Can you provide the VidyoDesktop logs from before when the issue occurs and
> after when you fixed the issue?
> 
> Also, can you provide us some screenshots. We would like to escalate this
> case as well but can you confirm the versions of Linux that have experienced
> this issue?"
> 
> 
> (In reply to Jed Davis [:jld] from comment #1)
> > (In reply to Mark Jeffries from comment #0)
> > > Vidyo 3.0 Client Gray screen 
> > > John Schoenick 
> > > I also have the grey screen issue. No video output, console spams: libv4l2:
> > > error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not
> > > a multiple of dctsize
> > 
> > I think I've figured this out: it's a bug in libv4lconvert.  My laptop's
> > camera supports, among other modes, MJPEG at 960x540; libv4lconvert will set
> > the camera to that mode if 960x540 is requested, but its JPEG decoder can't
> > handle that size (it has to be decoded at 960x544 and cropped, a detail that
> > most decoding libraries/tools take care of automatically).  If it had used a
> > size that's divisible by 8 in both dimensions, the bug would not have
> > manifested, which might explain why some people are/aren't seeing it.
> > 
> > Useful commands (v4l2-ctl is in the v4l-utils package on Debian):
> > 
> > v4l2-ctl --get-fmt-video         # Show current camera state.
> > v4l2-ctl --list-framesizes=MJPG  # Show supported MJPEG sizes.
> > mplayer -tv width=960:height=540:outfmt=mjpg tv:// # Test a camera mode
> > (doesn't use libv4l*).
> > 
> > I'm curious if there are people who've gotten this to work with other Linux
> > distributions and had Vidyo successfully use a camera in a non-multiple-of-8
> > MJPEG mode.
> > 
> > In particular, I've reproduced this bug on Debian unstable using the
> > versions of the libv4l-0 and libv4lconvert0 packages from Debian stable (==
> > wheezy == 7.0), but it's not impossible that there are also relevant changes
> > to the kernel's uvcvideo driver, for example.
I'm seeing the grey square problem too; I'm on Fedora 18. I'll send you my Vidyo diagnostic dump.
I can confirm the presence of the v4l-convert bug. I have experienced this with VidyoDesktop v3.0.3 and 3.0.4 on ubuntu 12.10 and 14.04. It does NOT occur with v2.2.1. I have 2 cameras (logitech c930 and lenovo w530 builtin webcam), and they both have this issue. For both cameras, when Vidyo is running, "v4l2-ctl --get-fmt-video" shows "Width/Height  : 960/540".

If I select a specific video rate ("advanced" button in config/video menu), kill the VidyoDesktop process, and start it up again, it will go into the requested mode (eg if I chose 720p30, I'll get "Width/Height  : 1280/720"), and then I won't get this v4l-convert issue. Some modes however (eg 450p30, which has "Width/Height  : 640/360"), result in a different issue, where I'll be able to transmit video, but won't receive any incoming video (but audio will be ok).
(In reply to Grant Tzabro from comment #6)
> I can confirm the presence of the v4l-convert bug. I have experienced this
> with VidyoDesktop v3.0.3 and 3.0.4 on ubuntu 12.10 and 14.04. It does NOT
> occur with v2.2.1. I have 2 cameras (logitech c930 and lenovo w530 builtin
> webcam), and they both have this issue. For both cameras, when Vidyo is
> running, "v4l2-ctl --get-fmt-video" shows "Width/Height  : 960/540".
> 
> If I select a specific video rate ("advanced" button in config/video menu),
> kill the VidyoDesktop process, and start it up again, it will go into the
> requested mode (eg if I chose 720p30, I'll get "Width/Height  : 1280/720"),
> and then I won't get this v4l-convert issue. Some modes however (eg 450p30,
> which has "Width/Height  : 640/360"), result in a different issue, where
> I'll be able to transmit video, but won't receive any incoming video (but
> audio will be ok).

Hello Grant,

Can you please grab a copy of the diagnostics report while this issue is happening? This is information that Vidyo will want as they try to debug this issue. When in your Vidyo app, click on the Settings gear, then click on the "Status" tab. In the "Status" tab, click on the "Create Diagnostics Report" button. This will gather up the logs, zip them up, and save the file to your Desktop. Once done, please attach them to this bug.
Attached file video mode 450p30
attached are two diagnotic reports, with video mode set to "best quality" which results in no video being transmitted from my computer, and many many error messages "libv4l2: error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not a multiple of dctsize" sent to stderr (but not to the log file), and one with video mode "450p30", which results in video being transmitted from my computer.
Hello Grant,

Thanks for the logs. 

I will open a ticket with Vidyo. 

Mark 


(In reply to Grant Tzabro from comment #10)
> attached are two diagnotic reports, with video mode set to "best quality"
> which results in no video being transmitted from my computer, and many many
> error messages "libv4l2: error converting / decoding frame data:
> v4l-convert: error resolution is not a multiple of dctsize" sent to stderr
> (but not to the log file), and one with video mode "450p30", which results
> in video being transmitted from my computer.
Ubuntu 14.04 with macbook pro late 2011 and a new thinkpad w540, in both cases vidyodesktop fails to show the webcam output. Console spams: libv4l2: error converting / decoding frame data: v4l-convert: error resolution is not a multiple of dctsize.

This is working properly with skype 4.3.

Anyone found workarounds?
(In reply to Mihai Sucan [:msucan] from comment #12)
> Console spams: libv4l2: error converting / decoding frame data:
> v4l-convert: error resolution is not a multiple of dctsize.
> 
> Anyone found workarounds?

I patched libv4lconvert to ignore the camera configurations it doesn't know how to decode.  This is a workaround; there should be a way to change the resolution/conversion-handling so it decodes to the rounded-up size crops off the partial DCT blocks, like every general-purpose JPEG decoder already does, but I don't understand the libv4lconvert code well enough to know how to do that.
Patch against v4l-utils-1.0.1 to skip the resolutions where it can't handle MJPEG.  This is a workaround, and a bad one at that; don't try to submit this upstream.
Some updates on the Linux client front:

- Vidyo is preparing the 3.3 client to address a chunk of the bugs you are encountering. I will provide an ETA to the bug as soon as I have one.

- We are in the process of meeting with Vidyo's team that supports CERN, which at 4K systems may be the largest installation of Desktop Linux in the world (and a long-time Vidyo customer) to exchange info and best practices.
Whiteboard: VIdyo Case CAS-33213
i still have problem here with Vidyo, Every time i try to join Vidyo Room ,it redirect me to download page program and i aready open it in administrator.

Do i have solution here?
Flags: needinfo?(mjeffries)
Hello Mohamed,

What platform are you on? We might have an answer for what is happening.
Flags: needinfo?(mjeffries)
windows 8.1,
But after some updates for windows and Browser it normal for me.
Thanks
Product: Audio/Visual Infrastructure → Infrastructure & Operations

Closing this bug as Vidyo is no longer used and this component will be archived.

Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 months ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
Product: Infrastructure & Operations → Infrastructure & Operations Graveyard
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