Forum Discussion
Azure Virtual Desktop: camera and microphone inconsistencies across devices
I am experimenting with using Azure Virtual Desktop to create uniform and secure virtual workstations for remote workers who need camera and microphone functionality for meetings and client calls.
I am experimenting using both Mac and Windows clients and getting inconsistent results with regard to camera and microphone functionality. Besides that, the virtual desktops appear to be working as expected (I've tried pooled and personal configurations).
Problems Encountered:
- The camera is not found for most users. For one person, the camera works but the microphone doesn't.
- For some devices, the camera is found and works using the "Camera" application, but it is not found using Teams or Zoom or in a browser based application.
- The problems appear to be device specific. Using the same Azure account login, I get different behavior for different devices.
- In all cases, the video and audio quality is sub-par.
Troubleshooting steps completed:
(most of these steps were based on guides found on learn.microsoft.com):
- Windows, Mac, and Chromebook, using several volunteer developers to log in. None of these devices worked as hoped. For most, either the camera or the microphone worked, but not both. On the Chromebook, both camera and microphone worked using the "camera" and "sound recording" applications, but neither worked when using a browser based application (Zoom).
- RDP settings, such as the following the following: ;audiocapturemode:i:1 ;audiomode:i:0 ;camerastoredirect:s:*
- Group Policy (GPO) configurations recommended for WVD (client and session hosts). These had no effect on the issue. The GPO steps were from guides focused on Remote Desktop (mstsc) solutions as opposed to AVD connections, even though the policy options seemed relevant to the goal.
- Connecting to the Azure Virtual Machine using Remote Desktop Client and webclient.
- Installed the Microsoft Multimedia Redirection extension (and required Visual C++ app). However, I am unable to get it beyond the "Extension Not Loaded" error, despite following debugging tips. Client and Session Host are both running Windows 11.
Questions:
- Am I expecting too much from AVD with regards to using it for teleconferencing? i.e. even if I were to somehow get the camera and microphone working for a particular device, will teleconferencing using a virtual desktop always exhibit sub-par performance?
- Is it an endless task to try to solve these teleconferencing issues for a wide variety of devices? i.e. I have no way of controlling what workstations remote workers are using.
This post is a bit long, but since I've read so many blog posts on this topic and found so many similar potential fixes, I felt it was worth noting the things I've already tried along with specific goals. If you've got a suggestion, maybe it's that "one" often overlooked thing, feel free to reach out.
5 Replies
- After Configured Multimedia redirection in edge browser we are facing issue in AVD when access any video site like youTube than most of time video will remain in a loading or buffering state Please let me know if any one have any solution for that.
Dirk_Forward Look into USB device redirection. Camera/Mic redirection is not enough.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/system-defined-device-setup-classes-available-to-vendors#device-categories-and-class-values
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/redirection-remote-desktop-protocol#controlling-opaque-low-level-usb-redirection
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-desktop/redirection-configure-usb?tabs=intune&pivots=azure-virtual-desktop#test-usb-redirection
One other note. When using the "Windows 365" application to connect, the cameras works even outside of a Teams call . It's grainy and sub-par, but it's worth noting that it's at least functional. Consider there are at least three ways to connect to the Windows 365 virtual machine, and each offers different behaviors:
* through a browser (arm/webclient)
* Remote Desktop Client
* Windows 365 application
Again. It just shows how this technology is evolving and a person needs to keep checking back for updates and possible fixes. Azure Virtual Desktop will probably evolve, but it's not as polished as Windows 365.....at least for now. Things are changing quickly. Maybe next month or next several months this post will be entirely outdated.As a follow up, I signed up for a Windows 365 license in order to compare it with Azure Virtual Desktop.
I find the Windows 365 performance much better. Although, technically, Windows 365 cloud PCs are running on Azure, Windows 365 must have some configurations I simply wasn't able to discover on my own, despite many hours of research.
Notable improvements I found with Windows 365 over Azure Virtual Desktop:
-- using similar basic pc configuration: 2cpu /w 8GB ram.
- Easy onboarding of a new user and machine.
- My laptop camera worked in a Teams call. In fact, the quality of the Teams call was very close to the quality of a call made directly from my own client laptop.
- Although camera redirection worked in a Teams call with Windows 365, the camera was not detected when using the "camera" application. This isn't a dealbreaker, but it's interesting to note that the issue is solvable. I'm guessing Microsoft made getting the Teams app fully functional a top priority, which meant fixing the camera redirection for that one application.
- Despite similar specs of the VMs, the Windows 365 had video performance. In one test, I played the same YouTube video. On Azure Virtual Desktop, the quality was sub-par. On Windows 365, the video was at least decent. Even the keystroke lag is improved: it's not really even noticeable.
To summarize, there are probably some configurations I could do to make Azure Virtual Desktop work to meet my goal, but so far that configuration has been elusive and I suspect it's not worth the ongoing admin costs. Windows 365 is an overall more polished product for my current project needs. For this reason, I'm leaning towards a Windows 365 implementation.
