Virtual Camera in Teams Meeting

Brass Contributor

I would like to use Teams to conduct some distance learning classes.  To provide a more professional experience, I am using OBS (Open Broadcast Software) to enhance the presentation and be able to switch among vdifferent sources seamlessly.  I am using the Virtual Camera plugin for OBS and I am able pick that as a source in Teams but the quality of the feed is terrible,

 

When I look at the same feed in Zoom - the quality is MUCH better.  And when I look at the feed using the webcamtest.com website, the feed looks perfect.

 

Does Teams downgrade the video signal for some reason?  The quality of the Powerpoint capture is so low it is unusable.

16 Replies

How have you tested this? I ask, because if you're turning the camera on without Share and seeing this, you may just be seeing what is really the thumbnail in the tile where your picture is normally. 

 

I'm using a different virtual cam and broadcasting software, but I suspect this is your problem as I was briefly fooled by this. You'll probably need to use Teams Share to send the screen that OBS is controlling.

@Tmadel 

@Tmadel Looks like you are not the only one. There are a number of issues on the OBS forums as well. 

 

On my side, I've been trying OBS + Virtual Camera Plugin on Teams in 2 different setups with my surface pro 6:


a) with a Logitech C920HD
b) with a elgato camlink 4K

I have the same issue in both setups, while the latency is passable for live calls and webinars (way better than my SlingStudio system), the video quality is almost unusable with virtual cam :(

 

I'll do a few tests with other computers that are more powerful and/or dedicated to the video editing part and report back to you if it works. Let me know if you find a solution.

 

Cheers!

 

K

Hello @Tmadel,

 

I´ve open a idea in Teams Uservoice.

 

If you want please vote for me?

 

TeamsUservoice 

Can you confirm that screen sharing via Teams (sharing the video output screen of OBS or similar encoder software app like WIrecast) results in better image quality than virtual camera.Also when there are are 40+ participants in a meeting? @Al_Gray 

Hello @erimo,

 

no. We had cases with max. 15 persons.

Thanks. @Bernd Hermelingmeier 

I meant: is sharing the screen the screen in Teams (fullscreen of OBS or other encoder software) is better quality than virtual camera output?

@Tmadel 

I have the same pb; quality is very bad

It seems on the web forums that OBS virtual cam is hardly fixed to 1280x720

So I think that definitly, OBS virtual cam could not be used, except if Teams is limiting the video flux as well. Did you find another solution for the virtual webcam ?

Philippe

The best way was to have a 2nd monitor displaying the video output and share this screen in Teams instead of using virtual camera. The downside is that the framerate drops but the quality of fonts and details is better.

@erimo Do you even see an ODS window to share from Teams? I used to see an ECAMM Sharing window in Teams that was built for Zoom. It looks like I'm back to sharing a monitor (application, not display)

@erimo this is our solution. If you don`t want to use an extra monitor you can use an HDMI to VGA adapter as an fake monitor ;)

Sharing a the obs "projector screen" is indeed working very well for me. Much better than virtual cam with the added benefit to control what goes on fullscreen, camera, content of more elaborate scenes..

@Kym_Dupuis I tried the projector route and mine still looks like crap in Teams.  It looks fine in preview and the projector mode.  Heimage.pngre is what it looks like in Teams:

 

I ran the Webcam test on this site and here are the results:

 

image.png

@philyves I think the problem is definitely with Teams.  When I test the virtual cam output it shows as coming across at 1080p

 

image.png

have you noticed any changes to this problem since your last update? @Tmadel 

@Nat_from_LSL  MS response to our problem was to remove the use of a virtual camera from Teams completely.  Its almost a year later and still MS is silent on when (if ever) they intend to re introduce the capability.

@madbomber bummer. Thanks for the update