Weird error - camera showing black and white

[Ibby85]

Hi,

I'm having a weird error with MS Teams on Desktop. On my side (with the little preview window), my camera shows in colour and comes through clearly, however everyone else in the call with me sees me in black and white/semi-distorted.

I have tested this in other video apps (Discord, WebEx, Facebook Messenger) and they all work fine showing me in colour, but on MS Teams it turns me black and white. I can see this if I turn on 'large gallery' or 'together mode', but otherwise I can't see it. Going into settings to check my camera shows it in colour as well.

I'm using a Logitech HD Webcam C270. I have unplugged and replugged the camera in, tried updating drivers (they are up to date), and have re-installed teams. The problem seems to be with MS Teams, not with my camera given it doesn't occur in any other app/program

Any thoughts on how to fix this?

[#2]

@Ibby85 I currently have the same problem. I am using the Logitech Streamcam and OBS. This seems to be a problem with the latest version of MS Teams and virtual cameras.

[#3]

@Ibby85 by "distorted" do you mean misplaced color? Like some color isn´t were it is supposed to be?

[#4]

@SpontifexKind of - black and white with a big orange smear over part of it (kind of what it looks like if back in the day you pressed your finger into a CRT)

[#5]

@Ibby85I have exactly the same problem (with orange smear over lower right part)

[#6]

@Ibby85 

I have the same issue with a Logitech C920 camera. Only happens on Teams, black and white with color displacement. Every other application works fine, including Teams on Browser. Only the Teams App has the issue.

[#7]

Same issue on Logitech C920 camera here

[#8]

Having the same issue using a C920, too.

The video of me is absolutely fine, everyone else sees a mixture of black and white and floating shapes. I've been told it only started happening about three or four weeks ago.

Tried various USB ports to no avail. It does just seem like a Teams issue for me at this point.

[#9]

Just tested the web client, no issues there. Can confirm it only seems to be the app.

[#10]

Hello @spacedyemeerkat   Have you checked the Uservoice feedback forum to see if this is a reported bug?

[#11]

@Ibby85 Same issue here as well. Logitech c922 stream webcam. My preview window in Teams looks fine but my peers are seeing me in black/white with red floating shapes, like lens flare.

Did you find a solution to this yet? I'm still digging into it.

[#12]

I'm also having this issue.

Seems to be Teams related and not camera related.  I have tried using the cam directly and also through Nvidia Broadcast which is basically a virtual webcam.

[#13]

Same issue here. Everyone else's video is nice and clear and in color, but mine is in black and white with some discoloration. Oddly, the small self-view in the bottom right corner is just fine.

Logitech C920 camera, EVGA 1660Super gpu, Win10Pro64-bit.

[#14]

@Ibby85 Same issue here on a  Logitech C615.

It works fine on discord, looks fine in the preview picture on teams but as soon as i enter a teams conversation the colors go mute and it displays black and white for the other participants while still showing in color on my end.

[#15]

@Ibby85 

Just joined to try and find a solution to this! Same thing been happening to me for the last month or so, have gone through numerous re-format and re-install of Windows and even set up a separate Teams account on another machine to test / replicate the issue.

I think it partly (or entirely) has something to do with nvidia (geforce) drivers since I regularly update these it would make sense that I wouldn't even think about associating it with the change. 

From today's rebuild of windows, Win 10 Pro x64 installs nvidia drivers 456.71 during its install process and teams seems to work ok between my computers (using my Teams account) and between a colleague using my work account. Upgrading to the latest (currently 460.79 or the hotfix 460.97) geforce drivers gives the black and white output but from my testing 457.09 was ok. I looked in more detail at the nvidia drivers and noticed HDCP was complaining about a repeater over display port (even though direct from card to monitor) so I changed to HDMI and it was back in colour between my local machines. However after excitedly calling a colleague to say it was fixed it was again back in black and white. Is it possible my organisation applies settings (even though using personal computer)?

I also had / have a Logitech C270 HD and at first thought it was that which had gone wrong (I had opened it up shortly after buying since the fixed focus was off and needed to adjust it). Also now have a Brio 4k since the price of the C270 almost trebbled in the last 6 months figured may as well get an upgrade and it also does the same thing going to black and white but without the red / orange halo / spludges in the corner of my screen. Spending more time swapping both the C270 and Brio between multiple systems the cameras are defintely fine.

One observation I have made with the new camera though is Teams starts in colour, the camera feed refreshes once, still in colour then about 6-9 seconds later it happens again and it is this point where it would transition to black and white. Looking closely It also appears that Teams drops the resolution of the camera (even if it doesn't go B&W) so half wonder if it's going into a lower bandwith mode or some compression which is causing this effect to trigger. Interestingly if you apply a background effect that is also in black and white so it is applying this to the outbound feed rather than the camera (hence the preview window still looks ok). Of course if there were some settings / info to pull up about the camera this may help. The log files doesn't say anything about these refreshes.

I have tried a quadro card in my computer today (P2000) and that seemed to work ok in a teams call between my local computers as well as a remote colleague using the latest quadro drivers (460.89)

My main system is an old i7-4930K with a Geforce GTX 1080 Ti, testing between this and a NUC 6i5 somthing from yesteryear.

My best workaround is feeding the camera through OBS and using the virtual webcam. Although a little faff this doesn't transition to black and white and also remains at higher quality.

Intersted if anyone gets anywhere with this. Also confirm that the Teams web app works fine, as does Zoom.

Cheers,
Dave

[#16]

@UK_Dave I've been struggling with the same issue for the past two months and initially attributed the issue to the fact that the Logitech c270 webcam was listed as an image acquisition device under my hardware in control panel (along with my HP printer/scanner). I tried all the possible drivers to no avail. My Teams version is the latest available. In Teams, after a few seconds, my image turns black & white with an orange smear, even if my preview box displays the image regularly. I do too have a Nvidia Geforce graphics card and will try your OBS workaround. 

Why is no Teams developer addressing this issue?

[#17]

@UK_Dave 

Maybe you are right with the geforce thing. I have a geforce rtx 2070 too and have those black / white or "color splash" errors like mentioned in: https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftTeams/comments/kdl9kb/webcam_showing_black_and_white_to_participan...

But I dont have any problem in other applications, its just Microsoft Teams.

Summary:

- Its not an webcam hardware error > because there are a lot of different types which are not working

- Its not a "computer hardware" error > because every other webcam app runs fine

- status quo: maybe it depends on an geforce driver update (?)

[#18]

I have to add:

- OBS does NOT FIX the problem for me! In OBS i see myself everything fine but it doesnt change the color splash problem how the other call members see me 😕

Edit:

The picture shows how other users see me

[#19]

I have the exact same problem (with Logitech C930e and Nvidia Geforce GTX1080)

[#20]

Same problem here. Greyed out with pink smear across the screen. Also using a webcam with OBS virtual software. Does not happen with Zoom or any other VC software.