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Podcast Bob  
#1 Posted : Thursday, August 22, 2019 9:26:18 PM(UTC)
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I've recently done my first video interview using Vmix Call and the image I brought into the production was only just acceptable.

They were on Fibre and I was using a system which told me I have about 12 Meg down and 4Meg up.

I left everything set to default and although the production went well enough I was really disappointed in the quality.

I've since tested it with someone else who has Fibre and the results are the same.

What can I do to improve this quality?

Here's the resulting video which isn't public yet, so please don't comment on it.



elvis55  
#2 Posted : Friday, August 23, 2019 1:57:27 AM(UTC)
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Hello,

Vmix Call is WebRTC.

Greeting
Podcast Bob  
#3 Posted : Friday, August 23, 2019 6:03:38 AM(UTC)
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Thanks but how does that help?

Can you be more specific?
mjgraves  
#4 Posted : Friday, August 23, 2019 12:11:37 PM(UTC)
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Since we can't that video (it's not public) we can't offer specific comments.

vMix Call leverages WebRTC. That means that it's comparable to a wide world of things like Google Hangouts, Webex, Zoom.US, etc.

It should be able to deliver 720p30 in most cases, but it will depend upon the hardware of the end-points.

The connection speed is not all that important, since the data rates are modest. A 720p30 H264 or VP8 stream is under 2 mbps.

The host CPU more of an issue.
Podcast Bob  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, August 27, 2019 8:26:05 PM(UTC)
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The video is live now, so if anyone can suggest where I can make improvements to the incoming video I would appreciate it.

Just to recap > They were on Fibre and I was using a system which told me I have about 12 Meg down and 4Meg up.

I left everything set to default and although the production went well enough I was really disappointed in the quality.

I've since tested it with someone else who has Fibre and the results are the same.
thanks 1 user thanked Podcast Bob for this useful post.
clibil on 9/25/2021(UTC)
clafarge  
#6 Posted : Wednesday, August 28, 2019 1:11:50 AM(UTC)
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Bob,

Things that may improve your results:

We know very little about the participant's setup. Between WebCam, CPU, RAM, and other processes running on her machine, it could be a lot of things.
Her lighting could also be causing her camera to struggle. Better to have more light on the subject's face, and attempt to compose the shot to exclude the bright ceiling light from the frame.
Her CPU may be slow/not powerful enough. WebRTC loves a multiple-core processor.
It's still quite possible that her webcam is the limiting factor.

Here's a link to the Caller Troubleshooting Guide.

Here's a quick demo of two webcams (both rated to 1080p, but vMix recording in 720p), but second is through vMixCall on a very underpowered device (Raspberry Pi 4 with 4GB RAM)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTQ5pHCodIQ



YouTube fixed the "Video Unavailable" issue, so you should be able to view it now.

I hope this helps!

Chad
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talrmd on 6/11/2020(UTC), clibil on 9/25/2021(UTC)
mjgraves  
#7 Posted : Saturday, September 7, 2019 5:05:45 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Podcast Bob Go to Quoted Post
The video is live now, so if anyone can suggest where I can make improvements to the incoming video I would appreciate it.


I don't think it has anything to do with ISP bandwidth. I suspect she was using the built-in camera of a laptop. They're terrible. Get an external webcam for sure.

It looks like it was delivering about 360p. You can see the stats in vMix when she is connected.

All the compression artifacting suggests that her computer is not doing very well. It was struggling. DOn't run any apps other than the browser. Give the computer a chance.

Was she connected via Wi-Fi? No matter how fast the fiber, a Wi-Fi link can present a serious bottleneck.

Also, Mac or PC? I see many folks who love the MacBook Air...but do everything over Wi-Fi. When I truly need a reliable connection I have them get a USB Ethernet adapter and connect to their router using Ethernet.

I love my Lenovo X1 Carbon, but being so thin & light it has no onboard Ethernet. I bought a USB adapter so I could connect via wire when necessary.

If you need someone at the far-end to make test calls, let me know. I have many different webcams in my office/lab.
thanks 2 users thanked mjgraves for this useful post.
talrmd on 6/11/2020(UTC), ewanly on 11/9/2021(UTC)
DoyleTX  
#8 Posted : Monday, May 4, 2020 12:12:34 PM(UTC)
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PodcastBob, did you ever figure this out? Or maybe anyone else? I'm in a similar position. Not sure what to do. Using other services like Zoom or StreamYard yield much higher quality results than the vmixcalls. I love everything else about vmix, but the call quality is really poor. I know it's technically point-to-point, but I have users with great speeds (15Mbps up) that have tried multiple devices and the call quality is still really bad. Makes me think something is bad on my vMix system or router or something. I get 40Mbps up and 900Mbps down here.

Anyway, my customers are starting to ask if they should just use Zoom. Ugh!
pba  
#9 Posted : Tuesday, May 5, 2020 7:15:50 AM(UTC)
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Unfortunatelly, same here. For example with StreamYard we have a much better results. This is not a bandwith or latency problem. We have much better result with Webex, Zoom, StreamYard, which is strange. Or with SRT connections. The bandwith and the equipments are the same, so... nowadays (for us) Vmix Call is near to unusable the most of the situation...
elvis55  
#10 Posted : Tuesday, May 5, 2020 7:38:37 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: DoyleTX Go to Quoted Post
Ugh!



Is that against Martin?

But with such statements, I am no longer interested in posting anything in this forum! bye

KnKproductions  
#11 Posted : Tuesday, May 5, 2020 11:55:42 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: elvis55 Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: DoyleTX Go to Quoted Post
Ugh!



Is that against Martin?

But with such statements, I am no longer interested in posting anything in this forum! bye



I think the "ugh" was in reference to the disgust of being asked to use zoom. I've also been asked if "we can just use zoom" (this was before they had seen vMix call), and since the person asking is also a friend of mine I told him "we're never using f'ing zoom don't ever ask me that again".
It's like if you made your family a nice dinner and it took a few hours to prepare, but the kids all said I JUST WANT MCDONALDS :)


As far as the quality of their callers in the posts above, it looks like she was using an old ipad or tablet with the front facing camera. We can't expect actual quality video from a camera that is smaller than a pin head, and a microscopic microphone. The best I can get right now is callers with a webcam, and it looks exactly like the test video that was posted above... all we can do is work with what the guests provide.
DoyleTX  
#12 Posted : Wednesday, May 6, 2020 1:34:52 AM(UTC)
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Yes, exactly. My "Ugh" was directed at my customers wanting to use Zoom over my vMix solution. Anyway, I was hoping there was some sort of setup test that I can do to ensure my router/firewall/etc is configured properly so I can confirm these poor quality calls are not on my end.

This was an example from my show on Sunday:


A speed test on their device showed 18Mbps upload speed. The device was an iPhone 11 which has previously looked very good.
3xscreen  
#13 Posted : Saturday, September 26, 2020 2:38:58 AM(UTC)
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We were seeing similar poor performance of vMix call. For an event we did this week, we had all the talent on a Zoom call in advance of the live and in that all had solid, good quality video connections. We then flipped to vMix call for the show and the quality was much lower. The fix we have found is:
- always use Firefox, not Chrome
- ensure there are no other tabs open, just the vMix call

Once you do the above two steps the calls are good quality as hoped and expected.
clibil  
#14 Posted : Saturday, September 25, 2021 4:41:01 PM(UTC)
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Sorry to come into this a year late but we are having the same problem. Our caller has Gigabit fibre to the house and a pretty powerful laptop, we have 4Mb up and 25Mb down and a massively powerful studio workstation which only consumes about 5% of CPU to run Vmix and is normally motoring along at about 15% overall.
Does it make any difference to select peer to peer connections only ?
Multiple VMix calls was one of the reasons we upgraded our setup but at present it is nightmarishly poor quality and I hesitate to mention the 'Z' word in such august company but.....
gorbva  
#15 Posted : Monday, October 18, 2021 8:55:35 PM(UTC)
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I use vMix Call for remote commentator (https://youtu.be/Sz1V4bc5WSY?t=1035)
But i do not use direct link (www.vmixcall.com) but BETA https://beta.vmixcall.com/
In beta you can manually disable Echo cancellation and auto gain.
It improves sound.
But i wonder, why it still BETA?
clafarge  
#16 Posted : Monday, October 18, 2021 11:18:03 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: gorbva Go to Quoted Post
I use vMix Call for remote commentator (https://youtu.be/Sz1V4bc5WSY?t=1035)
But i do not use direct link (www.vmixcall.com) but BETA https://beta.vmixcall.com/
In beta you can manually disable Echo cancellation and auto gain.
It improves sound.
But i wonder, why it still BETA?


They've kept the "beta" alive as to not break those who continue to use it. Try https://advanced.vmixcall.com/ moving forward, Gorbva.
gorbva  
#17 Posted : Thursday, October 21, 2021 3:15:44 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: clafarge Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: gorbva Go to Quoted Post
I use vMix Call for remote commentator (https://youtu.be/Sz1V4bc5WSY?t=1035)
But i do not use direct link (www.vmixcall.com) but BETA https://beta.vmixcall.com/
In beta you can manually disable Echo cancellation and auto gain.
It improves sound.
But i wonder, why it still BETA?


They've kept the "beta" alive as to not break those who continue to use it. Try https://advanced.vmixcall.com/ moving forward, Gorbva.


Thanks. I didn't knew about advance... But what difference between advance and beta?
doggy  
#18 Posted : Thursday, October 21, 2021 4:00:19 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: gorbva Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: clafarge Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: gorbva Go to Quoted Post
I use vMix Call for remote commentator (https://youtu.be/Sz1V4bc5WSY?t=1035)
But i do not use direct link (www.vmixcall.com) but BETA https://beta.vmixcall.com/
In beta you can manually disable Echo cancellation and auto gain.
It improves sound.
But i wonder, why it still BETA?


They've kept the "beta" alive as to not break those who continue to use it. Try https://advanced.vmixcall.com/ moving forward, Gorbva.


Thanks. I didn't knew about advance... But what difference between advance and beta?



https://forums.vmix.com/...-Web-Site-Beta#post75716

https://forums.vmix.com/...-Web-Site-Beta#post83289
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