Can't see remote video

[Murray Cumming]

When making a call, I see the local video by default, so I tried using the View menu to select remote video (or both) but none of those radio menu items in the view menu have any effect, or change the menu item whose radio button is highlighted. I see no error dialog.

I'm testing this with 2 PCs on a local network with Ekiga on Ubuntu Gutsy and Ubuntu Hardy, with two different models of USB camera.

[Murray Cumming (murrayc)]

I can sometimes get the View menu to work on a Gutsy machine (the side-by-side menu item is not ignored), but I have no luck on the Hardy machine.

[Stéphane Maniaci (stephh)]

I can confirm this bug on Jaunty. Receiving a call works fine, but when I try to call my contact, only my webcam is available in the View menu (local video). Please tell me how to report further information.

[dreamerns (dreamerns-ns-linux)]

Changing status to confirmed

[Eduard Carcole (ecarcole)]

I am using Jaunty and have same problem.

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Hi,

To help troubleshooting this bug, please attach a debug output following those directives:
http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Debugging_Ekiga#How_to_get_a_debug_output

Best regards,
Yannick

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Hi,

Ekiga 3.2.6 was released yesterday. It fix numerous issues. Could you please give it a try to check if it solves your issue?

https://launchpad.net/~sevmek/+archive/ekiga-released
(instructions and packages)

Best regards,
Yannick

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

It doesn't fix it for me, on Jaunty. I still get the bug.

Chris

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

To add to my last comment, one oddity about this bug is that if you call out to ekiga echo on <email address hidden>, then the return picture is visible. However if you get the echo bot to call back on 520@ekiga (ie it calls you, not you it) then the video echo is not visible.

Calls with ordinary ekiga users do not display the incoming video, whether the initial call-out was outgoing or incoming.

In all cases, audio works (it is only the video which is defective).

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

@chrisV,

Please, attach a debug output here (see comment #5: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ekiga/+bug/203885/comments/5 )

Best regards,
Yannick

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

I have two outputs from ekiga. In the first, I (a) started ekiga, (b) made a call to <email address hidden>, and (c) was successfully able to see my own video echoed back to me.

In the second, I (a) started ekiga, (b) made a call to <email address hidden>, and (c) on the echo bot call-back, was able to hear my audio echo but only able to see my own local video. (The same effect as when making or receiving calls from other ekiga users.)

This was on my computer running a different distribution from ubuntu, but which presents the same problem. I will be able to test on my computer with Jaunty tomorrow, if you would like the output from that also.

I should also mention that the windows ekiga client seems not to suffer from this problem. (I am hoping to have a session with a windows user this evening and I will report back, and also provide the debug output of that if it would be helpful.)

Chris

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

Here is the second attachment.

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

I am not going to get much more out of this at the moment as my windows-using contact wants to try skype to avoid the faffing about.

Is it worth my posting a bug upstream and anything further I can provide? I think though that you (Yannick Defais) already are 'upstream' so to speak.

Chris

[Eugen Dedu (eugen-dedu)]

Regarding comment #8: as shown at http://wiki.ekiga.org/index.php/Fun_Numbers, 520 is audio-only, so there is no bug here.

If you see the video with 500 and do not see the remote video with other person, then this is a bug. Post the debug output when calling that person.

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

OK I have had a go with my windows contact.

This is really weird. The first time I tried it this evening, I could see the remote video if, when I made the call, I did not have the local camera displayed in the call window, but it failed when I did (on three test calls, two successful at displaying remote video, one not), but this connected to a local display may be co-incidence. The second time I tried it, I could not see the remote video whichever setting I picked.

Here is a the debug log from the second (failed) session, I have anonymized the other party

[Eduard Carcole (ecarcole)]

I am using Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and have no problems with Ekiga.

With Jaunty, sometimes, I got rid of the problem you have just by resizing the window several times, which is kind of really odd thing, but I used windows finally, against my own feelings.

I would like to kindly suggest to ChrisV a temporary solution, instead of Skype, is to make video conference with Pidgin, which is still free software under GNU license, and it works so fine for me through Google Talk protocol, and your friend can also do through windows (Sorry if this is not the right place for such suggestion).

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

A further data point on more testing.

First, the problem also occurs on the windows version of ekiga, although less often. Secondly, it only ever seems to occur to the caller. The person called always seems to be able to see the remote video. For the caller, it seems to be a matter of chance, with not seeing the remote video being the more likely outcome.

Both machines are 32 bit x86.

Chris

[chrisV (chris-cvine)]

On Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:57:33 -0000
Eduard Carcole <email address hidden> wrote:
> I am using Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and have no problems with Ekiga.
>
> With Jaunty, sometimes, I got rid of the problem you have just by
> resizing the window several times, which is kind of really odd thing,
> but I used windows finally, against my own feelings.
>
> I would like to kindly suggest to ChrisV a temporary solution, instead
> of Skype, is to make video conference with Pidgin, which is still free
> software under GNU license, and it works so fine for me through Google
> Talk protocol, and your friend can also do through windows (Sorry if
> this is not the right place for such suggestion).

Hi,

The windows version of pidgin unfortunately does not support
audio/video. It is slated for a later version, but it does not work
yet.

Using empathy, you can connect with windows users who are using the
GMail video browser plugin, but again that does not work with pidgin
(pidgin does not seem to find the required h264 gstreamer plugin). I
can only get pidgin to work using the theora video codec. Furthermore,
the frame refresh rates when talking to the windows users on GMail when
using empathy are quite poor. I am not clear whether this is a problem
with empathy or libx264, or this is intended performance with the GMail
video browser plugin.

Have you managed to get pidgin to work with h264 (ie when talking
to windows users using the GMail browser plugin)?

Sadly, skype still seems by far the easiest way of talking to windows
users.

Chris

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Hi,

We have a patch wich modify the network part of the audio and video streams when behind a NAT. As this is the case here (after a quick look), this patch might solve the issue. Would you be kind enough to test it?

Get Ekiga 3.2.6 for Karmic with this patch here (same code as Ekiga 3.2.6 with just the patch which is a small one):
https://launchpad.net/~sevmek/+archive/ppa

Best regards,
Yannick

[Raumkraut (raumkraut)]

I just upgraded my Ekiga to 3.2.6, from the mentioned PPA for Jaunty, but I still experience this same problem:
When calling the <email address hidden> echo service, all video options but "local" are greyed out. The only time I've seen another's video is when calling over our LAN.

I've attached the logfile from a short test-call.

[Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl)]

Goodness, it's 2011 and this bug still appears on 11.04. I definitely don't have NAT issues. I'm on two computers side by side at a university (so both IPs are Internet addresses).

Ekiga would not display the remote video on either machine, when one was on wireless and one wired.
When both were wired, one displayed the remote video and the other not.

[Eugen Dedu (eugen-dedu)]

Please test with ekiga 4.0.0 and tell us if it works.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for ekiga (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]