USB webcam lagging only in Zoom?
Sorry if this community isn't the right place to ask — I got a USB webcam that works great in Teams, but lags tremendously (3-4 seconds) in Zoom. I doubt the Zoom app is introducing that lag on its own, but how would I troubleshoot this?
This is on EndeavourOS (basically Arch)
I also wondered for quite some time why my Logitech C920 webcam seemed to be using much lower framerates (which could be perceived as "laggy") in Linux as compared to Windows. It turns out it was transmitting uncompressed YUV frames by default, and for that, the bandwidth of my USB port just wasn't enough. (Maybe in USB C it would be enough, but this webcam isn't USB C.)
It worked like a charm after I manually set the format to H.264 in OBS. ("Like a charm" meaning it was transmitting 1920x1080 at 30 fps.) Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that in an application-agnostic way, but maybe someone else here can enlighten us. Worst case, install https://github.com/umlaeute/v4l2loopback and pipe your webcam stream through OBS...
I think it's possible that this is the same problem that you have run into.
Probably the web app works better than the native app. Also, try the flatpak if you still prefer native, it's better than what's on the repos imo.
It does work better for me in general. The video is no longer slow... unless I start using a virtual background, then it gets really sluggish. (Firefox.)
Have you tried the Zoom web app? They have a link on their site where you can join a meeting in your browser to test if your webcam/mic work correctly
It works perfectly there! Thanks for this — it confirms the issue is with the standalone app (and Flatpak).
I also run Arch and have this same problem. I dug in for a bit, but found nothing. :( Webcam works perfectly well in all other circumstances except Zoom.
Interesting, the Flatpak is laggy for me.
Zoom is an absolute dumpster fire of an application, but that's your solution. Don't use zoom.
Seriously though, Google meet, Microsoft teams, discord, all work great. Zoom just barely functions and I don't get why people want to use it.
Some of us have to accommodate clients and don't get to decide.
Then you deal with the fact that zoom is a dumpster fire for those clients
