[VideoConferenceMute] known issues in 0.48

[enricogior]

NOTE: the application preview (Teams, Meet, etc.) may show the overlay image flipped horizontally but that is expected, the image will show correctly to the other people on the call.

Known issues in 0.48

• In order to enable/disable the VCM, PowerToys should run as administrator
• In some cases, the overlay image can be shown flipped vertically (the workaround is to edit the image and flip it before selecting it).
• With some webcams, there is an incompatibility with Teams and the overlay image is not rendered, instead a corrupted frame is shown.

Status toolbar:

• it uses .png instead of .svg images (causing to be fixed size and too small on high DPI screen)

Camera overlay image:

• Browse button doesn't work when settings application is launched as admin

[raffertyuy]

My video conference mute doesn't work on windows start-up. I always have to (1) disable/enable on PowerToys Settings and (2) change the mic drop down to another mic, and then change to the main mic. Only after doing these steps will Win+Shift+A work again.

Is it just me?

[aavdberg]

What is the status of the preview build, because it's so far behind the normal release.

[Jay-o-Way]

@enricogior this issue is almost a year old (!) and PowerToys-with-VCM is held back because there seem to be no more updates for VCM (?) so when you have (only) 0.36 installed you lack a lot of "general" updates. It's time to merge experimental & normal trains so we can move on. 🚂💨

[yuyoyuppe]

@Jay-o-Way the VCM branch has been merged recently to master, but it's currently disabled, since there're still known issues which are not easily solved. Currently we're considering what needs to be done to enable it again, but yes, experimental channel will no longer be updated.

[alex-ong]

Another idea is to enable VCM by default. Allow audio by default and have a tickbox to show video functionality. Since that is the main crash factor issue.

[Fayyaadh]

Any idea when a new experimental version will be out?

I want to use the functionality that persistently shows an icon whether the mic is muted or not.

[thundercarrot]

As noted in the pinned comment, I've seen VCM not pass through the video appropriately. Could this be because the proxy filter is reporting only the one best media format from the wrapped camera device? What if the application doesn't support that format? (In my case I notice that VCM picks the 4k MJPG format on my Brio camera while running Teams-- that is a pretty demanding format to deal with). Or do I have this wrong?

[yuyoyuppe]

Yes, it does try to use best media format available. Perhaps we should provide a list of supported formats to choose from.

[Fayyaadh]

Is this still being worked on?

Eager to try it out in a non-beta version.

[yuyoyuppe]

@Fayyaadh it's currently on our backlog, but we plan to move the module into the master branch in a couple of releases.

[seriouz]

Sometimes i have to click the microphone button in Teams manually to get the keybind to work / work again. I could not figure out when the bind gets lost.

[seriouz]

Can you add a configuration for a sound that gets played when a new person enters the Meeting?

[Jay-o-Way]

Can you add a configuration for a sound that gets played when a new person enters the Meeting?

No, you really should be asking Teams for that.

[filipepreve]

I have the same problem with mute - and it gets worse when there is 2 mics on the system. If possible, this feature should talk directly to teams itself, to guarantee the chat is muted. "Mute mistakes" it's one of the greatest professional hazards these days...

Filipe

On 30 Aug 2021, at 05:31, seriouz @.***> wrote:

 Sometimes i have to click the microphone button in Teams manually to get the keybind to work / work again. I could not figure out when the bind gets lost.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android.

[bobvandevijver]

If you're only using Teams, you should use the mute shortcut available in there and not this tool. This tool is meant to be system wide, and should never directly communicate with apps. I've learned myself to check the mute functionality before entering the chat, which is not so weird to do as this function is currently still experimental.

[filipepreve]

You have a point. But I did noticed that other apps (like MicMute) mute a selected mic - and Teams identifies the status and change it as well (if configured with the same mic). Same thing with Elgato Stream deck add-in to mute the microphone. But with power toys, the teams mic button doesn't change status, and sometimes the mic isn't muted as powertoys suggests in the floating bar. Em 30 de ago de 2021 15:25 -0300, Bob van de Vijver @.***>, escreveu:

If you're only using Teams, you should use the mute shortcut available in there and not this tool. This tool is meant to be system wide, and should never directly communicate with apps. I've learned myself to check the mute functionality before entering the chat, which is not so weird to do as this function is currently still experimental. —You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android.

[Fayyaadh]

You have a point. But I did noticed that other apps (like MicMute) mute a selected mic - and Teams identifies the status and change it as well (if configured with the same mic).

Oh wow, I just tried MicMute now but Teams doesn't seem to mirror the actual mic's mute/unmute status.

Even though it might actually be muted, the main thing for me is that it's shown in Teams.

Did you have to do anything special to get Teams to change the mic status as you toggle it with MicMute?

[filipepreve]

It’s not perfect, but I have two tips:

• verify if the acting mic on micmute is the same used in teams (right click on tray icon -> devices)
• usually I better to let teams unmute and from that use the micmute to change it. If worked the first time, I haven’t experienced any problems from that point.

And I use a shortcut like “alt gr + .” or “pause break”, to make it really easy to mute with on hand.

Sent from my iPad

On 31 Aug 2021, at 10:40, Fayyaadh @.***> wrote:

 You have a point. But I did noticed that other apps (like MicMute) mute a selected mic - and Teams identifies the status and change it as well (if configured with the same mic).

Oh wow, I just tried MicMute now but Teams doesn't seem to mirror the actual mic's mute/unmute status.

Even though it might actually be muted, the main thing for me is that it's shown in Teams.

Did you have to do anything special to get Teams to change the mic status as you toggle it with MicMute?

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS or Android.

[aspidxt]

Conflicts with Nvidia Broadcast software. If PowerToys is opened and you try to open video conference software (broadcast virtual camera is pre-selected) it fails with camera error as PowerToys grab access to camera soBroadcast can't use it anymore. In PowerToys you can't choose virtual NvidiaBroadcast cam to use.

Please add option to disable camera control, or even better allow to mute virtual cameras such as Nvidia Broadcast or OBS virtual camera.

[rodrigolourencofarinha]

I don't know if it is a problem at my end. However, the toolbar in 4k displays has scalling issues. See screenshot.

[franky920920]

@crutkas Should this issue's title rename to [VideoConferenceMute] known issues in 0.46?

[Morente5]

I don't know if it is a problem at my end. However, the toolbar in 4k displays has scalling issues. See screenshot.

Same here on my 4k display

[creesch]

I noticed that this module uses a different way of defining the keyboard shortcuts as other powertoys. Which wouldn't be much of an issue except that powertoys itself doesn't pick up on remapped keys making it next to impossible to use custom keys not present on my current keyboard. As an example, I wanted to use CTRL + F24 for activation where the latter is actually my CAPSLOCK key that I remapped to F24. Unfortunally when I type in the shortcut it picks it up as CTRL + CAPSLOCK with no means to manually pick the keys as is possible in the keyboard manager.

[boardtc]

My camera is built into my HP laptop. It's not a case of just not rendering the overlay to indicate the camera is on/off, the flyover message says the camera is toggled on/off but it does not do that, the camera itself is not turned on/off.

1. Win + N has no effect
2. Win + Shift + A works but it shows a message that the microphone is off and this persists when the test call is ended and teams closed. The only was to remove it is to start another call and retoggle
3. Win + Shift + O does not work (flashes a message that the microphone is off)

[int-rnd]

Decided to play with .46 and ran into two issue. Searching above and in open issues, I don't see them called out so I will add them here. If there are duplicates, my apologies.

Video (Not overlay) is upside down on Teams and just a gray box in Zoom. When I click the Browse button to set the Overlay, nothing happens. No action happens on clicking Clear either.

Running a Lenovo laptop, Integrated Sunplus/Realtek HD Camera/Infrared combo, Windows 10 21H1, Experimental .46, MS Teams 1.4.00.22472 and Zoom 5.7.7 1105

Let me know what other info I can provide to help.

BTW - Thanks for all your work. This one will be very nice to have once it is fully functional!

[rodrigolourencofarinha]

In the window before entering a Microsoft Teams Meeting, the microphone shortcut does not work. Turning it on or off does not change the toggle.

[Cmdr-Keene]

In the window before entering a Microsoft Teams Meeting, the microphone shortcut does not work. Turning it on or off does not change the toggle.

I believe this is expected, isn't it? VCM doesn't integrate with Teams, it simply causes the Microphone to "send silence". Teams might think your mic is on (in Teams) even if globally the mic is really muted.

That's how they describe the video feed working (the camera is still sending a video feed, it just happens to be black). It's almost like when you have a camera and the lens cover is on: the camera is fully operational, but all it can see is black.

[rodrigolourencofarinha]

In the window before entering a Microsoft Teams Meeting, the microphone shortcut does not work. Turning it on or off does not change the toggle.

I believe this is expected, isn't it? VCM doesn't integrate with Teams, it simply causes the Microphone to "send silence". Teams might think your mic is on (in Teams) even if globally the mic is really muted.

That's how they describe the video feed working (the camera is still sending a video feed, it just happens to be black). It's almost like when you have a camera and the lens cover is on: the camera is fully operational, but all it can see is black.

I don't think so. During meetings when you silence the microphone via PowerToys it shows muted on teams. It behaves differently than the video feed.

[creesch]

In the window before entering a Microsoft Teams Meeting, the microphone shortcut does not work. Turning it on or off does not change the toggle.

I believe this is expected, isn't it? VCM doesn't integrate with Teams, it simply causes the Microphone to "send silence". Teams might think your mic is on (in Teams) even if globally the mic is really muted. That's how they describe the video feed working (the camera is still sending a video feed, it just happens to be black). It's almost like when you have a camera and the lens cover is on: the camera is fully operational, but all it can see is black.

I don't think so. During meetings when you silence the microphone via PowerToys it shows muted on teams. It behaves differently than the video feed.

I just had a look and this is a Teams issue. It appears that this is the result of how Teams handles muting in general. Effectively there are two ways you can be muted in teams:

• If you click the mute button from teams you will be muted in the meeting but your microphone itself will not be muted as far as windows is concerned.
• If you mute your microphone from windows itself (this is what powertoys does).

The toggle in your screenshot appears to only display the status for the teams only mute and not if your microphone in general is muted. I verified this by simply muting the microphone in my windows settings instead of letting powertoys do this. The toggle during a meeting shows as muted in both cases.

So in short, teams is being inconsistent here in its UI.

[creesch]

With the Lenovo 500 FHD Webcam I am experiencing the corrupted frame issue.

Additionally when I first mute the camera and then select the powertoys virtual camera as a source the overlay image works. If I then unmute it I do get a flickering image.

Edit:

This is with v0.48.1

[GibStorm]

I cannot choose camera overlay image. When I click "Browse" nothing happens.

[ItMeCorban]

Y'all know Win N is a keyboard shortcut in Windows 11 right? Not sure I'd be using it here.

[franky920920]

@jaimecbernardo Title need another update ;)

[arcticlinux]

Does not see the virtual camera from Nvidia Broadcast, and also doesn't disable the selected camera being used in Nvidia Broadcast.

Might be worth checking against other programs like this, OBS, XSplit VCam, etc?

[wuddel-forever]

HP ZBook

[Kahadok]

I cannot choose camera overlay image. When I click "Browse" nothing happens.

i had the same issue,

i restarted Powertoys without admin perm and i was able to choose a picture for the overlay

[GibStorm]

I cannot choose camera overlay image. When I click "Browse" nothing happens.

i had the same issue,

i restarted Powertoys without admin perm and i was able to choose a picture for the overlay

I always run it as admin, so sadly it doesn't fix anything for me.

[Kahadok]

I cannot choose camera overlay image. When I click "Browse" nothing happens.

i had the same issue, i restarted Powertoys without admin perm and i was able to choose a picture for the overlay

I always run it as admin, so sadly it doesn't fix anything for me.

same for me

1) restart powertoys without admin perm 2) pick up the image you want for the overlay 3) restart powertoys with admin perm

i did that and it work for me

[GibStorm]

That works here too... Wow, that's a weird bug.

[Ariane-B]

Here are some issues I've noticed:

1. If I mute my Teams mic with my mouse, Video Conference Mute will be unable to unmute me. If I do, the shortcut will only start working again if I unmute with my mouse, then use the shortcut to re-mute.
2. The toolbar is always visible, no matter what.
3. When using the default option where the tool will bind itself to all mics, it can very easily get out of sync - that is, my laptop's built-in mic will get muted, but my webcam or earphones' mic(s) wouldn't. I think it's related to the first issue I mentioned where if I mute with my mouse VCM loses the power to unmute me in Teams... but then it still works for the built-in mic toggle.
4. Prior to v48, to install the pre-release version that comes with VCM, you had to manually uninstall the release version because you "already had a newer version". I don't know what the solution to that is, but it does feel kinda weird to install a version with a lower number to try a new beta feature.

And here are some improvement suggestions:

1. It would be nice if we could assign the tool to single keys. It could allow people to make use of ordinarily useless keys like Pause.
2. I wish the toolbar could be put in the taskbar, next to the Windows 10 weather module. That's just about the only spot I can imagine it wouldn't be in the way for any apps. Every other spot I tried is in the way in at least one of the apps I use. The spot where it's the least in the way is bottom center, but that still sometimes hides useful info.
3. The text labels "Microphone off" and "Camera off" are just eating up space and not giving me any additional information. I don't think they're necessary.
4. I can put the toolbar on my main monitor or on all monitors, but I can't select a secondary monitor to put it on... which would make a lot more sense to me, as I usually put my Teams calls on a side monitor.
5. I wish I could just disable the toolbar altogether. Some PCs come with a feature where a visual cue appears when you're muted/unmuted anyway, making the visual cue from VCM redundant.
6. Also it would be cool if there were a mode where it could only show up for about a second whenever you mute/unmute but disappear entirely after that.

[Cmdr-Keene]

UI wise, I'd sure love it if that mic icon that appears in the taskbar when mic is in use, also functioned as the global mute/unmute button. Not sure if that's possible.

[LRitzdorf]

Cisco Webex also fails to detect the PowerToys virtual camera. I'd be happy to supply more details if that helps!

[andre-mr]

My camera is built into my HP laptop. It's not a case of just not rendering the overlay to indicate the camera is on/off, the flyover message says the camera is toggled on/off but it does not do that, the camera itself is not turned on/off.

1. Win + N has no effect
2. Win + Shift + A works but it shows a message that the microphone is off and this persists when the test call is ended and teams closed. The only was to remove it is to start another call and retoggle
3. Win + Shift + O does not work (flashes a message that the microphone is off)

same here. camera icon in bar shows off but does nothing, camera still on. mic works as intended. laptop lenovo legion 5i, windows 10, powertoys v0.49.0.

[Aaron-Junker]

@crutkas I think we can unpin this

[boardtc]

The conference mute feature was released from experimental too soon. The reported bugs are not fixed and there were plenty of people here to test them too. The toggle works for the mic but not for the camera as previously reported for my built in HP camera.

[Ariane-B]

@crutkas I think we can unpin this

Does that mean we should create separate issues for each problem we notice isn't fixed yet in 0.49?

[franky920920]

Does that mean we should create separate issues for each problem we notice isn't fixed yet in 0.49?

That's what I planned to implement in #14059 ;) Waiting for @crutkas to approve that.

[MWesleyy]

My "camera off" feature does not work, it shows in the screen that the camera is turned off, but when I open any application, it shows the video

[OndraHaa]

V 0.49 - always run as admin on Win11pro (21H2 / 22000.282) I'm having following issues which sadly makes VCM useless...

• On multi-display setup I'd rather have the toolbox on other monitor only (options main or all feels pretty limiting)
• Even after multiple restarts I'm not able to browse for overlay image (which is IMHO very nice feature)
• Google Meet effects are unable to be used even only blur

plus (i could live with that):

• Image through the virtual driver feels a little darker (like adding about 5% more dark tones or pushing about 15% more contrast) than image from the camera driver which feels lighter and clearer to me...

Otherwise works fine, but for now switching it off...

[Janneske2001]

Is it okay if I would design Windows 11 style banners? I would be using rounded corners, smooth colors and the Windows 11 fluent emojis to really recreate the Windows 11 feeling.

(I could drop a zip with all of them contained) Icons.zip

Edit: I’m thinking about making the dark mode banner a bit lighter, but I don’t have time for that now unfortunately. It could however also be that someone else would redesign the banner already, that’s also fine.