Important - Provide virtual webcam and virtual audio for debug and diagnost

[SProgrammer]

We have been testing with 80 to 90 thousand random/new/existing users. 

Huge numbers of fake complaints we received such as: "its not working",  "we see black screen",  "we do not hear audio"

Most of the users using virtual webcam/audio or some using "Citrix HDX camera" which never works with Google Chrome Stable and Canary.

Also some brand new camera's completely does not work with Chrome/Canary. 

To minimise those confusions and cut the complaints into less amount, is it possible for us to have the following kindly?

-  add a virtual videotestsrc and audiotestsrc like we have in Gstreamer?

Please check Gstreamer for the SMPTE test patterns and audio wave how they used:

http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-plugins-base-plugins/html/gst-plugins-base-plugins-videotestsrc.html

http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-plugins-base-plugins/html/gst-plugins-base-plugins-audiotestsrc.html

- the reason of this to have is important because, when our end users using broken camera, broken mic, broken pc, broken OS then we can tell

them please go to our diagnostic page and use our virtual testing video src, audio src and do a self-loopback call. if that works for them it will

explain to them itself.

Please advise if there is already any existing testing tools to make sure that there hardware is the issue or not.

[Benjamin Schwartz]

How about https://test.webrtc.org/ ?

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[SProgrammer]

Very nice excellent work!! 

Here are my few experience with many random end users.

Q1 - Do you see yourself and me?

> He put black paper in front or fake it and report: "NO i do not see myself" (i had few of them)

> In the middle of call unplugged the camera and report us: "NO its not working i see black screen"

> He disconnect the internet cable or wifi and report us: "NO your system does not work at all, failing every-time i try. i saw you and then bang you are gone."

> Using ancient Google Chrome version because of Enterprise blocked auto updates, which cause many cam incompatible

> Some are using fake camera and fake microphone using software. they sometime does not work at all with Chrome/Canary 

unstable for long run, which cause also Black screen.

(Many more... shocking experiences.. i can write a book on this)

A) For all those i found that i need a tool where i can totally ignore there hardware and use our own built in WebRTC SMPTE camera 

then let them visually verify that they see color bars via our software. After that make a real connection with our WebRTC SMPTE camera.

Putting finger in there eye to prove them our system works absolutely fine.

Q2 - I do not hear you is your microphone working?

> My microphone is working, when i use Skype it works. 

(Just a waste of time, Everything is working but when call is connected he do not speak but moving his lips without making noises)

> In the middle of the call unplugged the microphone

> Microphone by software muted or volume level set to 0%

> Microphone by hardware muted

(Many more... shocking experiences.. i can write a book on this)

A) to kill or minimise those. 

I prefer ignore there hardware. use our own built in WebRTC audio capture source and make a 

virtual call to prove them they are not following our instructions.

Q3 - Do you hear audio from me to the selected sound card?

> NO i have no sound from you to me. (He is not even wearing earphone nor having any speaker at all)

> NO it does not work at all i have selected the sound card (his motherboard sound card is having no speaker connected, but he is using USB head phone)

(Many more... shocking experiences.. i can write a book on this)

A) We need sound testing possibility. 

which will make audio sink to all audio card in that system by ignoring user (like linux alsa speaker-test for all devices) and show a sound output green bar to prove there is audio output working to the output devices.

we want to be sure as a support team. That his system is corrupt and our software is not having BUG.

We have lost so much time doing same thing over and over and over. Same mistakes end users are doing again and again.

Its nightmare explaining them and dealing with them for such a small issues.

Therefore, i will use your diagnostic tool (excellent tool) + if possible it would be nice to have those point 1, 2, 3 related something. 

those all together will save lots of time getting wasted by WebRTC end users/developers/maintainers.

Thank you.

[SProgrammer]

@Benjamin Schwartz: FYI

Is it possible in the test.webrtc.org to have following please?

1 - Audio output: If you have more then 1 sound output you can select that and play a test sound on that card, show a blue bar to represent audio card is selected and the audio is playing perfectly fine

2 - Video display: see yourself with existing camera + virtual SMPTE camera so that black does not confuse you

3 - Audio input: if you have more then 1 microphone select it and see the green bar if its working

[Christoffer Jansson]

test.webrtc.org utilizes what's available in the browser, hence 3rd party virtual devices has to be installed if they are desired, and output device selection is not part of the WebRTC standard yet (draft is created). 

Note however there are fake audio and video devices that can be enabled in chrome which are used for testing but they require command line flags and use a different code path hence it's not a real indicator if a device works with your machine or not.

The tests in test.webrtc.org will let the user know if their microphone is producing audio, black, frozen or real video frames, network bandwidth etc. If all tests are green, all is good. Devices can be selected in the menu next to the bug icon.

If you want your users to be able hear and see themselves just use https://apprtc.appspot.com/?debug=loopback for this. You do not need indicators if they can hear and see themselves.

[SProgrammer]

How can i do this please?

A) Sound Output

1) Select Speaker

2) Selected Speaker test audio output orally and visually approval

B) Sound Input

1) Select Microphone

2) Selected Microphone test audio capture orally and visually approval

C) Camera capture

1) Select Camera 

2) Select Camera visual approval, if camera hardware or camera lens is broken prove that WebRTC is working by selecting a dummy capture 

Thank you.

[SProgrammer]

How can i access this? or read those information from WebRTC? (i had thousands of complain "your audio is broken, your audio does not work, you have firewall problem one side audio etc etc" 

All of them had this setting, i need to read this settings via WebRTC. Is it possible?

[SProgrammer]

To access this 

i have written my own NPAPI plugin but Chrom/Canary will not allow them anymore (http://www.chromium.org/developers/npapi-deprecation).

Then how can i via WebRTC access to those values for cross-platform and depending on requirement on the fly change the microphone volume level + mute status?

Please kindly advise, what we should do, we have faced/waste/lost lot of time on those and looking for a better solution to overcome. 

[Justin Uberti]

see https://test.webrtc.org