Citrix HDX Webcam not working in Chrome/Edge, works in full Teams Client

[Ken Z]

Hi

 

have a strange one

Citrix 1912 CU7 Farm, with VDAs running on Server 2019 fully patched

Office 365 installed with Teams installed using machine wide installer.

Client USB device redirection is not enabled (not required).

Citrix HDX webcam is working, as the full teams client is showing as "Citrix HDX optimised", and the webcam works correctly in the full client.

HKCU/Software/Citrix/HDXRealTime is showing the correct regkey for the Citrix HDX Webcam details

 

Problem is when trying to use browser based apps that access the webcam e.g. web-based teams - https://teams.microsoft.com or Google Meet.

Web-Teams is showing in the chrome tab that it is using webcam or microphone (see screenshot 1) but it's showing the camera of off and i can't switch it on (screen shot 2)

I've moved the Server into an OU with minimal GPOs for both user and computer (loopback set to replace) and also deleted my test users profile so that's fresh

 

Anyone else seen this?

This used to work earlier this year but has stopped working at some point.

Been through all the docs i can find to isolate this issue, but no luck.

anyone got any pointers where else to look?

 

Regards

 

Ken Z

 

[Jeff Riechers]

Ok, I have run into issues where certain cameras wouldn't work with the HDX even when it was showing connected.

 

Pull down this tool from Citrix https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX547245/webcam-preview-test-application and see what resolution and color space/compression is shown.

 

On cameras that wouldn't work with the hdx only webcam redirection it would just show RGB24, but with cameras that did work I would see lots of entries with different engines and resolutions.

 

 

[Jeff Riechers]

The reason is because you are not capturing the web cam into the session.

 

In full teams the camera connectivity is handled locally on the end point.  So it doesn't need to redirect into the session.

 

You will need to either use BCR to send those other sessions to the end point, or capture the webcam into the session for the browser to access it.

[Ken Z]

Hi Jeff

 

thanks for the quick response.

 

the webcam is available to the session as seen with the HDXRealTime registry key

See https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops/multimedia/webcam-compression.html for more details on HDX webcam video compression.

 

"Webcams can be used by applications running within the virtual session by using HDX webcam video compression or HDX plug-n-play generic USB redirection. Use Citrix Workspace app > Preferences > Devices to switch between modes. Citrix recommends you always use HDX webcam video compression if possible."

 

"To prevent users from switching from HDX webcam video compression, disable USB device redirection by using the policy settings under ICA policy settings > USB Devices policy settings. Citrix Workspace app users can override the default behavior by choosing the Desktop Viewer Mic & Webcam setting Don’t use my microphone or webcam."

 

i.e. Citrix does not recommend using USB redirection for webcams but the HDX Webcam redirection introduced in v7.17 for both 32bit and 64bit apps. This is enabled by default.

 

BCR is something completely different and not used to capture video from webcams on client devices. BCR allows videos that are normally played in a browser in a session to be "offloaded" to the client device. I have never heard of anyone trying to get BCR to send video into a session from the client side.

 

During my initial investigation I'd built a near identical system in my test lab, (Citrix 1912 CU7 farm, Server 2019 VDA, etc) and the web-based version of Teams works correctly and can access the webcam using this method. It's just that the production environment can't (the test lab has client USB redirection disabled too), and I can't see what's different between the two builds hence why I asked the question here.

 

Regards

 

Ken Z

[Ken Z]

Ha!

 

been looking for just such a tool for a few hours this afternoon. Thanks ?

 

Running the tool on the production server I get the following, so the session is seeming my webcam.

 

 

Clicking Preview opens the video which works as expected.

so at least the session can see the Webcam. Now need to find the next step... why can't Edge or Chrome access the webcam?

 

Regards

 

Ken Z

 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by KAZIMIERZ ZYGMUNT

[Ken Z]

OK,

 

next result.. found this link... https://www.onlinemictest.com/webcam-test/

 

this is a webpage with embedded code to view webcams, and this works, so my problem isn't a generic issue with Edge/Chrome. It's an issue with Teams for Web (and Google Meet)

 

Might need to log a call with Microsoft...

 

Regards

 

Ken Z

[Ken Z]

?

 

OK, today, with nothing changed, webcam started working with both Teams web client and Google Meet...

no idea why

will try and figure it out