{"id":9886,"date":"2015-12-28T23:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-12-28T21:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainbowbreeze.it\/?p=9886"},"modified":"2019-01-05T00:59:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T22:59:40","slug":"raspberry-pi-logitech-c920-and-webrtc-videocall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rainbowbreeze.it\/wordpress\/raspberry-pi-logitech-c920-and-webrtc-videocall\/","title":{"rendered":"Raspberry PI, Logitech c920 and WebRTC videocall: #fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had the idea to create a\u00a0no-brain and enjoyable setup<\/strong> for my parents to videocall with me<\/strong>. I know I can use Skype, Hangouts or lot of similar apps on any PC \/ tablet, but for me no-brain and enjoyable<\/em>\u00a0means\u00a0sit down on the living room couch<\/strong>, press a key somewhere, look at the big TV screen<\/strong> and start talking with me<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

There are solutions like\u00a0Chromebox for Meetings<\/a>\u00a0(hardware here<\/a> and here<\/a>) or the GT Mini 3330<\/a>, but the price is too high for a whim like mine. After different iterations, I’ve figured out a solution, although final result is still not working for some reason. This post describes what I’ve done so far.<\/p>\n

General architecture<\/h4>\n

TL;DR: A RasPI 2B connected to the TV, Logitech c920 webcam, WebRTC video call in a fullscreen Chromium tab<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An easy way to do bidirectional\u00a0video call, nowadays, is to use dedicated\u00a0apps like the before mentioned Skype, Hangouts, Ekiga<\/a> or many others. But you often need a PC connected to the TV, you cannot automate the connection process, plus most solutions are using proprietary protocols. The alternative is to rely on the promises of WebRTC<\/a>\u00a0project and create a\u00a0multi-party video chat. Nothing more than a browser and a camera is needed. Sounds good!<\/p>\n

A Raspberry PI 2B<\/strong> model is powerful and cheap enough for\u00a0running such setup and, connected to a\u00a0TV screen via HDMI port, can use the TV for video and audio output.<\/p>\n

As for the camera, I went for a\u00a0Logitech c920<\/a>. Why? Because it’s supported out of the box<\/a> on Raspbian, works with fswebcam<\/a> and it doesn’t need a powered USB hub, has a wide-angle lens very good for video calls, has a good directional microphone<\/strong> and can produce<\/a> an hardware encoded FullHD H.264 video stream<\/strong> (it can be checked with\u00a0v4l2-ctl –list-formats<\/em>), with no additional computational overload on the RPi side. And it costs around\u00a080 euros<\/strong>. Video quality is excellent and audio recored is loud and clean even if the speaker is 3 meters far from the camera: huge enough to cover the average distance between a couch and a TV :)
\nIt may happen to see a rainbow square top right<\/strong> on the display while using the camera: it’s the under-voltage warning<\/a> of the RPi, so connect it to a more powerful USB port, to an external USB power source or, as last resource, connect the camera to a powered USB hub.<\/p>\n

Regarding the software, nothing more than a WebRTC-compatible browser, running on RPi, is required: IceWeasel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chromium<\/a> have it. To host\u00a0the WebRTC call, there are plenty of solutions: AppRTC<\/a>, Jitsi<\/a>, OpenTokRTC<\/a>, just to mention few, are online services\u00a0that can be used to start a WebRTC video call. Source code is even available for\u00a0OpenTok<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0AppRTC<\/a>,\u00a0to create a personal server.
\nOnce selected the service, a script can\u00a0open a fullscreen browser window pointing to the desired chat room url, once the RPi graphic environment starts, so the only action required is to power-up the Raspberry and wait to be connected. Bingo :)<\/p>\n

Step-by-step config<\/h4>\n

Basic system<\/strong>
\nDownloaded\u00a0NOOBS<\/a>\u00a0offline, formatted the SD card as one FAT32 partition using GParted, \u00a0and unzipped\u00a0the NOOBS archive on SD card. Inserted the SD on the RPi and booted. Selected Raspbian Jessie, waited\u00a0for the installation to finish. Alternative instruction for Linux here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Run the usual sudo apt-get update, sudo apt dist-upgrade, sudo rpi-update commands triad<\/p>\n

Browser<\/strong>
\nRegarding the browser to use… Well, it’s complicate.
\nAs first try, I followed this guide<\/a>\u00a0that suggested to use Iceweasel<\/strong>. It was as simple as a sudo apt-get install iceweasel<\/em>, but unfortunately\u00a0vLine<\/a>\u00a0is not active anymore, with\u00a0appRTC<\/a> IceWeasel crashes and Jitsi.org<\/a>\u00a0doesn’t support<\/a> Iceweasel\u00a0< 40 (Jessie has v38<\/a> on the repo).
\nSo I installed Chromium<\/strong> following\u00a0this guide<\/a>, using the precompiled armhf\u00a0packages from Ubuntu Ports<\/a>. But also\u00a0this guide<\/a>\u00a0works, using packages in the Launchpad Librarian<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why Chromium v45? Because v47 has a annoying bug<\/a> that prevent a correct render of YouTube, appRTC and Jitsi, among the other.<\/p>\n

Time to start my first WebRTC video call: I opened a Jitsi link<\/a> to launch a test call on RasPI and my PC, authorised the website to use my mic and camera and I had both sides connected, audio and video working as expected. Wow moment, I’m an happy man!!!!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, after 30 to 60 secs, audio from the RasPI side stops working<\/strong>, and only the video is transmitted. I can see video from the RasPI side of the call, but I cannot hear the audio. Instead, on the TV screen, it’s possible to see and hear my stream. After tons of tests, I still don’t know why this is happening and how to solve it. Also a\u00a0post on Raspberry PI forum<\/a>\u00a0isn’t helping. This is the biggest blocker I have right now :(<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the idea to create a\u00a0no-brain and enjoyable setup for my parents to videocall with me. I know I can use Skype, Hangouts or lot of similar apps on any PC \/ tablet, but for me no-brain and enjoyable\u00a0means\u00a0sit down on the living room couch, press a key somewhere, look at the big TV … Continue reading Raspberry PI, Logitech c920 and WebRTC videocall: #fail<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[421],"class_list":["post-9886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-raspberry-pi"],"yoast_head":"\nRaspberry PI, Logitech c920 and WebRTC videocall: #fail - Rainbowbreeze<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rainbowbreeze.it\/raspberry-pi-logitech-c920-and-webrtc-videocall\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Raspberry PI, Logitech c920 and WebRTC videocall: #fail - Rainbowbreeze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had the idea to create a\u00a0no-brain and enjoyable setup for my parents to videocall with me. 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