Horrible video quality when using virtualCam with Zoom

1

I am trying to use this for training and the resolution looks awful. Is there some way to get the same quality when just using a cam and screen sharing in Zoom?

WinPC (Threadripper 3970x 128 GB RAM)
1Gdown/45K up Internet
using 4K 30 (tried 1920/1080 same results)

2

Hello!

When using the ManyCam virtual webcam with Zoom we provide the quality you set in ManyCam.
In Zoom, can you please go to Settings -> Video -> Enable HD

If this doesn’t up the quality please let me know and I will look into it, so far from some quick tests it looks like Zoom is getting the correct quality from ManyCam.

3

Thanks for the reply.
I did enable the HD feature but it has no effect on the quality of my stream.

4

I can do a test share if necessary. I’d really like to be able to use Manycam for my training sessions.

5

@Anim8me2,

To see what resolution Zoom takes please right-click on big blue button.

image

6

1280x720 @30fps
I’m not sure how to get it higher.

7

@Anim8me2,
Many apps require restart to refetch resolutions from ManyCam.

8

I have restarted the app and the computer multiple times.

9

Does 720p still look horrible to you? Please provide a screenshot of both ManyCam and Zoom.

10

Here is an example in ManyCam
image

Here is what it looks like in Zoom
image

I have tried disabling the 1280x720 but it won’t let me.
Here is my setting in Manycam
image

But here is what is being sent out
image

11

@Anim8me2
Thank you for details, I see it is really horrible. But you have 4K in ManyCam while Zoom seems can take only 720p which is 9 time less pixels. Thus the picture have to be downscaled significantly. To avoid downscaling try to lower your resolution in ManyCam, ideally it should be the same as in Zoom i.e. 720p. You can also may use Desktop area capturing and select 720p region. BTW, do you have a 4K screen?

12

Yes, I have a 4k screen. Zooms screen capture function can display in full resolution, is this a limitation of Zoom?

13

zoom itself scales down video, but leaves shared application windows in better resolutions. You can check yourself in the zoom video statistics (available under preferences)

14

Did this ever get resolved? I’m experiencing the exact same issue as Anim8me2 describes - the desktop screenshare quality in Zoom is awful and pixelated.

I’ve tried the standard troubleshooting described in the thread and support articles and there is no impact on the quality challenge.

15

FWIW, I was seeing the same issue. I was able to work around it by screensharing my second monitor. My 27" iMac big beautiful display looks horrible as a video source. But my smaller LG monitor, especially if I lower the resolution, looks OK. Not great, but OK. Probably not good enough for my needs (I’m testing ManyCam before buying) but maybe it will get better soon?

16

We are working on some improvements here.
In the mean time as a workaround you may try to use video overlay in ManyCam: put your video from ManyCam over all windows and capture screen in Zoom directly. To enable video overlay mark:

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image204×592 7 KB

17

Can you notify us when this is fixed. In its current state I can’t possibly use this with my students as the quality is terrible

18

Same issue here. Zoom scales down the virtual webcam from ManyCam. Reason? A lot of traffic, server bandwidth, I have no idea.

I created a work around for this issue. Install OBS Studio and OBS virtual cam. The ManyCam virtual cam goes to OBS Studio in 720p, and then I use the OBS virtual cam in Zoom and…tata… it works for me. My webcam is broadcasted in 720p.

Maybe somebody can confirm?

Cheers

Peter

PS: If you can not convince them, just confuse them. Does always work.