Zoom (videoconf) lag in browser

(New to Qubes.)

I need to use Zoom videoconferencing for work. I’ve tried using it in an AppVM browser on two different Qubes installations, and on both of them the video lags by about a second. I’ve tried it in a browser on an Arch install on the same network and there’s no lag.

Googling reveals that some Qubes users have had issues with video lagging on all websites (e.g. youtube) and even when playing local video files (e.g. with mpv). My laptop doesn’t have a lag in youtube or with local videos, just in zoom—i.e. it seems to be only my own video that lags.

Is this unavoidable? Or is it a configuration issue that I can solve somehow? I need this for work, and it’ll really suck if a one-second lag in work calls prevents me from using Qubes :-/.

Thanks.

Try to increase the sys-usb RAM (for example to 1024 MB) for a test.

Thanks @disp6252 but that didn’t work. I tried upping it to 4GB but still no luck.

I can suggest a few more tests:

  • Check if the lag is because of Qubes OS webcam passthrough. Open VLC or some other media player in AppVM, pass your webcam to this AppVM and open webcam in media player. If you see the lag then it’s a problem with webcam passthrough.
  • Check if the lag is because of network connection. Try to use webcam in AppVM browser on sites other than Zoom. If you’ll still have the same lag in every service then it’s because of network connection. In this case I’d run a few network connection tests in AppVM (ping, speedtest etc).

Thanks so much for your help, @disp6252. I’ve actually decided to stick with Arch for now. Qubes seems really cool but the learning curve requires more of a time investment than I can spare right now. I’m sure I’ll come back to it when I can spare the time, though.

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Use Brave browser in fedora-38-minimal for smooth youtube experience.