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External camera laggy - low frame rate

I've just upgraded from a 2018 MacBook Pro to the MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports).

When using the Mac's FaceTime camera, everything works fine. However, when connecting it to my LG UltraFine 5K (as I was my previous Mac), the camera feed is laggy (in every application).


The frame rate is really low and erratic - ranging from one frame per second to even fewer.


My previous Mac worked fine with the same monitor.


I've tried:

Using a different Thunderbolt port on the Mac to connect to the display.

Resetting the Mac's PRAM and SMC.

Creating and testing with a new user.

Reinstalling 10.15.4.

Checking for firmware updates for the external display.


all to no avail.


I can't seem to fix the issue, nor can I find any suitable help online.


Any thoughts are appreciated.



Posted on May 19, 2020 8:46 AM

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Posted on Jun 18, 2020 11:05 AM

I did a bunch of debugging as I have the same issue, and annoyingly the upload of some images failed and the post was lost.


Anyway, after I hit submit I did some more digging and found the culprit, which wasn't in the original post.


The yellow errors are thrown when I changed cameras in Photo Booth from either my Logitech C920 (connected to the USB ports on the back of the display) or the laptop's Facetime camera to the LG 5K display's camera.



The repeating pairs of


DECODING ERROR -12904
RETURN ERROR -12904


tell us that the


decompressionOutputHandler


method on line 3374 in the


CMIO_Unit_Convertor_VideoToolboxDecompressor


C++ class is receiving an errant response that it can't decode, likely frame data which needs to evaluate to a set of numbers of particular format which constitute a valid basis for conversion by the decompressor into a frame as displayed by the output application (Photo Booth in my test case).


Unfortunately, that source file is part of the CoreMedia framework itself and is thus closed source, so I can't actually see exactly what it's doing, but I'm pretty certain the scenario outlined above is the likely case.


So now we know part of the what that is causing the symptoms, but we still don't have a root cause for what is causing that nor the why it is happening on this model only.


On that, I'm guessing that the Intel graphics hardware this model contains, the Intel Iris Plus, Device ID: 0x8a53 and Revision ID: 0x0007 (which perhaps the current 16" has as well, though both models there would likely hand off to the AMD GPU thus masking this bug) is generating some data which results in an array (which represents the numeric data set that a video frame is encapsulated in) boundary being overstepped so only 1 in several fall into line with the expected format (apologies to anyone on this thread who isn't a software developer, this is about as high level as I can make it; but think of a clock which needs to show 12 o'clock every time you look at at it, but each time you look away it increments the time by 1 hour; you only get a valid response once every 12 attempts), resulting in a large volume of dropped frames and juddering output.


Sadly, the only way I can test that out is with an eGPU for the OS to delegate the graphics offload to with a suitable application (I checked and it doesn't look like Photo Booth would do this, but I think zoom does if a real GPU is available).


So who needs to fix this? Well, that's tricky because I haven't conclusively proven what is at fault, but my first port of call would be Apple, to patch that method to handle the returned data that can't currently be processed, effectively fixing the broken array by reindexing it before returning the value (assuming my hypothesis above is correct).


I'll add my findings to the chorus with a bug ticket.

Similar questions

213 replies

May 28, 2020 4:22 AM in response to magicmarc

I’ve phoned Apple a couple of times about this and someone in senior support is now kindly looking in to this.

They’ve yet to ask for my MacBook Pro, but ran some remote diagnostics which all seemed fine.


One thing they seem to do is to check if there have been any other reports of the same issue, and so I suppose I’d encourage any of those with the same issue to at least log it with Apple somehow.


I also phoned LG who were less helpful, but perhaps rightly so. They told me that they’d had some calls about the same issue, and that the monitor simply provides peripherals to the Mac, which worked fine with the previous MacBook Pro. They suggested I continue with Apple for the time being.


I also have a couple of other issues with the monitor which I wonder might be related - every once in a while the monitor seems to turn off for a second or two before coming back. Also, audio through the monitor’s speakers sometimes starts breaking up, which I can resolve by changing my audio output to the MacBook Pro’s speakers and then back to the LG monitor.

Is anyone else having these same issues too?


I also wonder what model number of monitor you’re all using. I found mine by removing the monitor from the stand - mine’s 27MD5KA-B.

May 28, 2020 4:41 AM in response to magicmarc

I have had other issues like magicmarc describes — the monitor will occasionally go black for a second or two, and audio is not entirely reliable (mine doesn't "break up," it just stops working altogether until I change audio output settings, or sometimes unplug and reattach the monitor). However, I had these issues with my previous laptop (2018 MacBook Air) as well and they've been present since I purchased the monitor (secondhand) several years ago.


The issue with the camera, however, is new and directly related to my new MacBook Pro.

Jun 1, 2020 6:32 AM in response to magicmarc

I haven't noticed any other issues aside from the camera problem. Speakers seem fine, video signal seems fine.


That's great that Apple is looking into this! Although, I really hope I don't have to send my Mac in; it's my new work machine and I've just gotten my dev environment set up the way I like it. Plus, it'd be a huge hassle to be without my work machine for a few weeks. I'd have to consider that.


I removed my stand to check my model number, and it's 27MD5KA

Jun 3, 2020 10:32 AM in response to dkaib1

I have the same issue. I just set up my brand new 2013 Macbook pro and connected it to the LG 5K monitor. The camera is so laggy it is unusable. It was just fine yesterday, using my 2019 macbook air. Now suddenly the LG camera is extremely laggy. I will also note that selecting one of my two other cameras works fine (the built in FaceTime camera and a USB connected Logitech Brio). Go figure!

Jun 4, 2020 5:30 AM in response to LucasFiler

Very interesting. I wonder if this is a fully pervasive issue in all cases. Has anyone seen or heard evidence of anyone *NOT* seeing this issue? I.e. using a 2020 13-inch MBP with the LG 5k and the LG’s camera works flawlessly? If this is presenting in all cases, I’d guess it’s affecting more people than we’re seeing here. However, it could also be more intermittent and not affecting everyone in this way.

Jun 8, 2020 1:55 PM in response to magicmarc

I have the exact same issue. The LG camera works fine on my 2016 macbook pro but completely unusable in the new 2020 macbook pro. No apps that use the camera that I tried work - quicktime, zoom, photo booth, skype.


I even had the opportunity to test it before I upgraded to 10.15.5 and after. Same issue. However, my 2016 works just fine with 10.15.5.


I think I am still in my return period and I just might return it...it is completely unusable and I don't want to change around my setup that I use 75% of my day (on zoom calls).

Jun 11, 2020 12:34 PM in response to magicmarc

Further question: In addition to the super low camera framerate and the occasional audio problems on the Ultrafine 5K with the MBP 2020, does somebody also have occasional complete system crashes (screen freezing for ~10 seconds, then restart)? I have had them a few times now, and each time was (maybe coincidentally?) while connected to the Ultrafine 5K.

Jun 12, 2020 9:30 PM in response to magicmarc

Same issues. LG UtraFine 5K monitor display camera lagging and low frame rate when connected to new MBP 2020, four Thunderbolt 3 ports. Issue in any app using external display camera. Display camera worked fine with late 2016 MBP. I have swapped out connecting between the two MBPs and without fail the 2020 has issues.


On similar note, I too have had issues with display flickering or not connecting or problems with volume tight my 2016 MBP. Those issues have been reported often. Very intermittent so hard to troubleshoot. But I lived with it. The new problem with the display camera is very frustrating given the increased use of camera during remote work and teaching.


Sent bug report.

Jun 17, 2020 5:28 PM in response to bkorth

I talked to Apple support and tried creating a test admin account, reinstalling os, trying it in safe mode, reset SMC, reset NVRAM. None of that worked. Then I was escalated to Senior Support person. We talked through everything in detail and sent all my logs and a video of the problem to their team. They said I should hear back something on Monday. Either they're already aware and working on it, or maybe now there's enough info to investigate.

External camera laggy - low frame rate

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