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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

Jul 5, 2020 2:39 PM in response to magicmarc

Same exact issue. The FrameRate of FaceTime camera with LG ultra fine 5k is laggy. One frame every 5-7 seconds. I've submitted a bug report as well to help raise awareness. I do also get the occasional blackout of of the external monitor. I'm running in clamshell mode. Frustrating. My 2019 MBP still works great with this monitor. But my wife uses that now. But makes me sure it's not the LG - definitely the new machine.

Jul 16, 2020 4:44 AM in response to GoldsteinPC

Indeed. It's been particularly tough, especially during lockdown where I would've liked to have used my monitor's camera to keep in touch with friends and family.


Since my first post where I went through steps to attempt to diagnose the issue myself, my experience so far with Apple has been as follows:


I reported this to Apple, and have had various members of support contact me. Some support staff connected remotely to my Mac and ran some diagnostic tools and collected logs.


I was then asked if I could return my Mac to Apple so they can check my hardware, but they told me that they wouldn't be able to get me a replacement, and that I'd have to order a new Mac and wait for it to be delivered. As I don't want to be without my Mac, I asked if they could perhaps instead just replicate the same setup as ours to diagnose, but I was told that this will likely not help as they seemed to be convinced this issue existed only with my Mac.


I asked if they could at least try, and even told them about this thread, but I've since stopped receiving replies.


It's all been quite frustrating, and it appears that no one is currently working on this. Again, this has particularly come at a bad time where reliance on my Mac my setup's webcam has been particularly crucial.

Jul 16, 2020 2:12 PM in response to mbc15

That's disappointing for you, but actually very useful as an additional data point.


If there is a GPU accelerated application which can use the LG's camera and have the AMD GPU handle it, we can conclusively rule out the issue being specific to the Intel integrated graphics on the CPU, which would actually be a very good thing; it would prove that the issue is software rather than hardware related and therefore no recall is required, only a bug fix.

Jul 17, 2020 9:52 AM in response to dollarbone

I posted at the beginning of this validating the problem. I’ve following the discussion and share in the frustration of an ongoing problem with no acknowledgement from Apple and no apparent resolution in the works.


That being said, I wanted to share a work around. Reincubate (https://reincubate.com/camo/) has created an app for both the Mac and iOS that allows you to use the high quality camera of your iPhone as a web cam for your Mac. The app is “Camo” and it works great. By using a tripod or mount for your phone, the video quality is superior to the MBP internal camera. Free version worked great on Zoom. Upgrade gives you helpful bells and whistle, but the free version does everything you need for video conferencing. Even if the LG external monitor camera was working, I would be tempted to use this Camo app instead. Just thought I’d share.


But still doesn’t make up for the significant oversight of a current, expensive, high quality, Apple promoted external monitor not working with Apple’s newly released MBP. I’m a longtime user of Apple products but this situation has negatively impacted my confidence in Apple. I’ll continue to follow this discussion in hopes a resolution is found. Any way to get further traction of this issue by having AppleInsider or 9to5Mac or other Apple news outlets and blogs do write ups about this issue?

Jul 17, 2020 11:10 AM in response to bkorth

Strange UX - there is no mention of the need for an iOS companion on their web site landing page. You can find it buried in the 'downloads' page. And - once the connection fails, there is no onboarding or hints to suggest that your iOS version is not installed.


Sorry to complain - I'm a UX designer and this kind of stuff makes me apoplectic.

Jul 29, 2020 10:41 AM in response to magicmarc

In addition to the camera of the Ultrafine 5K being extremely laggy on my MBP 2020, I have now problems where the USB devices that are connected to the Ultrafine are often not recognized by my Mac. Replugging the monitor a few times fixes it, but also sometimes leads to a total system crash... Does anybody else have this problem?

External camera laggy - low frame rate

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