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3CXPhone ver 13011

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Vali_3CX

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Please add your comments and technical feedback regarding beta version of our 3CXPhone with video support.
Thanks.
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

KerryG said:
Cannot get video working between the 3CX softphone and a Grandstream GXV3140. It appears the only video codec in the softphone is h.263, for greater support it needs to have h.264.
Hi Kerry
At this moment, 3CXPhone provides only H263 video type support.
Regarding mentioned Grandstream model, it seems it supports also H263:

"H.264 baseline (with CABAC enhancement pending) and H.263/H.263+ video standard at bit rate of 64kbps to 1Mbps, frame rate of up to 30fps and resolution of QVGA/CIF/QCIF"
http://www.grandstream.com/products/gxv_series_phone/gxv3140/gxv3140.html

Have you checked its configuration panel to enable its H263 in SDP negotiation?

Regards
vali
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

Some technical informations, in brief, about this new version of 3CXphone

requirements for video call
- remote partner should be able to handle H263/QCIF video signal
- extensions should not be bound to media server - ie PBX delivers audio unckecked, Support Re-invite and Support Replaces options cheked into the PBX management console.
- transport should not be Secure RTP.
- video partners should be either "on-office" (on intranet) or 3CXphone should use tunnel in case of "out-of-office". At this moment, STUN resolution for video ports is not implemented yet.
- be sure that other than 3CXphones has pressed "send video" button.

video recording
- 3CXphone allow video recording for both "local" webcam image, also, most important, for remote one. To do this, select desired video codec for recording on the Preferences dialog. Recorded .avi files will be placed in phone's local folder, Video subfolder. At this moment, there is not user-interface provided to access these files, so you will have to open that folder manually. Also, generated .avi file has no sound, basically has silence as sound. It is highly recommended to choose for recording that codec involving less CPU, thinking you may want to record three simultaneous calls plus the webcam one.

video snapshots
- 3CXPhone allow taking video snapshots. These are in .bmp format and placed in phone's local folder, Snapshots subfolder. At this moment, there is not user-interface provided to access these files, so you will have to open that folder manually. In the future version, these snapshots will be available as .jpg files to save disk space.

video privacy protection
- 3CXphone provides two settings to avoid it to act as an unwanted spycam. These two settings are available into the Preferences dialog:
- Start sending video when call is established - when checked, if remote side accepts video, 3CXPhone will start sending video automatically when call is established. It's privacy risky when phone is set to Auto-anser mode. However, if video window is closed or no webcam configured, there is not such a risk.
- Do not send video when phone is inactive or hidden - when checked, if remote side accepts video, 3CXPhone will stop sending video when is minimized in taskbar, minimized in tray or another widow is active. However, if video window is closed or no webcam configured, this setting doesn't matter.

dynamically changing of the video source (webcam)
- In case your computer has many video sources, you may switch them dynamically while in a video call. Without disconnecting the call, open the Preferences dialog and select desired Video Source - none including.

video offline image
- In case you don't have a webcam set, or video window is closed, or Sending button is not activated or "Do not send video when phone is inactive or hidden" option is set and phone is inactive, an "offline image" will be sent to the remote video partner. This doesn't apply to Hold/Held state, in which case sending is completely suppressed, mainly to save bandwith. The "offline image" is the file named "vidlogo.bmp" in 3CXPhone's install folder. You may replace it with your desired similar 176x144 bitmap, but do this before starting the phone. If this file is missing, a plain blue "image" will be sent.

video signal state
- 3CPhone tries to provide a visual feedback of the incoming video signal. There are three cases:
- no signal, its screen is off - remote party doesn't provide video (example a call to 999).
- video jitter - if there are jitters (or glitches or missed frames) longer than ~300 ms, 3CXphone will display video noise.
- signal lost - if there is no incoming video stream for at least ~1.5 sec, the video noise will be replaced in the known no-signal pattern. This can be easily observed when a video call is put on hold, because remote party cut the signal.

displaying position on the screen is preserved
- when 3CXPhone will be started, it will be displayed/restored at its last position on which has been closed.
- this affects only its normal, visible state, therefore minimized or hidden state are not saved.
- screen position is properly saved in both single and multi-display screen.

resizable configuration dialogs
- in case 3CXPhone is started on a standard VGA 640x480 resolution (Windows in Safe mode) configuration dialogs will provide vertical scrollbars to allow access to all controls.

3CXPhone can register and connect even on a machine with no audio devices
- to allow this feature, exit the 3CXphone and in its configuration file and, under [General] section, add following line:
IgnoreSndCheck=1
- save the file then start the phone.

ringing "PC Speaker"
- to allow this feature, exit the 3CXphone and in its configuration file and, under [General] section, find the line
RingPCSpeaker=0
- 0 means no ringing. 1, 2 or 3 will generate different ring patterns
- save the file then start the phone.

custom menu background
- 3CXphone allow custom menu background. To do this, in the Skins folder place an .bmp, .jpg or .gif file having the same name as the skin file, in our case 3CXPhone - i.e 3CXPhone.jpg. If this image exists, then 3CXphone will load it every time it loads the skin file. This image can have any size, 3CXphone will create in memory a resized copy of it, however, to avoid distortion is recommended that image be at the same aspect ratio as the menu window size, in our case 230x376 pixels.

phone provisioning
- 3CXphone can now be provisioned. On the Connection dialog, each account is provided with a Provisioning URL in the bottom side of the dialog. To be provisioned, its checkmark should be cheked and in the filed should be specified an URL. The URL should start with http://. Two provisioning will be done - account data and company phonebook. Provisioning will be attempted every time when 3CXphone tries to connect to that account. If, for various reasons, provisioning fails, the most recent saved data will be used. Therefore, in case of a new, fresh account, all registration data can be empty, but only the provisioning URL enabled. Phonebook provisioning is performed by a merging method, not by overwriting, therefore your "personal" contacts in 3CXPhone's phonebook will be preserved.

PBX port
The PBX port has been removed from Connection/Advanced settings. If a specific port will be required, it will be specified in the standard server:port format in the PBX in/out-of office, such as 10.0.0.11:55060.

local interface
The local interface has been removed from Connection/Advanced settings. 3CXphone will automatically detect the best route to the specified PBX/proxy destination.
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

Hi!

Are Yealink USB Handsets are supported in the new version?
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

igor.snezhko said:
Are Yealink USB Handsets are supported in the new version?
Hi Igor

There is implemented a core support allowing integration with two Yealink IP Phones models, but is not available in this version because it's in a very early development stage.

Regards
vali
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

Thank you!

We are waiting! Yeakink USB phones are very popular in exUSSR now.
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

Vali_3CX said:
KerryG said:
Cannot get video working between the 3CX softphone and a Grandstream GXV3140. It appears the only video codec in the softphone is h.263, for greater support it needs to have h.264.
At this moment, 3CXPhone provides only H263 video type support.
Regarding mentioned Grandstream model, it seems it supports also H263:

"H.264 baseline (with CABAC enhancement pending) and H.263/H.263+ video standard at bit rate of 64kbps to 1Mbps, frame rate of up to 30fps and resolution of QVGA/CIF/QCIF"
http://www.grandstream.com/products/gxv_series_phone/gxv3140/gxv3140.html
Hi Kerry

Today we tested 3CXPhone with a GXV3140 having H263 enabled and we found an issue in 3CXPhone's H263 SDP negotiation, leading to missing incoming video on 3CXPhone when it INVITEs GXV. On the "opposite direction" everything went OK. Issue has been fixed so next release will be ok.

Regards
vali
 
Re: 3CXPhone video beta (ver 12857) comments

I upgraded to the latest firmware today and there is no h.263 codec. I posted screenshots in the v9 forum
 
in brief:
Compared to previous 3CXPhone beta released version (12857), this 13011 has:

- bugfix in call history not being saved
- bugfix in handling "taken" (a pre-dialling) call state leading to impossibility to cancel/drop these calls.
- bugfix in mute call state indicator
- bugfix (?!?) in accepting a video offer having no video formats specified (GXV's case)
- bugfix in provisioning tunnel's PBX local IP
- ability to enhance received image's quality by tuning its brightness, contrast, color and sharpness.
 
Vali_3CX said:
in brief:
Compared to previous 3CXPhone beta released version (12857), this 13011 has:

- bugfix in call history not being saved
- bugfix in handling "taken" (a pre-dialling) call state leading to impossibility to cancel/drop these calls.
- bugfix in mute call state indicator
- bugfix (?!?) in accepting a video offer having no video formats specified (GXV's case)
- bugfix in provisioning tunnel's PBX local IP
- ability to enhance received image's quality by tuning its brightness, contrast, color and sharpness.

Also, there is a test feature which can be enabled only by changing phone's configuration file - the fullscreen view.
If you want to try this, proceed as follows:
- exit 3CXphone application
- open its configuration file and there, under [General] section, add the following line
Fullscreen=xx
Where xx can be a value between 10 an 30, representing the "frame rate" to which fullscreen image will be displayed. 0 means no fullscreen feature enabled.
- Save the file
- Start 3CXphone.
Now, the phone cannot longer be moved, by mouse, by the two viewers as before. Instead, by doubleclicking them, they will be displayed in fullscreen mode. Doubleclicking twice the same viewer will close its fullscreen. By doubleclicking the other viewer while first is already in fullscreen, the same fullscreen will display its image. As in any fullscreen feature, cursor will dissapear after 2 seconds of mouse inactivity. By clicking the fullscreen the phone will bring on top. By doubleclicking the fullscreen it will be closed, the same as by pressing the Escape key. Fullscreen feature is "multi-monitor" aware - the fullscreen will be opened in the monitor where the doubleclick happened. Therefore, if the viewer is "shared/splitted" in both monitors, by doubleclicking its surface in the left monitor will open the fullscreen there; on the right - on the right monitor. The fullscreen will close automatically when you minimize, hide or exit the phone or when you close phone's viewer. Both fullscreen and phone window are active independently, to let user to control incoming calls and, generally, to operate the phone as usual, while in the fullscreen mode.

This kind of Fulscreen=xx specification has been chosen to accomodate fullscreen feature on computers having slow/faster CPUs and/or graphic cards - lower values provides a "sequential" display but saves CPU, while higher values provides a smoother movement display, but more CPU usage.

The fullscreen feature is / may be useful when using headphones and you're not close to the monitor, also in conferences, when video partner's face is displayed on a big screen.
 
Interesting, if it possible to launch several instances of 3CX Phone, making "pseudo" videoconferencing on several monitors? :roll:
 
igor.snezhko said:
it possible to launch several instances of 3CX Phone
At this moment, the only "normal" way to do this with released version is by launching 3CXphone using runas.exe.
 
So, Igor, did you tried? How it works? No feedback from you.
Regards
vali
 
No, not tried, because I suspect an access conflict between audio and video devices on local computer.
 
igor.snezhko said:
No, not tried, because I suspect an access conflict between audio and video devices on local computer.
8) You may try - I'm using quite often two or three instances of 3CXphone during development. By running two instances of 3CXphone you should not have any special issue compared to running two other softphones or a 3CXphone and another softphone - the most important thing is that the two phones do not share the same SIP port, in this case only the first one will work. But, if phones are set to get this port randomly, there should not be a problem. Of course, recommended is also either to extend the RTP port range, either to configure phones to use different ranges. Webcam can be used only in exclusive mode, therefore if your machine has two webcams you may assign each to a phone. Launching 3CXphone under different accounts will be enough to ensure that no file-sharing issue may occur. In case of the fullscreen feature you're interested, the only issue which may occur is to run out of graphic memory in case of big monitor resolutions, therefore the fullscreen to fail. If you will try and you will encounter any issue, please let me know.
Regards
vali
 
Is it possible talk in conference with cam?
Thanks

Le
 
We do net get TLS working with 3CX Phone. The last stable can not handle certificates from CAs like GeoTrust or VeriSign (we get error: unkwon ca) and the last beta can not read something (error: 17:10:30.066 Exception thrown from Transportprocess: ParseException .\ParseBuffer.cxx:79, Parse failed skipped over eof in context: ****_***[**L(*g*Y*****"*r**?****U*@.;.'**B***4*****9*5*8*****3*/*2***)
 
Is there a hardware compatibility list for 3CXPhone? Specifically a list of which USB handsets (and headsets) are tested and work. I appreciate that audio in and out will work regardless but pick-up/hang-up is important as well.

(Please excuse the cross postfrom the Partner forum.)
 
Leonard said:
Is it possible talk in conference with cam?
Thanks

Le


It is not possible for the moment to have a video conference with the VoIP Phone.
 
Any word when or if a multiple-party video conference (that is, a video conference allowing more than 2 participants) will be available in the future?
 
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