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[Feature Request] Screen sharing is of somewhat low quality

Open p0358 opened this issue 3 years ago • 49 comments

Is your feature request related to a problem?

The screen sharing quality is a bit lower than expected, the text is blurry/low quality and somewhat hard to read. [tested on Linux and Windows 10 VM, with 3D acceleration available and not respectively]

Describe the solution you'd like

It would be good if we could see a better quality in screensharing. I'm not sure of the technicalities, framerate is already low too. Perhaps the resolution could be increased, with screen sharing there's usually less data to send than with camera data, unless someone decides to stream something like a game or a video. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very grateful Telegram finally has that feature, only suggesting it could be looked into this concern in some free time.

Describe alternatives you've considered

On the lookout I've compared Telegram's quality to other solutions. In Discord, the quality in default free 720p setting is very similar, maybe a tad better. It's much better and clear in higher resolutions available with Nitro subscription. With apps like Skype and Microsoft Teams, the quality is clear, though I think Skype had a better one. Remote control apps/protocols like AnyDesk, TeamViewer, RDP, VNC, all tend to have a crystal clear image quality, some may suffer is there's a lot of motion going on. Free Jitsi Meet in the browser has much clearer image too. (Personally though I'll probably still stick to Telegram, because it has a better voice quality than for example Discord, and using two communication apps at once is meh and not really needed anymore)

Additional context

As far as I know Discord is using regular H.264. Many of the other mentioned platforms surely use different codecs for desktop, some use custom-designed ones for their purpose. It might be hard to adapt them, given people may want to stream dynamic content like video too. Perhaps a solution like resolution increase or a tradeoff settings between resolution and framerate (to maintain similar bitrate, cause I assume that's the limitation) could be introduced, as Discord appears to have a big perceived quality increase on higher resolutions, though we don't really see what bitrate settings are tied to their presets. However if we trust their statistics screen, they seem to use variable bitrate, and when you screenshare something there where not much is happening on the screen, the bitrate flow is very low. It might be a part of changes they introduced as part of updates for quarantine times, where people started using the thing more for whiteboard sharing rather than gaming, not sure about that part though.

I'm encouraging others to share their thoughts about this, maybe it may turn out it's only an issue on my side for example

p0358 avatar Jun 26 '21 01:06 p0358

Tried it today with a colleague. The quality is not enough even for full HD. Overall thoughts, in current state nearly not usable for us :( Problems:

  • ~~No ScreenSharing in non group calls.~~
  • No quality settings. Definitely need better quality.
  • ~~Can't expand it on full screen (voice chat members bar is always visible).~~

kirsan31 avatar Jul 07 '21 06:07 kirsan31

We use google meet now for desktop sharing with colleagues. If internet connection is very slow google prefers to use low fps over bad image quality. I personally think it is a relly good solution. Image can be updated like several times in 10 seconds (1 frame per 3 seconds) but it stays crystal clear.

samushenkov avatar Jul 17 '21 04:07 samushenkov

Screen sharing quality is something terrible.

Tdesktop 2.9.3 on both side, 100mb net, full call quality indicator, Full HD screen sharing: image

kirsan31 avatar Aug 20 '21 15:08 kirsan31

The problem still persists in Telegram desktop app. I think the user should select the appropriate video quality. are there any news about this issue?

faan11 avatar Sep 04 '21 16:09 faan11

Moreover, the shared screen is partially cropped when the video call window is maximed.

faan11 avatar Sep 04 '21 17:09 faan11

same for me. please fix!

ilya-markov avatar Sep 13 '21 07:09 ilya-markov

please, fix !

Mohoki avatar Sep 15 '21 14:09 Mohoki

Current quality makes screen sharing feature almost useless 😢 Please fix that so we can finally stop using those stupid skype and zoom.

lmcsu avatar Sep 18 '21 11:09 lmcsu

agree with @lmcsu

searleser97 avatar Sep 20 '21 16:09 searleser97

Quality is also way too low on Linux Mint 20.1.

As @lmcsu said: the quality is so low, that the feature is useless for many if not most usecases. Trying to view a text file is already impossible at 1080p, as many characters cannot even be deciphered by the viewer(s). Skype is the better alternative (even if I hate Microsoft).

ghost avatar Oct 15 '21 00:10 ghost

Telegram Video Chat is really impressive and easily can substitute horrible zoom in my company... everybody was impressed until I tried to share the screen.

5 minutes after we returned to zoom... discord is our actual tool.

This issue is clearly an stopper and solving it a must!!!

ddcovery avatar Oct 27 '21 13:10 ddcovery

Паша Дуров, сделай это или не пацан? Все ждут решение этого бага, я восхищен работой телеги в последнее время - все очень четко и круто, кроме этой нужной вещи

skhtml avatar Nov 01 '21 13:11 skhtml

In Discord you have an option: image Without nitro it's 5 fps, and it's perfect for text screen sharing. We defiantly need something similar in tdesktop 🙏

kirsan31 avatar Nov 02 '21 06:11 kirsan31

Same problem here. Low quality screen sharing (comparing with google/zoom) and the screen is cropped.

Please fix it - This will be a killer feature for competitors

danbadjar avatar Nov 03 '21 15:11 danbadjar

Fix, please

mnogokotin avatar Nov 07 '21 03:11 mnogokotin

when, guys? )

mnogokotin avatar Nov 29 '21 11:11 mnogokotin

What would be a killer for me is a high fps transfer too. At the very least 30, but 60 would be a good target. Maybe think about different recording techniques, like game recording too.

Could adapt code from OBS for this, both Telegram Desktop and OBS are GPL.

You know what would also be SUPER lovable? Being able to link to running live streams so people can watch them in a HTML5 browser. This could also be used to bring more users into Telegram, as they'd not be able to comment in the stream and whatnot. But this is feedback that is somewhat off-topic for this repo (apart from the UI needed to create these live links).

sinni800 avatar Dec 15 '21 19:12 sinni800

This still not fixed

zakiloki0 avatar Jan 21 '22 01:01 zakiloki0

1 Gbit internet on both clients and such a poor quality... This feature is really about reading texts and / or code at someone's screen. This is even worse than not having screen sharing at all, at least it wouldn't be that frustrating...

smnbbrv avatar Jan 25 '22 12:01 smnbbrv

try on https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/releases/tag/v3.5.0

Aokromes avatar Feb 01 '22 04:02 Aokromes

Just installed 3.5.0 but the screencast quality is still low and unusable :(

danbadjar avatar Feb 01 '22 08:02 danbadjar

Text captured from 1440p screen looks really bad (шакально) on 1080p screen.

vserdyuk avatar Feb 01 '22 08:02 vserdyuk

@danbadjar Sad :( I've ensured that downscaling is no more than 2x and no scaling for resolutions less than 2560x1440. But looks like it's not enough.

john-preston avatar Feb 01 '22 08:02 john-preston

quality is still bad (

mnogokotin avatar Feb 01 '22 10:02 mnogokotin

Well, I hope this one

https://github.com/telegramdesktop/tdesktop/issues/16487#issuecomment-902766387

will look differently now.

john-preston avatar Feb 01 '22 11:02 john-preston

Well, I hope this one

#16487 (comment)

will look differently now.

Unfortunately not, John.

coreequip avatar Feb 01 '22 11:02 coreequip

https://i.imgur.com/ctqGOj2.png 4k screen test

Aokromes avatar Feb 01 '22 11:02 Aokromes

@john-preston

Well, I hope this one

#16487 (comment)

will look differently now.

1920x1200 (both screens) in static is excellent now:

Snipaste_2022-02-01_21-57-45

With low speed scrolling looks like static in previous versions.

Nice improvements - thanks 👍

kirsan31 avatar Feb 01 '22 19:02 kirsan31

Just tested in 3.5 Screen Sharing quality between 2 people is GOOD and ok now.

Screen Sharing quality in a group audio chat is still VERY BAD quality.

Con you confirm this? If yes then the problem seems only in group chats.

It would be good to have a good quality screen sharing in group chats.

danbadjar avatar Feb 10 '22 12:02 danbadjar

screen cast quality still pathetic, needs to be really improved.

tkipkurgat avatar Feb 19 '22 08:02 tkipkurgat