Strong background noise from webcam-integrated mic

English Hardware
#1

Good afternoon,

I recently bought a new webcam for video conference calls.


$ lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 1bcf:28c4 Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc. Sandberg Pro Elite 4K UHD
...

My notebook (HP Probook 450) also has an integrated webcam with mic, which I don’t use any more


Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05c8:03b1 Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd (Foxlink) Webcam

The problem is, my new webcam (the first one listed by lsusb) is very sensitive to background noise. The problem disappears when I start a video conference (the software doesn’t matter) and afterwards a program called webcamoid.
I am looking for a permanent, no-hassle solution, I would like to configure the webcam to filter out background noise upon boot. Can anyone point me to documentation how to do so? Thanks in advance. Here is some more info on my system:


$ uname -r 
5.3.18-59.27-default


$[FONT=monospace]cat /etc/os-release  
NAME="openSUSE Leap" 
VERSION="15.3"


[/FONT]
#2

I am not a webcamoid user … but even then I fear they may not be a permanent, no-hassle solution (unless you use your mic for webcamoid and never ever any other app). I suspect, but don’t know for certain, that every app that uses the mic may need different settings from your mixer.

You could turn down the boost for the mic in your mixer with alsamixer, and also turn own the sensitivity for the mix in the mixer (also using alsamixer) and save that with


sudo alsactl store

However I suspect you will then need to re-tune your mic each time you use it with a different app.

#3

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, there is no setting in alsamixer. I will see what the manufacturer has to say and keep you posted.

#4

That is strange.

Did you checkout F4, F5 and F6 in alsamixer?

#5

Choose needed audio card with F6.

#6

For conference calls, with or without video (WebCam), the only viable solution I’ve found is a headset with a noise-cancelling microphone.

  • They’re not cheap – expect to pay the equivalent of at least 130 € (Euro) …
  • Headsets with a USB wireless interface (cable-less) labelled as being suitable for telephone systems seem to be one of the better solutions.
  • Unfortunately, to update the headset’s microcode you may well need a Windows system to perform the update – sadly …