Library: Default camera is different in different browsers

[sethusuryateja]

When i try to get default camera to work for scanning( by using undefined in deviceId place) in https server, it was opening front camera in chrome where as back camera in Firefox. And also Is there any way to make sure the default one to be back camera by default?

[odahcam]

You gotta select the camera if you wanna control it. There's no such thing as default camera and each browser controls it as their want, so each one can and will give us different cameras.

When I want back camera, I always use the listVideoInputDevices method and select the back camera (now cames the shitty part) using regex to match the back camera name.

If you're not confortable with regex, you can try the 'mediaDevices' API and try to select the rear (environment facing) camera using media constraints

[sethusuryateja]

Thanks for clarification, but i am still not clear. Sorry if I'm wrong, but according to documentation, if we give device ID as undefined, isn't it supposed to select environment facing camera by default? So how could enviroment facing camera's be different in different browsers?

[odahcam]

It will prefer the environment camera, which means we use media device constraints to ask for that camera, as you can see in the source code:

https://github.com/zxing-js/library/blob/9599156b311508e63cb1c0933c34c89a2e2b97e1/src/browser/BrowserCodeReader.ts#L235-L250

_(we also have this one)_

Unfortunatelly, as you noticed, browsers behave strangely and there's nothing I can do about it for now. I wish some experienced folk find this and tell me I'm wrong, my own projects using this lib would be benefit, hehe.

In short that's what I know: if you want some specific camera, you gotta find it and deliver it to the library yourself (you can still use the library functions for that).

[sethusuryateja]

Using this instead of decodeFromInputvideoDevice seems to launch back camera by default.

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Stale issue message

[odahcam]

I choose not to use facingMode: { exact: 'environment' } because it throws error when environment cameras are not available and it is bad, for example, for non-mobile devices.