I've been experimenting with webRTC for my next project to create a video chat and testing has been difficult. I have this simple code to access the camera:

        navigator.getUserMedia = navigator.getUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.webkitGetUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.mozGetUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.msGetUserMedia;

        var video = document.querySelector('#av-chat video');

        if (navigator.getUserMedia) {
          navigator.getUserMedia({audio: true, video: true}, function(stream) {
            video.src = window.URL.createObjectURL(stream);
          }, errorCallback);
        }

which works fine on chrome and mozilla but when I try to do it together, it doesn't work. What I mean by together is like opening the same file with this code in two browsers. It seems that when one browser has access to the camera, it blocks it for anyone else.

I have not seen this issue discussed on the internet so I was wondering, is it just me? If not, is there a solution?

I've been experimenting with webRTC for my next project to create a video chat and testing has been difficult. I have this simple code to access the camera:

        navigator.getUserMedia = navigator.getUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.webkitGetUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.mozGetUserMedia ||
                                 navigator.msGetUserMedia;

        var video = document.querySelector('#av-chat video');

        if (navigator.getUserMedia) {
          navigator.getUserMedia({audio: true, video: true}, function(stream) {
            video.src = window.URL.createObjectURL(stream);
          }, errorCallback);
        }

which works fine on chrome and mozilla but when I try to do it together, it doesn't work. What I mean by together is like opening the same file with this code in two browsers. It seems that when one browser has access to the camera, it blocks it for anyone else.

I have not seen this issue discussed on the internet so I was wondering, is it just me? If not, is there a solution?

• javascript
• webrtc
• hardware

• 2 It's really not surprising that things would work that way. – Pointy Commented Apr 9, 2017 at 13:21

3 Answers 3

This is a limitation on Windows. On Mac OS you can use the same camera in multiple applications at the same time but not in Windows unfortunately. You have a few options here:

1. Buy a Mac