Configuring Voice/Video

[tron]

Trying to configure pidgin 2.13.0 for voice under xubuntu 16.04. Pulse 
Audio detects webcam and is showing sound reception from its mic but 
pidgin's mic test is not showing a changing sound level. Changing 
Pidgin's audio output and input plugins to Pulse Audio doesn't make any 
difference. Device selection just showing one option "default" - not 
listing specific devices; are they actually seen by Pidgin?

Pidgin's FAQ on Voice/Video says that the command-line 
gstreamer-properties program is used on GNOME-based systems. On other 
systems, Pidgin makes its best guess as to which device to use. (In my 
case, perhaps, it is guessing wrong.) A plugin is planned to support 
this functionality on other systems.

Xubuntu is XFCE (not Gnome) based and configuring VV from within 2.13.0 
is, from my experience so far, still not bullet proof.  So what are my 
options? If someone knows how to mod the earlier command-line tool for 
XFCE or has a patch for GUI or has any other suggestion please let me know.