Alternative to Skype?

System
System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
edited June 8 in Student general
Is there an alternative to Skype? It's OK but is there anything better. I've been told Yahoo messenger is better but you can't hear the other person only see them and you have to type your message. All I want to do is see and hear the other person.

Comments

  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    Mandy, have a look at something called "ITYM OHPHONE"
    It appears to be available for videoconferancing so may be of some use. Alternatively, try and find out about the BBC videophones
    FG
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    Have a look at www.filesaveas.com/videocalling, all about the BT video 100 & 200 video phones and the mobile video phone. See if that is any good for you.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    Thanks FG, I will look into these. Are they subscription sites do you know?
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    Don't really know, only did rudimentary research. If you log onto Google & enter videophones, the Filesaveas site is about the third one down. Have a look at breaktime or this evening.
    FG
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    have you tried windows live messenger?

    or do you just want a replacement for skype? pc to pc, or pc to landline.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    I'm not too clued up on all this stuff so please be gentle with me!
    I have skype but I can't see the other person as everytime he turns his webcam on, it crashes, but I can hear him and he can hear AND see me. I'm wondering if it's my computer his computer or just skype. I am running on the lowest possible broadband, so could that be a problem??
    It would be pc to pc.
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    to run video calls over the net you need a decent web cam for a start, then you need to make sure you have the most up to date drivers to make your device compatibale with the latest software (updated versions of skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Chat etc..) then I would advise getting at least a 2meg line - I have a 2 meg line and my camera conversations are just about bearable.

    A web cam takes pictures and sends them to your PC via the USB cable (more on this later), the quality of the pictures captured depends on the quality of the webcams' lens, optical sensor and frame rate.
    One of the best, if not thee best, resolutions around for webcams is 640*480 and the framerate is almost always 30fps. (frames per second)
    If you're wanting to record videos then you'll need to buy a top camera with high resolution and hig frame-rate. If you want your webcam for video calleing and vid-conferencing then go for a cheaper, lower spec camera; but with the ever increasing availablility of high-speed internet connections and VoIP software such as Skype, I would recommend going for a top-spec camera.

    Resources for your Camera
    Each camera normally has a minimum requirememnts section on the packaging and you should take note of this and compare it to your PC, obviously taking into account that the camera won't be the only hardware/software running on your PC once installed and so to get a camera that takes up a massive proportion of your system resources would be a bad idea - although that's nigh-on impossible nowadays with the beasts of machines we call PC's.

    Do you have a processor running at least 1Ghz, and do you have enough RAM (256-512MB at least).

    If you have the processor and the memory and it's still running poorly, maybe your high quality camera is strugging to send all the pictures it is taking to your PC via the USB cable?...

    If you have USB 1.1 sockets, then they only transfer 12Mbit/s where as if you have USB 2.0 sockets (high speed) they can transfer 480Mbits/s.

    Apart from that, I don't know what else to say.

    J
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    J,
    thanks for the reply, very informative.
    I do have the right amount of RAM and the processor is up to the job. I will check on the USB ports as I didn't realise they would make a difference. Don't think the camera is too high quality, its a logitech and was in the mid price range. It might be because the person I want to speak to is abroad and their provider isn't very good???
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    If his ISP was crappy then it would only show on his monitor as being slow and patchy, his ISP has nothing to do with your camera showing on your screen - his ISP only comes into play when you send the data through to him and depending on the bandwidth he has, he will either get you in your striking best - or patchy.

    My logitech camera cost me £45 about 18 months ago - it was top of the range then, now i'd probably get £3.99 for it :-)
  • System
    System Posts: 100,537 🤖 Admin 🤖
    Re:Alternative to Skype?

    That's interesting as he gets me (at my best obviously)over his camera, yet, I don't get him at all :cry:

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