Skype 3.6 and a question for webcammers

Yesterday Skype 3.6 went gold (hooray!), which means lovely High Quality Video will now work without any bugs (fingers crossed) for people who have the right setup (which means having Skype 3.6, one of three Logitech cameras, the QuickCam driver 11.5, a dual core processor and 384 kbps broadband).

Will this higher quality make you try out a webcam if you haven't before? If so check out these tips from a while back and these from this week for videoconferencing in a business setting so you'll look and sound your best. And if you're already a webcam user, I've got a question for you...

Webcams are funny beasts--it seems to me that people who use them use them constantly and people who don't use them don't see what fuss is about. Case in point: Gizmodo's notice of High Quality Video for Skype said (somewhat snarkily) that High Quality Video will only bring with it "all the facial imperfections and embarrassing quirks that are likely to remind us why video calling has never really caught on in the first place."

Would someone really not want to use a webcam because of his or her facial imperfections? And is it fair to say that video calling has never really caught on in the first place? It seems that Skype users aren't that vain, and that video calling has caught on for a lot of us, because one in four calls on Skype are now video calls.

Yet I still have friends on Skype who are reluctant to have video calls, even when they have webcams. They say it's too much of a hassle. I don't think it's that hard to plug a webcam into a USB jack and attach it to my laptop, but is it? Blogger Dan York recently made the case for webcams built-in to notebooks--he said he'd done more videoconferencing in the last 3 weeks than he had in the past 3 years because an easy-to-use webcam is built into his MacBook.

And so I ask you, video callers on Skype, what do you think? Why do you (or don't you) use a webcam? Does High Quality Video or a built-in webcam make a difference?

Technorati Tags: Skype, Logitech, High Quality Video, webcam

Comments

Andrew, Thanks for the link to my post. Two questions for you:

1. When will the new High Quality Video work with non-Logitech cameras? In the beta program there was a change to the config file that could be done to enable the usage but that seems to have been removed in the final release of 3.6. I'm now hearing that folks can no longer get it to work with other cameras.

2. When will Mac users such as myself get High Quality Video? We were told it could be enabled through a config file change, but in some testing we can't seem to get it to work (see http://www.voip-weblog.com/50226711/high_quality_skype_video_on_the_mac.php )

Again, thanks for the link and any insight you have on these questions would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan

I have been video-conferencing with clients and chatting with family in different parts of the world for the last 3 years, first with a separate iSight camera plus a Mac laptop using Mac's iChat service (which was quick & painless to set up) and then a newer Mac laptop with a built-in iSight camera (MUCH better and less hassle to travel with) and Skype. The advantage of Skype's service over the Mac's iChat is that Skype plays on both PCs abd Macs. I convinced my 75 year old Dad to hook up a webcam to his PC in Australia, and we were thrilled when for the first time last year we could "see" each other even though I was in Canada. And the call was free! Interestingly, the image feed of me was much better quality (richer color, smooth movement) than the one I got from him, but then his camera was a cheap PC one. I used to have to check time differences, which were always being thrown off by Daylight Saving on both ends, but now all I have to do is check my Dad's Skype status to know if he's available or not. MUCH easier.

Then I set up an iSight camera on my oldest sister's laptop in New York. She rolled her eyes at the time, but one demonstration of me chatting with Dad was all it took to completely change her mind and get her over the usual technophobe hurdle. Now every Sunday morning we "share" a cup of tea while we video chat and catch up. I love being able to see her face as she speaks. Seeing her expression, posture, clothes - these convey a lot of extra information and the distance feels much less as a result.

Clients like being able to see my face and they tell me they feel more connected when they can see me. It saves me a fortune in travel costs, and time wasted traveling. Most of them do not have webcams, but if they have Skype (which I strongly encourage), they at least get a video feed of me, while I get an aural feed from them. I am no longer shy about being on camera, so it doesn't bother me in the least. But I have learned to keep the background behind my face free of clutter, and not to switch my Skype status to "Available" until I'm out of my pj's.

Oh yeah, when I got married this past summer, my family in Australia were introduced to my new French-Canadian in-laws via Skype video chat. It really felt like they were all in the same room, embarrassing comments and all! The best part was when champagne glasses were raised at the same time on both sides of the world.

It's still too messy to setup any chat application for video chat. Skype doesn't work with all webcams, doesn't do video chat well enough on GNU/Linux even with a logitech webcam and doesn't support video chat on N800/N810(which do great video chatting using built-in chat application) even though it has a built-in camera.

A webcam should be as easy to attach to a PC as a microphone.

Of course video quality is important and I believe its use will only increase when businesses realize what a bonus it is for multi-site offices to video conference for free. There is nothing like having a face to face conversation to make a point and to close a deal both in business and in personal matters.

I don't use my webcam except for Skype calls. The problem is that if I receive a call, I must disconnect the call, test the webcam in Skype's setup, and then call the person back for it to work (despite having the correct settings). So, a built-in webcam would definitely be a plus - or if Skype worked better with my existing webcam. High-quality video would definitely be a bonus - especially when trying to show something via Skype rather than just talking.

I have one of three holly webcam models , my brother too ,we both have new loptops and fast internet..;despite of all that video calls are not high quality...we do not see even skype logo for high quality videos?

how come?does anyone knows answer