Anyone Need HD Video Calling?

[Razor Shines]

Skype to offer HD video calling on some new TVs
Jan 5 07:15 PM US/Eastern
By RACHEL METZ
AP Technology Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Skype's voice and video calling technology will be embedded in upcoming high-definition televisions with Internet capabilities.
Skype said Tuesday that its Internet phone service will be included in Panasonic's 2010 VIERA CAST-enabled HD TVs and LG's new LCD and plasma HD TVs with NetCast Entertainment Access. The televisions are expected to be available in the middle of the year.

LG and Panasonic will sell webcams that support the 720p high-definition format and are meant for making video calls with the televisions.

Skype, which eBay Inc. sold to an investor group in November, offers free voice and video calls to other Skype users, and charges for calls to cell or landline phones.

Skype also said that consumers who use Skype on their personal computers will soon be able to make 720p high-definition video calls.

Those users must have a high-speed Internet connection, one of several soon-to-be-released webcams, a computer with a 1.8 GHz dual-core processor and Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows, the company said. Skype did not indicate if and when Mac support would be available.

Skype said upcoming webcams from faceVision and In Store Solutions, which are slated to be released in February and March, respectively, will support the video calls.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Do you really want to see the people you're talking to in HD?

[klw]

It would take the mystery out of "So what are you wearing?"

[macro]

Remember the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey? Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke wrote that movie in the mid-60s before it was released in '68. They were a bit too optimistic about where we'd be with some technology as well as with our progress in space, but I'm impressed with this scene, where Dr. Heywood Floyd calls his daughter back on Earth via videophone...



Looks like Kubrick and Clarke had a pretty good vision of this future technology.

[Johnny Footstool]

Do you really want to see the people you're talking to in HD?

If you've got the bandwidth and the processor speed, then yeah, you do. My parents and my in-laws like to use Skype to talk to my sons. It gets difficult to stare at a choppy, blurry, moving image for 45 minutes. HD would be a boon for us.

[macro]

If you've got the bandwidth and the processor speed, then yeah, you do.

What if you just got out of bed after a really late night and the caller has a 60" tv?

[Johnny Footstool]

What if you just got out of bed after a really late night and the caller has a 60" tv?

The caller would be treated to a wonderful show, and then they would know never to call back before noon.

[wolfboy]

Drunk dialing would make for great youtube fodder.

[dougdirt]

If you've got the bandwidth and the processor speed, then yeah, you do. My parents and my in-laws like to use Skype to talk to my sons. It gets difficult to stare at a choppy, blurry, moving image for 45 minutes. HD would be a boon for us.

That sounds more like the camera being used than the computer. But your situation would be the most ideal one we can talk about on this site for a good use for the HD video Skype chat.

[Johnny Footstool]

That sounds more like the camera being used than the computer. But your situation would be the most ideal one we can talk about on this site for a good use for the HD video Skype chat.

The cameras are pretty decent. I think the main problem is my old Pentium 4 processor with on-board video. Even with a wired cable modem connection, the feed still gets choppy, and the resolution swings from good to poor and back again.

[dougdirt]

The cameras are pretty decent. I think the main problem is my old Pentium 4 processor with on-board video. Even with a wired cable modem connection, the feed still gets choppy, and the resolution swings from good to poor and back again.

On board video could be the problem too. Is the resolution good when there is little movement, but bad when there is a lot of movement?

[Johnny Footstool]

Yeah, it improves when no one is moving around much.

[dougdirt]

Yeah, it improves when no one is moving around much.

Yeah, that sounds like an onboard video problem that is lacking its own RAM source.

[Johnny Footstool]

Yeah, that sounds like an onboard video problem that is lacking its own RAM source.

Yep, but at this point I'm probably better off just buying a new computer.