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Upgrading the Bandwidth on a ViaTV Video Phone?

Posted by Cliff on from the can-this-be-done? dept.

trzeciak asks: "I have an old 8x8 ViaTV VC105II video phone at home, which I used in the past. I think it has a built-in 33k bps modem. Times are different and DSL, Cable and other broadband options are available. Can the ViaTV be adapted to those new options? The simplest idea is to plug it into a PC just as a camera, but the phone's hardware is driven with a plugged-in phone, so it's not so easy. Another idea would be to replace the modem with an Ethernet card and assign IP address to the phone to use it on the network as a standalone device. Any other ideas?"

4 comments

  1. a few questions.. by einstein · · Score: 1

    does the hardware take standard PCI/ISA cards?
    if so, have you attempted to stick in a NIC?
    if so, what has happened?

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  2. URL? by jo2y · · Score: 1

    Is there a URL for these things?

    1. Re:URL? by einstein · · Score: 1
      google found me the follow:
      • 8x8.com is now known as Netergy
      • from those sites, I found that the ViaTV phone uses H.324 protocol... a search on that found me this tasty nugget. from those specs, it appears that this phone starts a 28.8 modem connection to similar phones...
      it appears to me one of the main features of this phone and it's protocol is the ability to operate over POTS, and I doubt it could tricked to run at a faster rate...
      --

      I post links to stuff here

  3. Possible? by Xunker · · Score: 1

    Well, I don't know much of the particulars, but if it's modem is just a standard modem, then It's probably connected serial somehow to the rest of the electronics. Perhaps you could intercept the signals (hand with a soldering iron, are ya?) and route them to the serial port on another box running some kind of bridging software. Maybe a UART replacement?

    This might not work, though, since it stands to reason that this guy was never made with megabit speeds in mind so it's serial port could probably only send the data at the regualr 1152k (about 10 kbps) serial rate. Plus there is the the high likley hood that it is optimized for a 33.6 connection, so even if you could wire it to a fater line, it might not even use the extra headroom.

    Best of luck to you though -- if it works. be sure wit write up a HOWTO :)

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    Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.