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Are Videophones Ready for Prime Time?

Posted by Cliff on from the talking-at-12-frames-per-second dept.

Amigan asks: "Looking for a gift for my parents who live 1500+ miles away, I came across the Vialta Beamer TV. This device, with its claimed ease of use, would be helpful for my parents to see my son via the phone, but I'm wondering if the glowing WSJ review or Tech TV review are for real. Is 4-15 fps viable for conversation?"

2 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Add me to the iChat chorus by tm2b · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've used iChat with an iSight a bit over a cable modem to somebody at a university. It's worked pretty well. That's 30 fps.

    You do, of course, need a Mac though.

    [Additional agreement is not redundant, damn it!]

    --
    "It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
  2. Re:30FPS are you kidding!!!!! by unitron · · Score: 2, Informative
    "30fps might be a minimum but it'll lookbad"

    Regular ol' television (NTSC) is only 30 frames per second so if they get to see the grandkid in real time at the same quality they'd get if they were watching him\her on VHS it would probably be quite acceptable.

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.