justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | reply to Rob
Re: So the only good thing..
No the other good thing is the voice quality is much better than Yahoo messenger. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
 ·Comcast
| said by justin  :
No the other good thing is the voice quality is much better than Yahoo messenger.
Different PCS, different connections, different equipment will make the quality appear better/worse. For me, the quality on yahoo is very good. For others, it isn't. Same goes for the CEO of Vonage who felt the quality of Skype was bad.. you had different opinons.
None the less, excellent review! And excellent website Justin! Keep up the great work! |
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justin
Australian
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Brooklyn, NY
Host:
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Console Tech
| no that isn't quite right. All these voice over IP products pick a certain codec and the bitrate of that codec determines how good the quality is. No VOIP products have yet gone to 128kbit, as far as I know. They all have maximum rates less than that.
The vonage guy who said skype sounds bad probably had a bad connection. If you have a good connection, 128k is easy to hit, but only if the software is there to go that high. |
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Sebastian
Premium
join:2000-12-22
New Haven, CT
| reply to justin
Thanks for the review.
I have got a couple of friends to try this. it sounds great. We currently use ventrilo (»www.ventrilo.com) which is similar to Team-speak but only a lot better in terms of sound quality. Skype's sound quality is just as good as Ventrilo.
As for using Skype as a tool for online-gamers to communicate. I would wonder how much bandwidth is used, more so upstream bandwidth. I would guess if it's 'near' 128bit mp3 quality then the bandwidth it uses would be quite high, Even more so during a conference call? Unless you're all connected to some Skype server and using some of their bandwidth to transmit.
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MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:  
edit:
February 26th, @05:58PM
| reply to justin
not exactly 128kbit
Justin i believe you are mistaken that it is using 128kbit codec.
i used bandwidth monitor to see how much traffic Skype was using..tried to compare it to Vonage's (supposedly) 9-11k/s..
to my somewhat surprise during 1-on-1 call Skype was using a constant bidirectional stream of data at 5k/s(even when both parties were silent..)
so from my experience it can not possibly be using 128kbit.
I'm not saying Skype sounds bad(it's defiantly not), just saying that it doesn't look like 128kbit...
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY
Host:
IPv6
Business Connectiv..
Home/Office setup ..
Console/Handheld g..
Console Tech
edit:
February 26th, @06:28PM
| From their FAQ
quote:
Skype automatically selects the best codec depending on the connection between yourself and the person you are calling. On average, Skype uses between 3-16 kilobytes/sec – depending on bandwidth available for other party, network conditions in between, callers CPUs, etc.
Maybe for your connection it decided not to be so hi-IQ
16 kb/sec is 128kbit, near enough. |
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MxxCon
join:1999-11-19
Brooklyn, NY
clubs:
| well, sound quality was as good as i ever heard at home or at work..however i measured bandwidth only from home.
but i haven't found any mention of 128kbit or any other bitrate it uses..
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rchandra
Stargate S G-1 And Atlantis Fan
Premium
join:2000-11-09
14210-2642
clubs:
| reply to justin
Re: So the only good thing..
said by justin :
No VOIP products have yet gone to 128kbit, as far as I know. They all have maximum rates less than that.
...and to me, there is a very pragmatic reason for that: there are just a boatload of people like me who only have 128K up...that'd be most of the rest of residential VZ people. And this rate sucks too, because I can't make usable 3-way calls; it seems I would need at least 256K up.
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English is a difficult enough language to interpret correctly when its rules are followed, let alone when a writer chooses not to follow those rules. Blog is here |
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justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY | complain to verizon.
Upstream should be 512k at least by now. I am on 768 and it is very nice indeed. I can upload pictures to forums or websites without timing out, for one example. |
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rchandra
Stargate S G-1 And Atlantis Fan
Premium
join:2000-11-09
14210-2642
clubs:
| I guess the question is, if they did increase upstream, at what price? I would have hoped for more upstream at $60/mo. as it was before their current plan of $35/mo., but it looks like if I want the next offered tier, 384K, it's going to be biz-class and $90/mo. If you think about it, VZ have a vested interest in not providing enough bandwidth for VoIP. sigh....
Power Stink? maybe. Experience in this area varies widely, from not so many problems, to the typical cable modem nightly slowdowns and packet loss.
It just stinks, especially compared to other areas of the world.
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English is a difficult enough language to interpret correctly when its rules are followed, let alone when a writer chooses not to follow those rules. Blog is here |
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