video conference thing - for over the phone or internet....

[The Stigenator]

I didnt know where to put this.. since this is digital imaging perhaps someone would know.

My niece is growing up and i can see it hurts my parents to be 3000 miles away. Their only grand child in the family. I was thinking of getting some sort of video conferencing thing that would plug into the tv or has its own screen that she can use to see her grand daughter every day when she calls her daughter.

I was thinking of this one from vialta - Beamer TV. The only problem I have with that one is that our phone lines are NO where near the tv. I have to run a whole lot of lines to get that to work. In any case I dont know how good that is.

I'd prefer something over broadband, wireless perhaps, that is independent of the phone if need be.. initially i was thinking of sending my sister a web-enabled webcam with an IP address. But the lesser the hassle for them to use it the more they would use it.

Any clues?

 

[The Stigenator]

Well I found a few interesting leads.

Dlink makes a couple of units DVC 1000, DVC1100 (same as DVC1000 + wifi) and DVC 2000.

Its pricey but any more solutions?

 

[xanis]

May I suggest a cheap webcam and Skype? I currently use Skype to videochat with my friends and I'm going to set my aunt up with it soon so she can see her grandchildren in Georgia. Webcams can be had for reasonably cheap and Skype is easy to install and use.

 

[The Stigenator]

grrr Dlink stopped making the wifi version.. grrr

 

[dartworth]

webcam and Skype