Video conferencing?

[slackerinabox]

My sister and her new baby live 600 miles away from me and my parents so I'm thinking about getting both of them webcams.. But has the technology become a user friendly, point and click experience? I remember trying to video-chat with a friend on the opposite side of the country and it was a choppy, frustrating and painful situation.. Of course, things rapidly change so maybe it's something my non-techie mom and my quick learning sister can do with good results.. Any thoughts? Both of us have cable modem hook ups and fairly recent computers (p4s).. Can you guys share your experiences?

 

[illustri]

my gf is in germany and im in california
i think id go insane without our webcams

your computers and connection is more than enough for webcam although i suppose it depends on your standards

speedwise, i would say a video window about 300x200 pixels is fairly smooth at medium
quality

now you'll want to invest in a good webcam i would say the logitechs 3000,4000 are solid and there are good deals on them every so often

there are tons of webcam software out there (not including what comes with the webcam) you can give any a try to see what you like, i use cuseeme but actually, even netmeeting which is bundled with windows should work fine

hope this helps

 

[her209]

Originally posted by: illustri
my gf is in germany and im in california
i think id go insane without our webcams

I'll bet

 

[slackerinabox]

Originally posted by: illustri
my gf is in germany and im in california
i think id go insane without our webcams

your computers and connection is more than enough for webcam although i suppose it depends on your standards

speedwise, i would say a video window about 300x200 pixels is fairly smooth at medium
quality

now you'll want to invest in a good webcam i would say the logitechs 3000,4000 are solid and there are good deals on them every so often

there are tons of webcam software out there (not including what comes with the webcam) you can give any a try to see what you like, i use cuseeme but actually, even netmeeting which is bundled with windows should work fine

hope this helps

Awesome - so it's not a nerve wrecking experience anymore- I remeber constantly saying "what? excuse me???" while moving extremely slowly to avoid blurring..? Is 300x200 resolution for clear imagery (my mom wants to see her grand daughter)? Also, is there a noticeable lag?

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

 

[slackerinabox]

anyone have any thoughts?

 

[illustri]

well as for lag there is always a dependency on the route between you, from coast to coast especially you cant expect the clearest connection all the time

the other thing with webcam, it can take high quality pic right there, so while the live camming wont be the best, you can always transfer photos

 

[slackerinabox]

Bump for any more experiences...