Video Chat

[Skibum]

So when is the VIDEO chat night?

 

[Squintz]

How would video chat night work? I mean if there are 10 of us with webcams then that means that i will be recieving from 9 people and sending to 9 people which i think might be a little overkill for a cable connection.

Im all for video chat but we have to come up with a solution that would allow us to view all the cams.

Maybe someone can host a website that displays 10 cams on one page. Im not sure how it would work. If we use something like Yahoo or MSN messanger we could do a private chat room. Maybe that will work.

Work out the detail and let me know when and where to show up!

 

[Skibum]

I think that I could make a page, with individual iframes of each persons own web page including a basic streaming applet, maybe 160x120 2 fps. Obviously it would be easier if everyone used the same software.. but we know thats not gonna happen.

Thinking.....

If anyone that is interested would make a simply video window only page for inclusion, I'll see what I can cobble together. I'll post an example soon.

Gee... I think I've stolen your thread.... E, can you split this topic?

 

[Squintz]

Since windows 2000 comes with netMeeting and its free for download for windows 95 users and up http://www.microsoft.com/windows/netmeeting/ I think we should atleast give this a shot to see if it will work out. When i get home today i will setup a private netMeeting server so that we can test it out. I have never used netmeeting before but it seems simple.

For those of you who have windows 2000 goto start menu->Program->Accessories->communications and click netMeeting to set it up.

Since my work does not allow direct connections to other computers i wont be able to set up the server until after 5 or 6 tonight. Check the IRC chat room or This thread then to see what my status is. I may need someone to try and connect to me to see if it works.

Video chating will be a great way for us to get to see each others setups without having to upload tons of images. NetMeeting does allow file transfers much like mIRC and it also allows remote desktop access from what i have read.

If this works i will leave the server up all day everyday or we can use one of the provided servers which may be better in the long run.

If anyone has had first hand experience with NetMeeting please share with us the details.

 

[Skibum]

Hehe... then I'm out..... I gave up VFW applications a while ago.

 

[Spam]

I think I'm too ugly to attend. But if I am around, I'll try.

 

[Squintz]

Im on MSN Messenger now... It has replaced net meeting. My contact address is Cocooner(At No_Spam) comcast.net If you wanna video chat post you MSN names here and i will add them to my contact list. This will do for now until someone comes up with a better solution

 

[Skibum]

skibum at skibumsplace.com

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Well, it sounded like a good idea at first, but it seems like its getting to complicated.

 

[Skibum]

My proposal... for what it is worth is to have each person make a barebones webpage that they serve with their video, and perhaps their Nickname on it. Once we have a few of these posted I could make a webpage that includes each persons page as an IFRAME. Should work.....

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

OK, lets give it a whirl. I will make the announcement on the home page and point to this thread for instructions. Lets start at the usual time of 9:00 PM.

 

[Spam]

Not sure what route we are going, but feel free to add [email protected] to the list. Since I no longer use that email account, blood sucking spambots feel free to spam away. :unsure:

 

[Squintz]

Windows Messenger is the best Software that i have seen so far when it comes to video quality. Its real time and not jittery. You can actually see the peoples lips moving at real time speed. The only problem with it is that it only allows one person to connect to your cam at a time and you can only view one cam at a time.

I have also tried yahoo messenger and this has all the functionality that we would want. Yahoo Messenger has Chat room so that everyone could chat via a microphone or type if they prefer. It also allows for multi users to view multi cams. The only problem is the Audio quality is horrible and the video Quality sucks. The images are as good as the webcam but they are not smooth. I think the refresh rate is like one per second or less in some cases.

So....

Here is my questions... If we set up a page with everyones webcam will we be able to use audio too? Also, What is the best program to use to host our webcams? I have never published a cam to a webpage and im not sure which ones to use. I know my Logitech cam came with software to host a web page cam but its not free. It does have a trial version so i can use it for tonight if i need to but i dont wanna have to pay for something that i could get for free.

Hope to see you all there

 

[theAberdeenKid]

Darn...that means I have to get dressed to chat....there's nothing like chatting commando style.

 

[Spam]

Well count me out unless I catch the earlier flick. The wife wants to see "Without a Paddle". Very not high on my list but oh well. Hope I can get back in time to join in the fun.